The name itself is the clue. Stanion derives from the Old English for a building made of stone — and the village has lived up to its name for a thousand years. The church, the cottages, the farmhouses: all built from the limestone quarried within the parish. Archaeologists have found evidence of iron ore production here from the later Iron Age, and the extensive quarries north of the village have yielded Roman remains alongside the building stone that shaped the settlement above. What interests me as an architect is that Stanion does not merely sit on its geology; it is made from it. The material came from the ground beneath the village and was laid down in the buildings above it. That direct relationship between geology and architecture — the same stone in the field and in the wall — is what gives the village its coherence. The Church of St Peter, Grade I listed, dates from the late thirteenth century and sits within a churchyard that has served the parish since the village was recorded in the Domesday survey of 1086.
Award-winning Architects in Stanion
Understanding the Material Before Making the Drawing
Every project begins with understanding what already exists — the materials, the site, the way a building meets the ground. That conviction runs through everything our practice does. 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. In a village literally named for the material it is built from, that understanding of place and material is where the work begins.
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Renovations in Stanion engage with a building stock drawn from the parish's own stone. The church retains its late thirteenth-century core, with aisles and tower added in the fifteenth century and further modifications in the eighteenth — including a triple-decker pulpit that records the building's evolution as a place of worship. The stone cottages and farmhouses throughout the village use the local limestone with the proportions typical of this part of the county. North 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 rather than against it.
Sustainable Design connects every project we take on, and in Stanion the relationship between the quarry and the village is a reminder that the most sustainable material is often the one that comes from the ground beneath your feet. PassivHaus Design sets our benchmark for new construction, delivering certified comfort with minimal energy demand. New Build Design in Stanion should respond to the limestone character of a village that has been built from its own geology for centuries. 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 that it belongs in a landscape whose stone has already produced a Grade I listed church and a village of real coherence.
EnerPHit, the Passivhaus Institute's certified retrofit standard, addresses the thermal performance of older homes without compromising their character. The stone cottages in Stanion 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 stone facades continue to weather as they always have.
Extension Design in Stanion should use the same material language that gives the village its identity. An extension in a parish named for stone cannot ignore that stone — the coursing, the colour, the relationship between dressed and rubble work. 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 while sitting comfortably within a village whose name declares what it is made from.
Stanion is named for stone, and the stone is still here — in the quarries, in the walls, in the churchyard. If you are considering a project here, we would welcome the conversation.