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The Case for a new Hertfordshire Village WELWYN HATFIELD BOROUGH COUNCIL LOCAL PLAN CONSULTATION 23 JANUARY- 19 MARCH 2015 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION: THE ENGLISH VILLAGE 4 SECTION 1: THE HISTORY AND EVOLUTION OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE 6 SECTION 2: THE IDEALISATION OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE 13 SECTION 3: PLANNING POLICY AND THE ENGLISH VILLAGE 17 APPENDIX 1: HERTFORDSHIRE VILLAGES TODAY 28 APPENDIX 2: ENGLISH MODEL VILLAGES 35 APPENDIX 3: SCOTTISH MODEL VILLAGE 54 INTRODUCTION Although close to London, Hertfordshire still enjoys significant and types of village and how they have provided a variety of Hertfordshire has a rich tradition of creative town and country they have developed. A village will typically fall into one of the areas of predominantly rural landscape character. The landscape different responses to these fundamental aims and objectives. planning including two of the most important garden cities. following three categories: the organic village characterised of Hertfordshire is naturally friendly, green and gently rolling. Hertfordshire also can also draw upon its experiences of the by incremental growth; the estate village laid out by private These rural areas are not just characterised by the natural The 21st Century has brought new pressures on housing New Towns – Stevenage, Hatfield and Hemel Hempstead are landowners and; the industrial village planned and executed landscape but also a whole series of villages. In many cases numbers, a fresh debate about green belt and how best to now all mature settlements. In all cases there were lessons to for a new elite, the wealthy entrepreneur. Current planning these are typical of archetypal English villages. accommodate new development. In rural areas the housing be learnt but throughout the twentieth century Hertfordshire policy in Britain is evaluated with reference to the village. The crisis can be particularly acute – in 2005 the Office of consistently led the way with new creative thinking. reader will observe that the terms ‘English’ and ‘British’ are The British village occupies a special place in the heart of the National Statistics predicted the rural population to increase used interchangeably in this document. This is because although nation and is a key characteristic of the countryside. A recent by 16 per cent by 2028, compared to 9 per cent in urban The 2008 document entitled ‘ Hertfordshire Guide to Growth the history of villages began in England, and the rural villages survey conducted by Country Life magazine reported that 80 areas. Due to planning regulation and changing patterns of – how should the County Grow?’ published by the University of middle England evoke the most redolent examples of the per cent of respondents still wanted to live in a rural village or commercial development, however, no settlements which are of Hertfordshire sought to re-ignite this creative spirit and village type in this country, examples of village development countryside dwelling, whilst only 20 per cent of the population recognisable as true villages have been built for many years. proposed a variety of alternative scenarios which could deliver in Scotland also played an important role in the history of the actually managed to do so. Beauty, fresh air, tranquillity, Planning policy in England, rather than continuing the rich additional growth for the County. development of the village type. cleanliness and friendliness were all cited by Country Life tradition of village development, has for nearly 70 years placed readers as major draws to the countryside. Popular perception increasing pressure on the village. Many settlements have been Well planned urban extensions can of course deliver additional Finally, one cannot fail to note the variety in terms of in shape continue to support the views that rural life offers more space, steadily compromised by a lack of structural support, and by housing and employment for our major settlements. Should, and size of villages. Small villages tend to be less than 750 less crime and better produce. Within Hertfordshire, one only the accretion of poorly considered developments that have however we not explore other alternatives? There is a popular dwellings and have limited facilities. Villages of 1,000- 3,000 has to look at the popularity of such well-loved villages as undermined the qualities that make villages special –community, call for a new Garden City within Hertfordshire to remove dwellings tend to have greater facilities and oftenare able to Ashwell, Aldbury, Essendon, Kimpton or Much Hadham (to local identity, human scale, and space. pressure from many of our existing towns. Whilst such a support a primary school. name but a few). development may, in time, provide an exciting way forward, Is the time therefore right to consider a new village as one of a should we not consider other alternatives as well? A well Whilst the village is held up as the epitome of Englishness and This rich tradition of English village architecture has often number of measured