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. provide philanthropic support to the working class. During and the 14th centuries, before final abandonment in about truly emerged. the nineteenth century charity and philanthropy became 1500 following the introduction of sheep farming by the local The Georgian Period (1714-1830) witnessed a total increasingly popular, particularly to alleviate the unpleasant landowner. The outlines of 30 medieval houses are preserved, as The organic village type is the most prevalent across the UK. reorganisation of the housing system in both England and conditions in which many of the poor lived. Lacking basic are marks that indicate two water mills and a pair of Norman As one might expect, this type demonstrates the steady growth Scotland, which saw the disappearance of old farms and sanitation and crippled by overcrowding, existing housing for manor houses. of a settlement over the centuries, not governed by masterplan hamlets, the enclosure of land, the emergence of capitalist the poor decreased life expectancy, lowered productivity, and or estate manager. This is not to say that organic villages lack farmers and the resettlement of the population in villages, both caused widespread misery. Furthermore, without the safety The modern town of Stony Stratford in Buckinghamshire, today organisation of any kind. Indeed, many of the most beautiful organic and planned. Farming across Britain was revolutionised, net of a universal welfare state, retirees and the sick enjoyed a busy, picturesque market town, is a medieval success story. and highly regarded villages in England are built around the which meant that although fewer people lived and worked on no housing security – a major incentive for the production Although absent from the Domesday Book (1085/87), the site village green, or the length of a high street (See Case Study 1: farms, their productivity increased. This would have a significant of planned estate villages was to cater to this demographic. of Stony Stratford had been occupied under Roman Britain. Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire). knock-on effect on the English village, as landowners created The construction of estate villages was not driven solely by The village clearly grew in the twelfth century, for in 1194 settlements to house the population no longer required to generosity, as the landlord stood to make some return on his Stony Stratford was granted a market charter and had become work the land. social investment. a market town, boasting two churches, a market square and a Landowners were motivated to create planned villages on village green.

