In 1921, Professor Ernest Tristram of the Royal College of Art uncovered a series of medieval wall paintings in the Church of All Saints at Croughton that had been hidden beneath plaster since the Reformation. Painted in the late thirteenth or early fourteenth century, the two cycles — the Life of the Virgin and the Passion of Christ — are among the most complete surviving examples of medieval narrative painting in any English parish church. They had been there all along, beneath the surface, waiting for someone to look carefully enough. What interests me as an architect is the principle that discovery reveals: the building you see is not always the building that exists. Every old wall has a history inside it — layers of construction, repair, adaptation — and the best renovation work begins by understanding what is already there before deciding what to add.
Award-winning Architects in Croughton
Published Work Across Heritage and Performance
Our projects have been published in Dezeen, Grand Designs Magazine and The Modern House Journal — work that ranges from a Grade II listed barn restoration in Buckinghamshire to a certified Passivhaus home in Hertfordshire and shares the conviction that understanding a building thoroughly is the foundation of any good intervention. 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. The Deerings 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. In a village like Croughton, where the Grade I listed church holds medieval paintings of national significance and the parish contains heritage spanning from the Norman period to the twentieth century, that breadth of experience matters.
Architectural Services Near Brackley
Renovations in Croughton engage with a village whose oldest building demonstrates exactly why careful investigation matters. The Church of All Saints retains twelfth-century Norman fabric — the arch of the west tower and the three-bay north arcade — while the south arcade dates from the thirteenth century. The wall paintings survived because whoever plastered over them at the Reformation did not destroy them. That same respect for what lies beneath should govern any renovation of an older property: strip back thoughtfully, understand what you find, and let the building's history inform the design. The stone cottages and houses in the village use the local stone palette with the proportions typical of this part of south Northamptonshire. West Northamptonshire Council handles planning for the parish. Through my membership of SPAB, I bring that discipline of careful investigation to every project.
Extension Design in Croughton should respond to the modest scale and stone character of the village. The older properties sit within a landscape that drops south towards Brackley, and the relationship between buildings, gardens and the open countryside beyond them contributes to the village's character. An extension should work with those relationships rather than ignoring them. Whether the brief is a ground-floor extension that opens the house to the garden, a garden room with views across the fields, or additional space above, the design should make the whole building feel more resolved while sitting comfortably within the settlement.
EnerPHit, the Passivhaus Institute's certified retrofit standard, addresses the thermal performance of older homes without compromising their character. The stone cottages in Croughton present the familiar challenge of solid-walled construction: thick walls with no insulation, draughty junctions, and a building envelope that predates any notion 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 remain unchanged.
Sustainable Design connects every project we take on, and in Croughton the wall paintings offer an unexpected lesson in sustainability. They survived because the building that held them was maintained — century after century, through changes of use and fashion — and because the plaster that concealed them also protected them. Sustaining a building means sustaining everything it contains, including what you have not yet discovered. PassivHaus Design sets our benchmark for new construction, delivering certified comfort with minimal energy demand. New Build Design in Croughton should respect the established 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 be sensitive to a landscape where Norman churches, medieval art and twentieth-century military heritage all coexist.
Croughton's church held its greatest treasure hidden for centuries. If you are considering a project here, we would welcome the conversation.