Corse holds two very different stories about why people build. Walk south through the parish and you find St Margaret's Church standing among apple orchards beside the half-timbered Corse Court, a Grade II* medieval manor house — buildings that grew slowly from the land over centuries, shaped by agriculture, faith, and the rhythms of an estate. Then head north-east to Snigs End and the character shifts entirely. Here, in 1847, the National Land Company laid out eighty-five single-storey cottages in rows, crescents, and blocks — a planned settlement where working people could own enough land to qualify for the vote. One architecture evolved gradually from place; the other arrived with political conviction and a surveyor's chain. Both are honest building, and both deserve the same care when the time comes to adapt them for the way we live now. That is the kind of work Gresford Architects finds most rewarding.
Award-winning Architects in Corse
Why Clients Across Gloucestershire Trust Gresford Architects
I founded Gresford Architects in London in 2006, and we now work with clients across the country from our studio in Oxford. Sustainability has always been central to what we do — we are accredited with The Green Register and members of the Passivhaus Trust, because I believe buildings should be comfortable, designed to last, and use energy and materials as efficiently as possible. Our Passivhaus home The Deerings won a RIBA East Award in 2018, the same year I was a finalist for Sustainability Architect of the Year at the Building Design Awards. As a RIBA chartered and ARB registered architect, and a member of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, I bring both the technical confidence and the respect for historic fabric that a parish like Corse demands. In 2025 I was invited to judge the British Homes Awards — recognition of the breadth of work we have built across residential architecture.
Architectural Services for Homes in Corse
Extension Design is where many projects in Corse begin. The Chartist cottages at Snigs End were built to a deliberate pattern — single-storey, three bays wide with a central gable, living rooms at the front and service rooms to the rear. They were generous for their time but compact by today's expectations, and extending them well means understanding the rhythm the original designers intended. The cottages sit within a conservation area whose designation recognises both the buildings and their distinctive settlement layout, so Forest of Dean District Council will expect proposals that respect the scale, materials, and pattern of the original plots. We approach this kind of work as a continuation of the building's logic — finding space and light without overwhelming what gives these homes their character.
EnerPHit, the Passivhaus Institute's retrofit standard, is well suited to the solid-walled buildings found throughout Corse. The Chartist cottages, built variously in stone and brick depending on their position in the settlement, and the older properties around Corse Court and the church, share a common challenge: walls that were never designed for thermal efficiency. EnerPHit addresses this comprehensively, improving airtightness and insulation to create homes that are warmer, quieter, and dramatically cheaper to heat — without compromising the external appearance that earned conservation area protection. We have designed homes to Passivhaus standards and I have lived in one myself, so the difference these principles make is something I understand from experience, not just from energy models.
Sustainable Design runs through everything we do at Gresford Architects, and in a parish defined by orchards and open farmland it feels particularly relevant. Homes in Corse sit within a landscape that has been carefully managed for centuries, and new work should reflect that same attentiveness — using materials efficiently, reducing energy demand, designing for longevity rather than fashion. PassivHaus Design takes these principles to their highest standard, delivering homes that require almost no conventional heating. For the medieval and later buildings around the older part of the village, Renovations require an architect who can read the structure honestly. Corse Court beside the church, with its medieval timber framing, is a reminder that buildings here have always been adapted and extended by successive generations — the key is doing so with knowledge and sensitivity.
New Build Design in Corse, whether on infill plots within the village or on land allocated in the local plan, benefits from the same contextual thinking. A new home should feel as though it belongs to its setting — connected to the landscape, responsive to the local materials palette, and built for the era in which we live. For those with ambitions for truly exceptional architecture in the rural land surrounding the parish, Paragraph 84 of the National Planning Policy Framework provides a route, though it is deliberately demanding and requires a design of outstanding quality.
Corse is a parish where conviction shaped the built environment — from the medieval manor beside the church to the Chartist settlement at Snigs End. If you are considering a project here, whether extending a cottage, retrofitting an older home, or building something new, we would welcome a conversation about what is possible.