6 7 This principle of philanthropic intention with capitalist return Scottish Estate Villages came to be known as ‘five per cent philanthropy’. In addition, The eighteenth-century Scottish estate villages were developed many landowners also adopted a paternalistic attitude to the in response to and to assist a revolution in the economy of the development of model villages, and could impose their own estate and of the nation – they were expected to provide a values, such as teetotalism, upon their tenants. completely new framework for human life in the countryside. Each village was planned with social, economic and architectural Commercial gain concerns firmly in mind, with the aesthetic appearance of the With the reorganisation of farming in England into a much village considered street-by-street and house-to-house. In more efficient industry, landowners recognised that the people Scotland, houses were built from vernacular materials (free- who formerly worked the land would need new occupation. stone, with mostly tiled or slated roofs) and to two or three Thus, when they considered building a new village, landowners storeys. were aware that certain advantages could accrue – a village could provide a market for selling surplus produce, and it could Many of the villages had notable architects, such as William generate employment for the tenants who might otherwise Adams at Inveraray (1772-1800) and Thomas Telford at Ullapool have found themselves thrown out of a district due to (1788). In the simplest case, the basic plan was of two rows enclosure and the abandonment of joint tenancies. It was also of houses facing each other across a wide road or a green, widely recognised that happier, healthier workers were likely to or in a cross formation with a green or marketplace where Saltaire, near Bradford be more productive. Given that local landowner would employ they met (much like many ‘organic’ villages had developed). the majority of those housed in estate villages, such villages Smaller parallel streets branched off the principal streets to These model villages were often built in vernacular styles, using inside and outside the factory. The purpose was to provide all provided a mutually beneficent situation for both tenant and form a grid. The houses frequently opened directly onto the traditional materials, just as the older, ‘organic’, cottages had the workers with a home, complete with a vegetable garden, landlord. pavement to avoid the occupants leaving their rubbish in front been. In many cases, a Georgian admiration for the picturesque and to furnish all the services necessary to their life: a church, of the house, though gardens were provided at the rear. The saw the construction of idealised, landscaped cottages. a school, a hospital, a community centre, a theatre, public baths Reputation and aesthetic concern aesthetic appearance of the new village would be complimented Selworthy, built near Minehead in Somerset in 1823 by local and others. And with better living conditions it was hoped The development of an estate was symbolic of the power by the delivery of social and community amenities, such as the landowner Sir Thomas Acland, is a famous example of this that factory efficiency would also increase. Today the villages of a wealthy landowner to influence the landscape they market place or green. A common provision was that of an tendency towards the picturesque. are considered highly pleasant and popular places to live, owned, shaping the growth of rural settlement through their inn. Landowners might also provide a church, a courthouse or demonstrating their enduring success (even if the residents are involvement in the development of agricultural England. These a school (See Case Studies 2 and 3: Inveraray, Argyll and Port Industry: planned villages on an industrial scale no longer solely factory workers). newly constructed villages were often built to uniform designs, Ellen, Islay). By the mid-nineteenth century the concept of planned new and made from locally sourced materials. They were often settlements was firmly established and well practiced. To keep arranged in symmetrical patterns with distinctive planned up with the country’s industrial growth new model villages English estate villages landscaping, in contrast to the majority of rural settlements In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries many English were conceived on a larger scale and with a new purpose, the being the product of organic development. landowners completely rebuilt many villages on their estates, housing of factory workers. The villages were to be catalysts for driven by social responsibility and commercial awareness, as improving both the economy and the wellbeing of the people. In some cases the development of planned villages was caused well as their own needs. Some wanted to re-site villages outside These motives remained strong in the late nineteenth century. by the popularity of landscaped parkland, of the sort designed a newly landscaped park (a notable example being Milton There are three classic examples of philanthropic, planned by Capability Brown. The planned village of Milton Abbas, for Abbas, created by the 1st Earl of Dorchester in 1780), and in towns that date from the later nineteenth century in the UK: example, was laid out by Brown for the 1st Earl of Dorchester other cases villages were created with a desire to improve the Saltaire, Bournville and Port Sunlight. in 1780 to rehouse those whose homes had been demolished local setting and conditions for tenants (such as at Englefield, This was the epoch of rich enlightened industrialists, to make way for new sweeping hills, lakes and groves. Berkshire, Selworthy, Somerset, Snelston, Derbyshire and Old proprietors and philanthropists who, inspired by social doctrine, Warden, Bedfordshire). wished to satisfy their workers’ needs, taking care of their lives

8 9 Bournville promotional poster William Ratcliffe, Hampstead Garden Suburb from Willifield Way, c. 1914

th that was becoming increasingly common across the country. Early 20 -century planned villages Whiteley Village, for example, offered a highly formalised The construction of new towns and villages continued into the solution, providing accommodation for over 300 residents in a 20th century, with garden villages or suburbs being built alongside 23-acre, octagonal village. the large communities at Letchworth and Welwyn Garden Cities. Inspired by the precedent set by model villages such as Port The construction of new planned settlements in the early 20th Sunlight (the first effective large-scale integration of 19th-century century was widespread and successful. In Paradise Planned – The social reform with picturesque town design), and the much- garden suburb and the modern city (2013), Robert Stern, David vaunted precedent of Hampstead Garden Suburb (1907), estates Fishman and Jacob Tilove document 55 garden suburbs, villages such as Whiteley Village, Surrey, or Garden Village, Kingston-Upon- and estates built in Great Britain and Ireland between 1900 and Hull, were laid out along thorough principles of both physical and 1940. Few have been built since. Thus during this period the social planning. concept of a viable stand-alone village was reliably confirmed.

Hampstead unleashed what might be described as a golden age for English garden village design, inspiring developers, including property owners, enlightened capitalists, aristocratic landowners and public agencies such as the London County Council to propose villages and suburbs intended to cater to the needs of both the middle and working classes.