responses to providing adequate housing planned satellite village could deliver valuable new housing a timeless retreat from the relentless pressures of modern life, been created out of a desire to house workers, improve living supply? whilst satisfying demand for the rural idyll.The reduced scale of it must also be recognised as occupying an important position conditions and provide development which sits comfortably a village compared to that of a new town offers lesser impact as an essential part of the character of this country and its within the landscape. This document considers the evolution upon the landscape and perhaps critically, allows areas to be provision of housing. potentially assembled from single ownerships as opposed to complicated (and speculative) exercises in land assembly from Gascoyne Cecil Estates makes the case that it is time for policy multiple parties. makers to reconsider the village model as one of a number of delivery models which offer answers to the present housing In making the case for consideration of new villages this paper crisis. seeks to understand the development of the village in England, and in doing so to come to terms with the qualities that make it such a successful, tenacious and attractive settlement type. Firstly, a brief history of the English village is laid out, exploring the different types of village in England and how Whitwell 4 5 SECTION 1: THE HISTORY AND EVOLUTION OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE ORIGINS THE RURAL RevoLUTION: ORGANIC VILLAGE Although it was once widely believed that England’s first villages DEVELOPMENT were established by successive waves of Angles and Saxons At around the middle of the sixteenth century an era of rural in the fifth, sixth and seventh centuries, most historians and population growth and extensive rebuilding of villages began, archaeologists now agree that true villages (as opposed to lasting until the military and political turmoil brought by the hamlets or temporary homesteads) were created through a English Civil War (1642-1651). Tudor and Elizabethan villages process of gradual evolution over many centuries following the were larger and more complex than ever before, and for the Anglo-Saxon arrival, and that true villages did not become a first time, they were built to last. Featuring a rich variety of common feature of the rural landscape until the eleventh and regional and local building styles, the entire physical structure of twelfth centuries. villages – no longer just the church, the manor house and the tithe barn – became permanent features of the rural landscape. Throughout the Middle Ages rural settlement patterns were unstable, which tended to prevent widespread investment in The village developed organically in response to location, site large, permanent settlements. Events such as flooding, famine, conditions, aspect, slope, and perhaps most importantly of pestilence or military destruction, such as the catastrophic all, vernacular materials, such as the honey-colour limestone bubonic plague epidemic between 1348-50, caused villages to buildings of Cotswold villages like Stow-on-the-Wold and Wharram Percy, North Yorkshire (9th century) move, or even disappear. A fresh wave of village depopulation Lower Slaughter, or the granite and slate of the traditional and desertion followed between c.1450-1550, when large-scale Cornish dwellings found in Mevagissey EstAte VILLAGes: PLAnneD settLEMents IN THE 18TH AND their estates for a number of reasons, which were at once enclosures for commercial sheep and cattle farming and the and Polperro. It was during this long golden age of vernacular 19TH centURIes commercial, philanthropic and private in purpose. The stimuli land-grab that followed the Dissolution of the Monasteries saw craftsmanship, or ‘rural revolution’, The outbreak of the English Civil War (1642-1651), and the for the production of planned villages included: the destruction of between 500-1,000 villages and hamlets. with its widespread rebuilding of cottages and yeomen’s political and socio-economic turmoil that followed, led to farmsteads, growth of squatter settlements and restyling of a hiatus in the development of villages across the country. Social responsibility The deserted village of Wharram Percy, which survives only manor houses, that a definite starting point in the history of However, the following century saw prosperity in England (now Planned estate villages such as those at Selworthy in Somerset through a ruined church and marks in surrounding fields, village England (in terms of what can be seen in the landscape unified with Scotland), which in turn led to one of the most (1828) and Englefield in Berkshire (late 19th century) and is typical of the medieval village in England. First settled in today) can be found. It was at this point that the concept of the significant series of new, planned settlements across Great were constructed as a means for local landowners to prehistoric times, Wharram Percy flourished between the 12th English village – a rural idyll laden with nostalgia and tradition – Britain.

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