When the antiquary John Leland passed through Oundle in the 1530s, he described it simply as a town "al buildid of stone." Five centuries later, that observation still holds. Walk along West Street or through the Market Place and the limestone is everywhere — in the coursed rubble walls of seventeenth-century houses, in the crisp ashlar of Georgian shopfronts, in the Collyweston slate roofs that tie the whole streetscape together with a shared palette of warm grey and silver. What draws me to Oundle as an architect is the way this single material has been handled by so many different hands across so many centuries, each generation finding its own expression without breaking the thread. The Talbot Hotel was rebuilt in 1626 using stone salvaged from the ruins of Fotheringhay Castle — materials from one building given a second life in another — and that instinct for reuse, for valuing what already exists, runs through the whole town. It is the kind of place where every new intervention has to earn its place alongside what came before.
Award-winning Architects in Oundle
Why Clients in Oundle Trust Gresford Architects
I founded Gresford Architects in London in 2006, and the practice has always been shaped by a deep respect for existing buildings and the places they belong to. I am an ARB-registered and RIBA-chartered architect, and my membership of SPAB — the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings — has been central to how I work, particularly in towns like Oundle where over two hundred buildings are listed for their architectural or historic interest. SPAB teaches you to read a building before you touch it: to understand how moisture moves through solid stone walls, why lime mortar matters, and when the kindest thing you can do is leave well alone. That approach, combined with our expertise in Passivhaus and EnerPHit standards through the Passivhaus Trust and The Green Register, means we bring both conservation sensitivity and energy performance to every project. Our work on The Deerings in Hertfordshire won the RIBA East Award, and I was shortlisted as Sustainability Architect of the Year at the 2018 Building Design Awards — recognition that reflects a practice built on the belief that heritage and sustainability are not opposing forces but natural partners. We have been featured in Dezeen, The Modern House Journal and Grand Designs Magazine, and I served as a judge for the British Homes Awards in 2025. We work with clients across the country, bringing the same care and rigour to each commission.
Architectural Services for a Town Built of Stone
Renovations sit at the heart of what Oundle asks of an architect. With more than two hundred listed buildings concentrated within a conservation area designated in 1970, the town presents a remarkable density of historic fabric — from the Church of St Peter, Grade I listed, whose thirteenth-century core was enlarged in the Decorated style before the tower, spire and south porch were added in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, to the coaching inns and merchants' houses that line West Street and the Market Place. Many of these buildings have been adapted and readapted over centuries, and each layer tells you something about how people lived and what they valued. The Talbot Hotel is a case in point: rebuilt in 1626 with stone and oak from the demolished Fotheringhay Castle, it is a building literally assembled from the materials of another place and another era. Renovating well in this context means understanding how limestone walls behave — how they absorb and release moisture, why cement-based mortars cause damage where lime-based ones allow the stone to breathe, and how to integrate modern comfort without compromising the character that earned the listing. My SPAB training is particularly relevant here, where the instinct to preserve must be balanced with the practical needs of people who actually live in these buildings.
EnerPHit offers a rigorous, certified approach to improving the energy performance of older buildings in Oundle without sacrificing what makes them valuable. The solid limestone walls that define the town's character are beautiful but thermally inefficient — a paradox of heritage design, where the very material that gives the town its identity resists modern energy standards. Internal wall insulation, carefully detailed to remain breathable, combined with high-performance glazing that respects existing proportions and mechanical ventilation with heat recovery, can transform a draughty stone house into one that is warm, quiet and economical to run — without changing what it looks like from the street. Our retrofit of The Old Orchard in Oxfordshire proved that this balance is achievable even in solid-walled buildings with real architectural character. In Oundle, where the conservation area is so densely listed that any visible intervention becomes a planning and heritage question, the challenge is not merely technical but philosophical: how do you honour what those medieval masons built while meeting what people need to live comfortably now? North Northamptonshire Council will expect any works to listed buildings or within the conservation area to demonstrate that energy improvements do not harm the significance of the heritage asset.
Sustainable Design is woven through every service we offer, but it takes on a particular meaning in a place like Oundle where the local limestone has been the natural building material for half a millennium. Sustainability here is not about importing novel systems but about working intelligently with what the area already provides — stone that weathers gracefully, Collyweston slate that lasts generations, and a building tradition that has always prioritised durability over fashion. When we design, we think in decades and centuries rather than trends: materials chosen for longevity, details that age with dignity, buildings that are comfortable to inhabit, economical to run and more joyful to live in.
Extension Design is a practical route for homeowners in Oundle looking to gain space without leaving a town they love. The tight urban form of the centre, where Oundle School's buildings sit alongside private houses and shops in a continuous stone streetscape, means extensions often need to work within constrained plots and respond to the scale and materials of their neighbours. Outside the conservation area, the palette may widen, but the principle remains: an extension should make the whole house read as one coherent piece, connecting rooms to light and garden while solving how a family actually lives. New Build Design comes into play as the town evolves, guided by the Oundle Neighbourhood Plan, and a fabric-first approach — insulation, airtightness and ventilation designed as an integrated system — ensures new homes in Oundle meet the energy standards the future demands. PassivHaus Design takes that principle to its most exacting level, virtually eliminating the need for conventional heating. And for sites in the open countryside beyond the town, Paragraph 84 of the National Planning Policy Framework provides a pathway to a new home where the architecture itself must justify its presence in the landscape.
Oundle is a town where stone connects everything — the medieval church to the Georgian shopfront, the school hall to the coaching inn. Whether you are renovating one of its many listed buildings, improving the comfort and efficiency of a solid-walled home, or planning something entirely new, we would welcome the chance to talk. We start by understanding what you need, how you actually live, and what the building can offer you — and from there, the design becomes the conversation.