Some materials declare themselves with precision — cut stone, dressed timber, fired brick laid to a bond. Witchert does something different. The earth walls that define so much of Cuddington's character curve and swoop rather than standing ruler-straight, their surfaces softened by centuries of lime wash, their tops protected by tile copings that follow the gentle undulations beneath. As an architect, I find this kind of building deeply moving. It is construction at its most honest — local earth mixed with chopped straw, built in raises on a rubblestone plinth, shaped by hand rather than machine. Walking through Cuddington you see it in the boundary walls that line Upper and Lower Church Street, in the garden enclosures that give the village its intimate, sheltered feel. These are not walls that separate; they gather the village together.
Award-winning Architects in Cuddington
An Award-Winning Practice for Cuddington's Heritage
I founded Gresford Architects in London in 2006, and we now work from our Oxford studio with clients across the country. What unites every project we take on is a conviction that good architecture is the marriage of the poetic and the practical — buildings that are comfortable, designed to last, and as efficient with energy and materials as possible. That approach has been recognised with a RIBA East Award for The Deerings, a Passivhaus home in Hertfordshire, and a shortlisting for Sustainability Architect of the Year at the Building Design Awards. Our work has been published in Dezeen, Grand Designs Magazine and The Modern House Journal. As an ARB registered and RIBA Chartered architect, and a member of SPAB, the Passivhaus Trust and The Green Register, I bring both the heritage understanding and the technical knowledge that working in a village like Cuddington requires. Our restoration of The Great Barn, a Grade II listed building elsewhere in Buckinghamshire, demanded exactly this understanding — learning how each material communicates its age and its needs, and responding with care rather than assumption. My wife Phoebe is a conservation architect, and her influence has only deepened that instinct.
Architectural Services Shaped by Cuddington's Character
Renovations in Cuddington require an understanding of materials that most architects rarely encounter. The conservation area, designated in 1976, protects a village where witchert earth walls, rubblestone, timber framing, thatch and later brick sit alongside one another — sometimes within the same building. Among the listed buildings here are two at Grade II*, including the Church of St Nicholas, which dates from the thirteenth century, and the sixteenth and seventeenth-century Tyringham Hall in coursed rubblestone, which forms a visual pivot at the junction of Upper and Lower Church Street. Working with buildings like these means reading each material on its own terms: understanding how witchert breathes, how rubblestone weathers, how timber frames move with the seasons. My training with the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings grounds this work in a philosophy of careful repair — working with what exists rather than imposing something new.
EnerPHit offers a route to Passivhaus-level energy performance for existing buildings, and in Cuddington the opportunity is significant. Many of the older homes here — solid-walled, draughty, built when energy was cheap and abundant — carry heating costs that no longer make sense. EnerPHit addresses this through breathable insulation systems that work sympathetically with witchert and stone, high-performance glazing scaled to existing window proportions, and airtightness improvements that respect the building fabric. The result is a home that feels as warm and quiet as a new build while retaining the character and texture that makes it worth living in. In a conservation area where external changes are closely scrutinised by Buckinghamshire Council, much of this work happens internally and invisibly — which suits both the planning context and the buildings themselves.
Sustainable Design in Cuddington starts with something that the witchert walls already understand. These are structures made from the earth beneath them — no kiln, no quarry, no transport — and they have lasted centuries. That principle of using what is to hand, wisely and without waste, is the foundation of our own approach. We design homes that are more comfortable to inhabit, more economical to run and genuinely joyful to live in, not in spite of their heritage setting but because of it. Sustainability here is not something imported; it is a continuation of the village's oldest building tradition.
Extension Design for homes in Cuddington means working within the framework set by Buckinghamshire Council and the made Cuddington Neighbourhood Plan. Within the conservation area, any addition will be assessed for its scale, materials and sensitivity to the streetscape. We see this as an opportunity — the best extensions feel like a natural continuation of the building they serve, and in a village with such a strong material vocabulary there is a clear language to work with.
New Build Design and PassivHaus Design apply where new homes are proposed in or around the village. Any new dwelling here should respond to the rubblestone, the witchert, the gentle curves and sheltered enclosures that give Cuddington its particular quality. The Deerings, our RIBA award-winning Passivhaus home, demonstrated that the highest energy performance and genuine architectural ambition are natural partners.
Paragraph 84 of the National Planning Policy Framework allows for new homes in the open countryside where the design is truly outstanding and sensitive to its setting. The agricultural landscape around Cuddington, with its field boundaries and mature hedgerows, creates a setting where any new dwelling would need to belong to the land as naturally as the witchert walls belong to the village.
The witchert walls of Cuddington have no straight lines, no sharp edges, no pretence of mechanical perfection. They are honest — shaped by the hands that built them, softened by the centuries that followed. That kind of architecture asks something of anyone who works alongside it: patience, respect, and a willingness to listen before you draw. If you are considering a renovation, an extension, or a new home in Cuddington, we would welcome that conversation.