In 1884, an Act of Parliament authorised the construction of Ravensthorpe Reservoir to supply water to the growing city of Northampton. The project took six years to build, required a steam-driven pumping station and slow sand filters, and permanently reshaped the valley landscape around the village. What interests me as an architect is how the village absorbed this change. Ravensthorpe had stood here since before the Conquest — the Church of St Denys, Grade II* listed, dates from the fourteenth century in local ironstone, and a church on the site is believed to predate it — and yet the arrival of Victorian water engineering did not diminish the settlement. The reservoir became part of the landscape, and the village carried on alongside it. The parish sits in west Northamptonshire, between Northampton and Rugby.
Award-winning Architects in Ravensthorpe
Design That Absorbs Change
Good architecture accommodates change — it does not resist it, and it does not surrender to it. That conviction runs through everything our practice does, from certified Passivhaus homes designed for decades of use to the repair of buildings that have already weathered centuries. 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.
Architectural Services Between Northampton and Rugby
Renovations in Ravensthorpe engage with a building stock shaped by the village's long history and its relationship with the reservoir landscape. The church contains a Jacobean pulpit donated by John Breton of Teeton in 1619 and 1930s stained glass by Christopher Webb — additions separated by three centuries, each serving the same building. 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.
Sustainable Design connects every project we take on, and in Ravensthorpe the reservoir is a reminder that the most significant changes to a landscape are often driven by practical necessity — and that good design finds a way to make them belong. PassivHaus Design sets our benchmark for new construction, delivering certified comfort with minimal energy demand. New Build Design in Ravensthorpe should respect the ironstone 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 work with the reservoir landscape that now defines this part of the county.
EnerPHit, the Passivhaus Institute's certified retrofit standard, addresses the thermal performance of older homes without compromising their character. The cottages in Ravensthorpe 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 ironstone facades continue to weather as they always have.
Extension Design in Ravensthorpe should respond to the ironstone character and proportions of the village. The relationship between the houses, the lanes and the surrounding landscape — including the reservoir — contributes to a settlement with a distinctive setting. 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.
Ravensthorpe absorbed a Victorian reservoir and carried on. If you are considering a project here, we would welcome the conversation.