Semington is a village that has always been shaped by what passes through it. The Kennet and Avon Canal's passage through Semington was established progressively from 1804, with the aqueduct over Semington Brook completed in 1807 and through-traffic beginning when the canal opened fully in 1810. That same year, the Wilts and Berks Canal opened its junction here — two waterways meeting at a single point, making this quiet settlement a crossroads of commerce and engineering. When the A350 bypass was built nearly two centuries later, a new aqueduct had to be constructed to maintain the canal's passage overhead. What interests me as an architect is how a village absorbs that kind of change — how its buildings adapt, how stone and brick accommodate the pressures of each era while the underlying character holds firm. Walk along Church Street and the evidence is there in the timber-framed houses at numbers 26 and 27, dated to the mid-sixteenth century, their carved and moulded beams still legible beneath later alterations. Semington does not resist change. It absorbs it.
Award-winning Architects in Semington
Why Homeowners in Semington Trust Gresford Architects
I founded Gresford Architects in London in 2006, and we are now based in Oxford, working with clients across the country. Our work sits at the intersection of heritage sensitivity and environmental performance — the marriage of the poetic and the practical, as I often describe it. I am a RIBA Chartered and ARB Registered Architect, a member of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, accredited by The Green Register, and a member of the Passivhaus Trust. That combination of conservation knowledge and energy expertise is particularly relevant in a village like Semington, where 33 listed buildings stand alongside later housing stock that could benefit enormously from thoughtful intervention. The Deerings, our certified Passivhaus in Hertfordshire, won the RIBA East Award in 2018. The Old Water Tower was shortlisted for the RIBA South Awards in 2016. I was a finalist for Sustainability Architect of the Year at the Building Design Awards that same year, and I have since judged the British Homes Awards. Our projects have been published in Dezeen, Grand Designs Magazine and The Modern House Journal — work united by the conviction that buildings should be comfortable, economical to run, and joyful to inhabit.
Architectural Services for a Village Built on Adaptation
Renovations in Semington mean working with buildings that carry several centuries of alteration in their walls. The Manor House, with its datestone of 1698, is built of coursed rubble stone under a stone slate roof, its mullioned casements and moulded eaves cornice speaking to a period when local materials were dressed with real precision. Nearby, the timber-framed houses on Church Street predate it by more than a century, their internal structure concealed behind later facades. Our approach to Renovations, informed by my SPAB membership, begins with reading what each phase of construction has contributed — understanding where rubble stone meets later pointing, where timber frames have been stiffened with brick nogging, where original openings have been narrowed or widened. The goal is not to restore a single moment in a building's history but to ensure that the next intervention is as considered as the ones that came before. Wiltshire Council handles planning applications for Semington, and for any works affecting listed buildings, Listed Building Consent will be required alongside standard permissions.
EnerPHit offers a certified retrofit path for older homes in Semington where rubble stone walls, single-glazed windows and uninsulated roofs make rooms expensive to heat and uncomfortable in winter. Take the Manor House, built in 1698 in coursed rubble stone. Its original single-glazed casements and uninsulated roof are characteristic of the village's older stock. The challenge with this kind of construction is moisture management — internal insulation must be detailed carefully to avoid trapping damp within lime-bonded stonework, and vapour-open materials are essential. We pair insulation upgrades with mechanical ventilation and heat recovery, improved airtightness at junctions, and glazing that respects the mullioned proportions of windows like the Manor House's own. St George's Court, the former workhouse built in 1836 to 1838 in classical limestone ashlar and now converted to residential use, demonstrates another retrofit path: a larger, more substantial building with its own energy challenges. EnerPHit provides the framework to ensure that conversion is energy-efficient as well as architecturally respectful.
Extension Design along Church Street and the High Street must respond to the established material palette of stone, brick and timber that defines Semington — and to the specific rhythms set by key buildings like the Somerset Arms, an eighteenth-century coaching inn whose proportions and roofline establish a particular cadence on the High Street. Any extension to a neighbouring property needs to understand that context. We design extensions that either continue the local tradition — coursed stone, clay tile, timber details — or introduce a clearly contemporary element that defers to the host building: a recessed glazed link, perhaps, or a standing-seam roof that reads as a distinct addition rather than an imitation. On properties bordering the canal, particularly along the southern edge of the village, the relationship with the water corridor itself becomes part of the design challenge. Views towards the Kennet and Avon aqueduct and the towpath are part of the streetscape, and extensions here must respond to that context — to the canal's presence and to the way earlier additions to nearby buildings have negotiated their proximity to the water.
Sustainable Design is the thread that runs through every project we take on, from the specification of lime mortars in a stone renovation to the energy modelling of a New Build Design on the village edge. PassivHaus Design principles can guide new homes towards near-zero energy demand, virtually eliminating the need for conventional heating — an approach that sits well in a village whose buildings have always made pragmatic use of local materials and passive environmental strategies. For sites in the open countryside beyond the village boundary, Paragraph 84 of the National Planning Policy Framework provides a route for truly exceptional new homes, requiring outstanding design that enhances its immediate setting. The water meadows around Semington, shaped by centuries of canal engineering and bounded by the Kennet and Avon on one side and Semington Brook on the other, are particularly sensitive to development. Any new home here must respond to that specific hydrology — the relationship between groundwater, drainage and the canal's level — as well as the topography and character of its plot.
If you are considering a project in Semington — whether renovating one of the village's listed buildings, extending a home on Church Street or the High Street, or exploring what might be possible along the canal corridor — we would welcome a conversation about how to approach it well.