Rainsborough Camp stands just south of Charlton — an Iron Age hillfort built in the sixth or fifth century BC, its double ramparts enclosing two and a half hectares of hilltop. Excavations in the 1960s showed that the fort was attacked and burned to the ground during the fourth century BC. The ramparts were never rebuilt, but they are still clearly visible today, over two thousand years after the settlement they defended was destroyed. What interests me as an architect is the endurance of earthwork: the most basic construction technique — earth dug and piled — has outlasted everything built on the site since. The parish church dates from Norman times, and a manor house from the reign of Henry VIII once stood in the village. Charlton sits near Banbury on the Northamptonshire border.
Award-winning Architects in Charlton
Design Built to Endure
Every building we design is intended to outlast the circumstances that created it — to be useful long after the brief that generated it has been forgotten. That requires getting the fundamentals right. I founded Gresford Architects in London in 2006, and we now work from Oxford with clients across the country. I am an ARB-registered and RIBA Chartered architect, a member of SPAB — the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings — the Passivhaus Trust and The Green Register. The Deerings, a certified Passivhaus home in Hertfordshire, won the RIBA East Award in 2018, the year I was also a finalist for Sustainability Architect of the Year at the Building Design Awards. In 2025 I was invited to judge the British Homes Awards. Our projects have been published in Dezeen, Grand Designs Magazine and The Modern House Journal.
Architectural Services Near Banbury
Extension Design in Charlton should respond to the stone character of the village and its setting in the rolling countryside near the Northamptonshire border. The relationship between the houses, the lanes and the surrounding landscape — with the ancient earthwork of Rainsborough Camp visible on the skyline — creates a settlement with a strong sense of place. Whether the brief is a ground-floor extension connecting the house to the garden, a garden room, or additional space above, the design should make the whole building feel more resolved.
Renovations in Charlton engage with a building stock that includes fabric from several centuries, in a landscape that has been continuously settled for over two and a half thousand years. West Northamptonshire Council handles planning for the parish. Through my membership of SPAB, I approach these buildings with the understanding that solid stone walls manage moisture through their mass and their lime mortar — and that any renovation must work with that behaviour.
EnerPHit, the Passivhaus Institute's certified retrofit standard, addresses the thermal performance of older homes without compromising their character. The cottages in Charlton present the familiar challenge of solid-walled construction: thick walls with no insulation, draughty junctions, and a building envelope that predates any concept of thermal efficiency. Vapour-open insulation, careful airtightness detailing, and mechanical ventilation with heat recovery can transform them — warmer, quieter, dramatically cheaper to run — while the stone facades continue to weather as they always have.
Sustainable Design connects every project we take on, and in Charlton the hillfort is a reminder that the most enduring structures are often the simplest — earth and gravity, requiring no maintenance, lasting for millennia. PassivHaus Design sets our benchmark for new construction, delivering certified comfort with minimal energy demand. New Build Design in Charlton should respect the stone character of the village. For sites in the countryside around the parish, Paragraph 84 of the National Planning Policy Framework provides a route to architecturally outstanding homes — but the design must demonstrate the same understanding of landscape and material that the Iron Age builders brought to Rainsborough Camp.
Charlton's Iron Age ramparts have endured for over two thousand years on nothing but earth and gravity. If you are considering a project here, we would welcome the conversation.