These settlements were characterised by low development densities, high-quality materials and good design, intended to counter the perceived haphazard and unplanned development Port Sunlight, the Wirral

10 11 SECTION 2: THE IDEALISATION OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

The village has been an essential part of rural life in England quaint villages. The rural ideal is intimately tied to a feeling for for roughly 500 years. In addition to its functional qualities, history, to an antipathy towards the urban, and to the idea of village life has become engendered with an almost mythic English nationhood. status within the cultural imagination of Great Britain. This has happened through a centuries-long ideological process, The cultural and social criticism of the great Victorian through which an image of the English village has become polymaths, such as Matthew Arnold, John Ruskin and William ingrained with national identity as an antidote or escape from Morris, further inculcated the ideal of the English village in the the realities of the industrial, and post-industrial, environment. British cultural imagination. They ascribed to the Industrial Revolution the responsibility for the social and cultural woes The idealisation of the English village is part and parcel of of contemporary life, and directly or indirectly lauded the a general affection amongst the population for all things rural village as a natural and unspoilt antidote to the cultural rural, encouraged by a nostalgic longing for an Arcadian malaise they perceived. Arnold’s poetry, for example, prefers past, in which countryside communities were at one with the peace and permanence of natural scenery in contrast with the landscape and its people. This tendency to idealise the the ceaseless change of human things. His descriptions are countryside has its roots in the European pastoral tradition, often picturesque, and marked by striking natural similes. stretching back over many centuries and expressed in poems, literature and art. The pastoral became extremely popular In 1871, Ruskin founded the Guild of St George, a Masterplan drawing for Seaside, Florida (1981) with the blossoming of the English Romantic movement in the communitarian venture with the aim to acquire land and

th to those that drove the construction of planned villages in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, which formed many of through labour, wind and water power, to bring it into useful Late 20 -century planned villages past. the current popular ideas about landscape. production – Ruskin wished to show that contemporary In the last 20 years the UK has witnessed new approached to life could still be enjoyed in the countryside, with land being town expansion, inspired by the New Urbanism movement, It is not within the capability of the open market to deliver Since the Industrial Revolution, in particular, the working farmed traditionally. Six years previously, in Sesame and Lilies which has reflected careful planning, large-scale public well-made villages comparable to the high quality of the estate countryside has had a picturesque filter imposed upon it. (1865), Ruskin had even called for what amounted to the consultation and sensitivity to environmental and community settlements of generations gone. Private landowners and The immensely popular landscape paintings of artists such as Garden City, where new houses, in groups of limited extent issues. However, there has been no parallel resurgence in leaders of industry have historically created planned villages John Constable and Humphry Repton powerfully influenced within walls, would combine elements of the town and the development of planned villages, arguably as a result of of calibre, such as those described in the case studies laid out their viewers, who often shaped the landscape in imitation of country. restrictive planning policy and an atmosphere of cultural in this report, and this private patronage will be looked upon the artists’ visions. Rejecting the realities of industrialisation resistance inspired by the legacy of Greenfield development in to provide the next generation of model villages. Examples and the unfavourable conditions of urban life, landscape William Morris, the most ardently political of the three, was a the previous decades. of failed settlements, such as New Ash Green, demonstrate painters nurtured an aesthetic taste for nature, just as William key figure (alongside Ruskin) in the development of the Arts the underperformance of public/private partnerships in the Wordsworth was writing his lyrical ballads, the Brontës were and Crafts Movement. The Movement stood for traditional creation of new planned settlements (See Case Studies 14–15). setting their novels on the moors of West Yorkshire, and Jane craftsmanship, and advocated economic and social reform in Today, the motivation for the construction of planned villages Austen was describing the country parklands and houses of reaction to industrialisation and the deleterious influence they is not unsanitary conditions, massive overcrowding or the southern England. Come George Eliot’s Silas Marner (1861) or perceived in urban living. lack of a welfare state. Rather, planned villages are now put Middlemarch (1874), the rural village community was deeply Contemporary historians tend to agree that rapid forward as an alternative to the undersupply of housing across instilled in the nation’s cultural consciousness at a time when modernisation and myths about that national past go hand the country, which for decades has steadily worsened before the Industrial Revolution was transforming Britain at a greater in hand. They tend to assume that both elites and the public reaching its current crisis point. A problem just acute as those and more invasive rate. These authors’ works have sold in tend to turn to stories about an essential national character that motivated the creation of planned villages in years passed, their millions, reflecting the nation’s preferred view of history enduring through the ages in order to warrant the rapid the lack of housing in England has dramatically altered the – they are usually set in the countryside, in stately homes or political, social and economic changes of the nineteenth century. social and economic landscape of the country and created an imbalance in the housing market of comparable proportions

