About us
Forty years of building in one county.
1,240 homes since 1986, all of them within forty minutes of the Oxford office. Three generations, four site teams and the same trades year after year.
Who we are
A family builder that stayed small on purpose.
Alan Ridgeway built four houses on a paddock in Cumnor in 1986 and sold them before the roofs went on. His granddaughter Ellen runs the company now, and the shape of it has barely changed: four to six schemes at a time, between twenty five and ninety homes each, all of them close enough to visit twice in a day.
That size is a decision, not a limit. It is why our bricklayers and joiners have been with us for years rather than months, why a plot bought in the last release is built to the same standard as the show home, and why the person who signs off your snag list also signed off the layout.
How we work
Four things we will not trade away.
We build where we live
Every site is inside a forty minute drive of the Oxford office. If a decision needs making on a Friday afternoon, somebody who can make it is already on the site.
Two hundred homes a decade, not a year
We take between four and six schemes at a time and finish them. That is why our trades stay with us, and why the last plot is built like the show home.
The price on the list is the price
No haggling behind other buyers and no quiet increases between release and reservation. If we discount a plot, it is discounted for everyone still looking at it.
Fabric before gadgets
We spend the budget on air tightness, insulation and glazing before we spend it on smart switches. It is the part you cannot upgrade later.
The people
You will meet all four of them.
Ellen RidgewayManaging directorThird generation. Runs land buying and signs off every layout before it goes to planning.
Marcus DeaneConstruction directorTwenty six years on site, eleven of them with us. Holds the build programme and the trade standards.
Sofia MarchettiHead of salesHandles reservations, part exchange and the plot list. She is the one who answers the sales suite phone.
Ben OkaforSite manager, Wheatley RisePride in the Job award 2025. Your contact from reservation to the two year visit.
History
From a paddock in Cumnor to Wheatley Rise.
- 1986
Alan Ridgeway builds four houses on a paddock in Cumnor and sells them off plan.
- 1998
First conservation area scheme, at Watlington. Stone detailing becomes a house standard.
- 2011
Ellen Ridgeway takes over land buying. The company settles on schemes of 25 to 90 homes.
- 2019
Gas leaves the specification. Every home since has been heated by an air source pump.
- 2023
A five star housebuilder rating for the first time, held every year since.
- 2026
Wheatley Rise released. Home number 1,240 completes at Chinnor in the same month.
Recent schemes
Where our last 190 homes went.
Sold out in nine months. Two courtyards on a former haulage yard.
Our first all electric scheme. EPC A across every plot.
Stone from the Burford quarry, matched to the terrace opposite.
A dairy conversion with new houses behind, in a conservation area.
Ask us anything about the build.
Ellen and Marcus answer specification and programme questions directly, usually the same day.