There is something I find endlessly interesting about a place that was literally built from its own ground. The Victorian and Edwardian houses that line the Basingstoke Road through Spencers Wood were constructed using bricks fired at the Swain family's kiln, right here in the village. The clay came out of the earth, was shaped and baked, and went straight into the walls of the homes that still define the streetscape today. That connection between a building and the ground it stands on — between material, place and craft — is something we think about constantly at Gresford Architects. It is at the heart of how we design.
Award-winning Architects in Spencers Wood
An Architect's Approach Built on Craft and Care
I founded Gresford Architects in London in 2006, and we are now based in Oxford, working with clients across the country. I am a RIBA chartered and ARB registered architect, a member of the Passivhaus Trust and the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, and accredited by The Green Register. We approach every project — whether it involves a Victorian terrace or a contemporary new build — with the same commitment to design quality, material honesty and energy performance. Our Passivhaus home The Deerings won a RIBA East Award in 2018, and I was a finalist for Sustainability Architect of the Year at the Building Design Awards that same year. In 2025 I was invited to judge the British Homes Awards. These are markers of how seriously we take the work, not selling points — they reflect a practice built on care, craft and genuine enthusiasm for making buildings better.
Architectural Services for Homes in Spencers Wood
Spencers Wood has a housing stock that spans several generations, from the Victorian brick terraces built with Swain kiln material to the mid-twentieth-century homes that arrived as the village grew along the Basingstoke Road, and the more recent developments that have expanded it further still. Extension Design is often the most natural starting point for homeowners in Spencers Wood looking to adapt what they have rather than move. The best extensions read the proportions, rooflines and materials of the original house and then add something that is clearly contemporary — not a pastiche of what came before, but an honest addition that improves how the home works, brings in light, and connects the interior with the garden. In a village where the local brick tradition is still visible in the streetscape, material choices matter. We take that seriously.
Spencers Wood has seen significant development pressure in recent years, with major housing proposals put forward for land along the Basingstoke Road. New Build Design in this context carries a particular responsibility — new homes should contribute to the character of a place, not dilute it. Wokingham Borough Council, as the local planning authority, takes an active role in shaping how development sits within the existing settlement, and we welcome that kind of rigorous oversight. Sustainable Design runs through every new build we undertake, from the orientation and massing of the building to the specification of materials and the performance of the envelope. PassivHaus Design takes this to its most demanding standard, delivering homes that maintain stable, comfortable temperatures with minimal mechanical heating — built to last, economical to run, and genuinely kinder to the environment.
For the older homes in Spencers Wood — the Victorian and Edwardian properties along the Basingstoke Road, or the more characterful buildings around The Square — Renovations can unlock potential that has been overlooked for decades. Solid-walled construction, original timber windows, slate or clay tile roofs: these are buildings with good bones that deserve thoughtful upgrading rather than wholesale replacement. EnerPHit, the certified retrofit standard for existing buildings, offers a systematic way to improve insulation, airtightness and ventilation without stripping away the character that makes these homes worth keeping. It is the kind of work I find deeply satisfying — the marriage of careful conservation thinking with rigorous energy performance. And in the open countryside beyond the village, where Shinfield parish meets the wider Berkshire landscape, Paragraph 84 of the National Planning Policy Framework provides a route for truly exceptional new homes — architecture that earns its place through the quality of its design and its sensitivity to its setting.
Spencers Wood is a village that has always made things from what it has to hand — from the Swain kiln bricks to the Arts and Crafts village hall opened in 1911, to the church of St Michael and All Angels dedicated in 1908 and designed by Spencer Slingsby Stallwood of Reading. If you are considering a project here — an extension, a renovation, a new home that belongs in this place — we would welcome the chance to talk it through.