Lyde End

Lyde End is a group of six houses built between 1975 and 1977 in Bledlow, designed by the architectural practice Aldington and Craig, with Paul Collinge as architect in charge. The development was commissioned by Lord Carrington, who would later become Foreign Secretary, as affordable housing for the village.

The houses are arranged around a gravelled courtyard. Five are single-storey; one (Number 5) is taller and marks the turn of the court. All are constructed of brown brick under red tile roofs, with some dark-stained weatherboarding. They follow two common plans and share a distinctive system of interlocking monopitch tiled roofs that enclose spaces extending through fully glazed openings into partly covered yards. Each house has its own small courtyard. The public faces of the houses, facing the shared courtyard, have smaller windows including some horizontal slits, while large windows look out to the private courtyards. An open-fronted car shelter, designed to resemble a traditional farm building, runs down the east side of the courtyard with its gable-end facing the brick-walled entrance at the south-east corner.

The interiors feature bare, unplastered brick walls and exposed, sloping timber ceilings. Brick floors have underfloor heating. Glazed end walls at the end of each living area look out on the courtyard and garden, with bedrooms positioned under the other monopitch. The smaller houses are only 600 square metres yet accommodate two bedrooms. The larger corner house (Number 5) has a second floor reached by a spiral staircase from a living room with large, exposed concrete beams.

Lord Carrington conceived the development as low-cost housing to address the growing difficulty for rural workers on low incomes to afford housing in the south-east. The site was opposite his own house, adjacent to the River Lyde near the parish church, and replaced a derelict concrete warehouse. The only brief was that the result should genuinely form part of the village and provide a feeling of protection and homeliness to occupants—the client explicitly rejected neo-Georgian pastiche.

Peter Aldington's practice (operating as Aldington and Craig from 1970, and Aldington, Craig and Collinge from 1980) is regarded as one of the most significant post-war house designers. Their skill lay in marrying modern materials with local vernacular traditions, creating houses that were both modern and striking yet fitted immaculately into historic settings. Their understanding of Buckinghamshire vernacular was exemplary. Aldington acknowledged the influence of Llewelyn Davies and Weeks's estate housing at Rushbrooke, Suffolk, and the connecting walls and split roof pitches here are perhaps the closest acknowledgement of this source in all the firm's work. The courtyard and car port also echo the group of houses at Turn End, Haddenham (Grade II*), of which Aldington's own house forms part. Contractors were asked to visit Aldington's house to understand the expected construction and finish quality. This was the first work for the firm in which the principal designer was Paul Collinge, whom Aldington described as "the only architect who ever thought like me."

After completion, Lyde End received four awards: a RIBA Award Commendation, a Department of Environment Award for Good Design in Housing, a Civic Trust Award, and a Brick Development Association Award (all 1978–1979). One jury member noted the "loving care" demonstrated in site planning and the confident introduction of new ideas in handling traditional materials. In 2008, Lyde End received a Housing Design award for Best of the Best of the 1970s. Peter Aldington suggested in 2008 that Lyde End influenced a whole generation of architects and remained much visited. The design developed principles first used in the mid-1960s at Turn, Middle Turn, and Turn End in Haddenham (Grade II, upgraded to Grade II*), adapted to the setting and vernacular of Bledlow village, building on precedents established at Rushbrooke village housing in Suffolk.