There is something quietly remarkable about a village built from the stone beneath its own feet. Rudloe sits at the top of Box Hill, above the quarry tunnels from which Bath stone was extracted for centuries — the same honey-coloured oolitic limestone that shaped Georgian Bath, carried out on narrow-gauge railways to the yards at Box and Corsham. The buildings above ground are made from the same material that was carved out below them, and that relationship between geology and architecture is visible in every rubble stone wall, every ashlar cottage front, every stone-tiled roof catching the afternoon light. As an architect, I find that connection between a place and its materials deeply instructive. It is a reminder that the best buildings do not arrive from somewhere else — they grow from where they are, shaped by the stone, the climate, and the hands that work them.
Award-winning Architects in Rudloe
Why Homeowners in Rudloe Trust Gresford Architects
Rudloe's architectural character spans several centuries, from the Grade II* listed Rudloe Manor — a late seventeenth-century rubble stone house with its distinctive four clustered diagonal chimney shafts and steep stone-tiled hipped roof — to the mid-nineteenth-century estate cottages in their picturesque Tudor Gothic dress, and on to the twentieth-century housing that arrived with the RAF station. Working across that range requires an architect who can read a seventeenth-century rubble wall as readily as a post-war concrete block, and who understands that each era contributed something to this place. I founded Gresford Architects in London in 2006 and later moved to Oxford, drawn by the concentration of stone-built heritage across the Cotswolds and the wider south of England. I am ARB-registered and RIBA Chartered, and my work with the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings — studying how older structures were made, how they move, and how they manage moisture — has taught me that heritage conservation and contemporary sustainability are not competing ambitions. They are the same instinct: build carefully, choose materials with honesty, design for durability. The Great Barn in Buckinghamshire and The Deerings in Hertfordshire, which earned the RIBA East Award in 2018, both grew from that philosophy. Features in Dezeen and The Modern House Journal have highlighted the care we bring to this work, and our accreditation with The Green Register and membership of the Passivhaus Trust reflect a conviction that buildings designed for energy performance and buildings designed for longevity are, at their best, the same thing. For a village where the stone itself speaks of geological time, that approach feels less like an imposition and more like a local responsibility.
Architectural Services for Homes in Rudloe
Renovations are central to what we do in a place with Rudloe's layered heritage. Rudloe Manor itself, rebuilt around 1685 for T. Goddard, sits on the Heritage at Risk Register — a condition that speaks to the challenge of maintaining substantial stone buildings over time, and to the specialist knowledge required to bring them back. Listed building consent through Wiltshire Council is required for any works to a listed structure, and our experience with heritage projects means we understand both the regulatory process and the physical reality of rubble stone construction: the lime mortars, the way moisture moves through solid walls, the structural logic of a building that has been settling for three hundred years. Whether the project is a listed manor house or one of the older stone cottages in the village, the approach begins with the building itself — its materials, its history, and what it needs to thrive for another generation.
EnerPHit is particularly well suited to the solid-walled stone buildings that define Rudloe. Bath stone is a beautiful material, warm to the eye and enduring in its performance, but a rubble stone wall that has stood since the seventeenth century was not built with thermal efficiency in mind. An EnerPHit retrofit addresses this carefully: internal or external insulation positioned to respect the way moisture migrates through the stone, improved airtightness without trapping damp within the fabric, and mechanical ventilation with heat recovery to maintain healthy indoor air quality. For buildings in Rudloe, where the oolitic limestone breathes in a particular way and the quarry-damp hillside creates its own micro-climate, getting that moisture balance right is not optional — it is the difference between a retrofit that works and one that causes harm. Sustainable Design underpins every project we take on, and in a village whose very existence is rooted in the careful extraction and use of natural materials, that principle feels less like an imposition and more like a continuation of what was already here.
Much of Box parish, including Rudloe, falls within the Cotswolds National Landscape — the designation that replaced the former Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty — and this has significant implications for anyone considering new construction. Paragraph 84 of the National Planning Policy Framework applies to new homes in the open countryside, permitting development only where the architecture is truly exceptional and enhances its immediate setting. The Cotswolds National Landscape Board provides guidance alongside Wiltshire Council's planning policies, and any proposal needs to demonstrate sensitivity to both the landscape and the local building tradition. We have designed homes under Paragraph 84 that respond to exactly this kind of challenge — working with local materials, topography, and the character of the surrounding settlement to create something that belongs. New Build Design in Rudloe, whether within the village or on its fringes, needs to sit alongside centuries of stone construction without mimicking it, finding a contemporary expression that draws on the same material honesty.
Extension Design for homes in Rudloe calls for a clear understanding of the existing building and its context. A stone cottage that has stood for a century or more has its own proportions, its own relationship between wall and window, between mass and light — and an extension that ignores those relationships, however well-intentioned, will always feel disconnected. The post-war housing built during and after the RAF's presence at Rudloe Manor presents a different kind of opportunity: solid, functional buildings that often have generous plots and straightforward construction, well suited to extensions that can transform both the space and the energy performance. PassivHaus Design delivers the highest standard of thermal performance for any new construction or major extension, achieving year-round comfort with minimal heating demand through meticulous attention to fabric, airtightness, and orientation — homes that are comfortable, economical to run, and designed to last.
If you are considering a project in Rudloe — whether that means restoring one of the village's stone buildings, improving a mid-century home, or creating something new within the Cotswolds National Landscape — we would welcome the conversation.