Rigg Side

Rigg Side, also known as the Anderton House, is a private residence designed by Peter Aldington and John Craig in 1970–71 for Mr and Mrs Anderton. The house sits low on a sloping site at the end of the village of Goodleigh, reached by a steep drive.

The building employs a timber-frame structure forming a two-row grid of double posts and beams with a tent roof, set half proud of 7'2" concrete block walls. It features a glazed clerestory and stained tiled gabled roof. Internally, the house has timber linings and ceilings with tiled floors. The rectangular plan presents a simple exterior set behind deep projecting eaves. Large glazed gables and clerestories provide full-height glazing to the living area, which extends with a low lean-to incorporated in the double grid. Aluminium sash windows with tiled sills are used elsewhere. The entrance comprises a solid timber pivoted door set between opaque glass panels and positioned behind a curved projecting bathroom pod containing the lavatory. A round projecting pod conceals the entrance to principal living areas; the porch roof is clad in opaque glass.

The interior divides into two main areas: an open-plan living room and kitchen/dining space, and a line of three bedrooms accessed from a spinal corridor, with a car port occupying remaining space. Central to the design is a circular bathroom and lavatory pod adjacent to the front door. The galley kitchen with timber-lined dining area lies beyond, separated from a south-facing double-glazed living area by a low partition containing a shoulder-high-walled office. This office space allowed Mr Anderton to work at his desk while maintaining communication with his wife in the kitchen or living room—a compromise documented by Aldington in Architecture for People (1980). The kitchen features fitted cupboards, a work bench and rubbish shute. Room proportions were based on the Andertons' existing furniture. A study bedroom at the far end incorporates a long built-in desk designed for their student daughter.

The timber frame was prefabricated under Aldington's supervision in Oxford and completed by local builders under surveyor A M Evans, allowing Aldington greater control over the design despite working at distance from his Buckinghamshire base. The design demonstrates an understanding of Devon landscape and longhouse tradition combined with classical formalism based on deep intellectual rigour. The methodology employed by Aldington and Craig—developing the brief with clients over more than a year before construction—enabled the house to be detailed around specific requirements and existing furnishings. Though not yet in formal partnership, this approach established the practice's working method and was later explained by Craig in Architecture for People.

The house won an RIBA Commendation in 1973.