The name gives you the topography. In Old English, a hoe was a spur of land projecting into a valley, and Cogenhoe sits exactly where the name promises — on a ridge of high ground above the south bank of the River Nene, looking out across the valley toward the open countryside beyond. The church of St Peter stands at the highest point, its tall Perpendicular tower visible from the valley floor, and the village gathers along the ridge behind it. What interests me as an architect is how completely the landform has determined where and how people built here. The houses face the view or shelter from the prevailing wind; the lanes follow the contours; the older buildings step down the slope toward the river. Architecture shaped by ground rather than imposed upon it — and that, in any century, is the right way to build.
Award-winning Architects in Cogenhoe
Award-winning Work in Heritage and Energy
The Deerings, a certified Passivhaus home in Hertfordshire, won the RIBA East Award in 2018 — a project that demanded the same careful attention to site, orientation and materials that characterises the best historic buildings. That is no coincidence: good architecture has always responded to its environment, and our work simply applies that principle with modern precision. 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 Passivhaus Trust and The Green Register. I was a finalist for Sustainability Architect of the Year at the Building Design Awards, and 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. In Cogenhoe, where the conservation area protects a village that has been reading its landscape since the Saxon period, that combination of heritage understanding and environmental ambition is what the work requires.
Architectural Services Above the Nene
Renovations in Cogenhoe engage with a building stock that spans several centuries of construction on the same ridge. The Church of St Peter, Grade II* listed, is the village's architectural centrepiece — its Transitional Norman south door dates from the late twelfth century, the nave arcades are Early English with carved shields bearing the arms of the de Cogenhoe family, and a recumbent effigy in the south aisle commemorates Sir Nicholas de Cogenhoe, who died around 1280 and is regarded as the founder of the present church. The building is a record of successive generations adding to what came before: Decorated porch, Perpendicular clerestory and tower, each phase respecting what already stood. The older cottages in the conservation area are built from the same local stone, and 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 permeable lime mortar — and that any renovation must work with that behaviour.
Extension Design on a ridge village like Cogenhoe carries considerations that a flat-ground settlement does not. An extension to a property on the valley side may be visible from a considerable distance, and its roofline, materials and massing must be considered not just from the street but from the landscape below. On the sheltered side, extensions can take advantage of the protection the ridge offers. In either case, the design should respond to the existing building — the stone palette, the proportions, the way the house sits on its plot — and make the whole feel more resolved. Whether the brief is opening up a ground floor, adding a garden room with views across the Nene, or creating space above, the work should feel considered rather than expedient.
EnerPHit, the Passivhaus Institute's certified retrofit standard, is particularly relevant in a ridge-top village where exposure to wind increases heat loss through the building envelope. The older stone cottages in Cogenhoe present the familiar challenge of solid-walled construction — thick walls with no insulation, draughty junctions, and openings that let in the weather as readily as the light. Vapour-open insulation, careful airtightness detailing, and mechanical ventilation with heat recovery can transform these homes — warmer, quieter, dramatically cheaper to run — while the stone facades continue to breathe as they always have. The exposed position makes the gains from a proper retrofit all the more tangible.
Sustainable Design connects every project we take on, and in Cogenhoe it connects to a village that has always worked with its site rather than against it — building on the ridge for the view and the drainage, orienting toward the sun, using the stone from the ground beneath. That instinct is what sustainable architecture formalises. PassivHaus Design sets our benchmark for new construction, delivering certified comfort with minimal energy demand. New Build Design within the conservation area must respect the established character of the ridgeline village. For sites in the Nene Valley and the countryside around the parish, Paragraph 84 of the National Planning Policy Framework provides a route to architecturally outstanding homes — but the design must be sensitive to a river valley landscape that has shaped settlement here since the Saxon period.
Cogenhoe has been building on this ridge for as long as the name has existed. If you are considering a project here, we would welcome the conversation.