What draws me to Whiteparish is its position on a threshold. Southeast of Salisbury, where the open chalk downland of south Wiltshire gives way to the ancient wooded heathland of the New Forest, this village sits at the meeting point of two quite different landscapes — and its buildings carry the evidence. The Pepperbox, that extraordinary hexagonal brick tower built by Giles Eyre in 1606 on the hill above the village, was placed precisely at this boundary, looking out across both worlds. It is a building that exists because of its position, not despite it. Down in the village itself, the palette shifts to flint and red brick — materials drawn from the chalk and clay beneath the parish — and All Saints Church, Grade II* listed with twelfth-century origins and a steep tiled roof over limestone and flint walls, anchors the settlement with a weight that William Butterfield's 1870 restoration only deepened. Boundaries are where the most interesting design questions arise, and Whiteparish has been asking them for centuries.
Award-winning Architects in Whiteparish
An Award-Winning Practice Working Across the Country
I founded Gresford Architects in London in 2006, and we are now based in Oxford, working with clients across the country — including villages like Whiteparish where heritage, landscape and modern life intersect in ways that demand careful thinking. 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 breadth of expertise matters here, where one part of the parish falls under Wiltshire Council and another under the New Forest National Park Authority, each with its own planning expectations. Our project The Deerings, a certified Passivhaus in Hertfordshire, won the RIBA East Award in 2018, and 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 the same year as The Deerings, and I have since served as a judge for the British Homes Awards. Our work has been featured in Dezeen, Grand Designs Magazine and The Modern House Journal — projects united by the conviction that buildings should be comfortable, designed to last, and built to use energy and materials as efficiently as possible.
Architectural Services for a Village on the Edge of the Forest
Renovations in Whiteparish mean engaging with a building stock that speaks in flint and brick. The Lynches, a Grade II listed house dating from around 1660, is characteristic of the kind of substantial early dwelling that the parish still holds — buildings where centuries of alteration have left layers of fabric that each tell a different story. Our approach, shaped by my membership of SPAB, is to read those layers carefully before intervening: understanding where lime mortar meets later cement repairs, where flintwork was originally exposed and where it was rendered, where timber frames have shifted and how the structure has compensated over time. Renovation is not about freezing a building in one period but about ensuring that the next chapter of its life is as well-considered as the ones that came before.
Extension Design within the conservation area requires particular sensitivity to the flint-and-brick palette that defines Whiteparish. An extension to a cottage on the main street must hold its own against neighbours built in knapped flint with red brick dressings, and that means understanding how those materials were used — the proportions of flint panels to brick quoins, the rhythm of window openings, the way rooflines step down along a lane. We design extensions that either continue the local material tradition with contemporary precision or introduce a clearly subordinate element — timber cladding, perhaps, or standing-seam metal — that defers to the host building. Wiltshire Council will assess any proposal within the conservation area against its impact on the street scene, and we welcome that scrutiny.
Paragraph 84 of the National Planning Policy Framework opens a route for genuinely exceptional new homes in the countryside surrounding Whiteparish, and the landscape here gives that policy particular resonance. The parish stretches from open farmland in the north to the edge of the New Forest National Park in the south, and any proposal under Paragraph 84 must demonstrate that it is truly outstanding in design, that it raises standards of architecture, and that it enhances its immediate setting. For a site on the chalk ridge looking south towards the forest, or in the rolling farmland between Whiteparish and Brickworth, the design must respond to the specific conditions of its plot — the fall of the land, the prevailing wind, the relationship to hedgerows and mature trees. This is precisely the kind of challenge we relish.
EnerPHit provides a certified retrofit standard for older homes in Whiteparish where the flint-and-brick walls, single-glazed windows and uninsulated roofs leave rooms cold and energy bills high. The approach is systematic: careful internal insulation detailed to avoid trapping moisture within the flint and lime construction, mechanical ventilation with heat recovery, and upgraded glazing that respects existing opening proportions. For listed buildings, every measure must be agreed with the relevant planning authority — Wiltshire Council or, for properties within the National Park boundary, the New Forest National Park Authority. Sustainable Design runs through everything we do, from the material choices in a flint renovation to the energy modelling of a New Build Design. Where a full EnerPHit retrofit is beyond scope, PassivHaus Design principles can inform the design of a new extension or replacement dwelling, virtually eliminating the need for conventional heating while sitting comfortably within a village whose character has been shaped by centuries of making the most of what the land provides.
If you are considering a project in Whiteparish — whether renovating one of the village's listed buildings, extending a home within the conservation area, or exploring what Paragraph 84 might make possible in the surrounding countryside — we would welcome a conversation about how to approach it.