The Church of St James the Great at Paulerspury contains a pair of medieval wooden effigies believed to date from around the twelfth century. Wooden effigies of this age are extremely rare — wood is the most vulnerable of building materials, and most medieval figures that survive in English churches are carved in stone. That these have lasted suggests centuries of deliberate care: someone in every generation decided they were worth preserving. What interests me as an architect is what that commitment reveals about the relationship between a community and its buildings. The church, Grade II* listed, dates from the thirteenth century with significant later medieval work, and stands in a village that grew up west of Watling Street. The settlement extends for over a mile from east to west in a series of distinct clusters, and its name derives from its Norman lord and the orchards that once defined it.
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Stewardship as Architecture
Architecture is stewardship — the conviction that how we build and maintain determines what survives. That principle runs through everything our practice does, from certified Passivhaus homes to the repair of listed buildings. 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 Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings — the Passivhaus Trust and The Green Register. The Deerings, a certified Passivhaus home in Hertfordshire, 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. Our projects have been published in Dezeen, Grand Designs Magazine and The Modern House Journal.
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Sustainable Design connects every project we take on, and in Paulerspury the wooden effigies are a reminder that what survives depends on what is cared for — not just what is built to last. PassivHaus Design sets our benchmark for new construction, delivering certified comfort with minimal energy demand. New Build Design in Paulerspury should respect the limestone character of the village and its relationship to the Roman road that gave rise to it. 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 demonstrate the quality that earns a building its place in the landscape.
Extension Design in Paulerspury should respond to the village's extended, clustered plan. The distinct groups of buildings that make up the settlement sit in different relationships to the lanes and the surrounding countryside, and an extension must work within whichever cluster it belongs to. Whether the brief is a ground-floor extension connecting the house to the garden, a garden room, or additional space above, the design should make the whole building feel more resolved.
Renovations in Paulerspury engage with a building stock shaped by the village's long settlement history west of Watling Street. The church itself preserves medieval timber alongside nineteenth-century rebuilding — the tower renewed in the 1840s, the chancel rebuilt in 1854 — demonstrating that significant intervention, when done carefully, can serve a building for generations. 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 lime mortar — and that any renovation must work with that behaviour.
EnerPHit, the Passivhaus Institute's certified retrofit standard, addresses the thermal performance of older homes without compromising their character. The cottages in Paulerspury present the familiar challenge of solid-walled construction: thick walls with no insulation, draughty junctions, and a building envelope that predates any concept 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 limestone facades continue to weather as they always have.
Paulerspury's wooden effigies have survived because someone in every generation thought them worth the trouble. If you are considering a project here, we would welcome the conversation.