12 13 John Constable, Dedham Mill, 1820

GWR Poster - Totnes (c.1930)

As a result of the agricultural depression and a renewed burst ‘out of the way corner’, as he described Kelmscott, where of endogenous growth in the towns, Britain as a whole had by ‘people built Gothic till the beginning or middle of last century’. 1900 reached its present-day level of around 80 per cent of the population living in urban areas, a level that even Germany Although the influence of the Arts and Crafts Movement, or the reached only in the 1960s. By this point, the urban condition works of Ruskin and Arnold, only truly penetrated the educated was accepted as permanent and normal. classes, it was during World War One that the romanticised virtues of rural England and its villages were truly confirmed Among the romantic socialist followers of Morris and the Arts as a metaphor for national identity. Not only did these virtues and Crafts Movement, the countryside acquired a talismanic continue to provide a perfect antidote for the ugliness and significance as everything that contemporary England was dehumanisation of urban industrialism, they also served as a not, but yet might be. This was, of course, a false dichotomy, psychological comfort against class struggle and military threat. as the real countryside of the present – depopulated, subject to speculative development and increasingly standardised into During the first half of the twentieth century, the idealised large, homogenous tracts – was not in fact as idyllic as might be image of the countryside was further democratised through supposed. Morris’s ideal was of the old English countryside of the growing, and cheapening, output of the publishing business. the fifteenth century, and it is significant that he had to retreat Travel books about England were extremely popular, and they to what was then a remote part of Oxfordshire to find it – an rose in parallel with a number of new organisations, including Sir Humphry Repton’s plan for Stoneleigh Abbey

14 15 SECTION 3: PLANNING POLICY AND THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

the Council for the Protection of Rural England (1926), the and in making these arguments accessible through a series of The under-provision of housing has been a problem endemic in But planning policy and its application has failed to provide the Ramblers’ Association (1935) and the Youth Hotel Association, polemical books. ‘The English village’, he wrote in The Anatomy England for decades. Over the next 20 years, to keep pace with circumstances in which the housing industry can thrive. The which, along with older groups such as the National Trust of a Village (1946), ‘has long occupied a central place in the increasing housing need, 240,000 new homes will need to be results have been dramatic, with an inflated housing market (1895), stimulated the public’s interest in preserving rural affections and pride of our own people, countrymen and built in England each year, plus another 60,000 a year to address bound by under provision. Between 1999/00 and 2007/08 there villages and the surrounding countryside. townsmen alike. It has been accepted too… as a characteristic the backlog that has steadily accrued. In reality, only a third of was an explosion in house prices (173 per cent) and mortgage and attractive product of the English way of life’. Sharp this is being delivered. Between 1997 and 2007, an average of credit (182 per cent) – yet housing completions in the private An article published in The Spectator on 20 July 1912 perfectly respected the historic way of life encapsulated by the ideal of just 148,000 new homes were provided each year – in no year sector increased by less than 17 per cent (124,470 to 145,450). illustrates the Arcadian qualities the English village was ascribed. the English village, but believed that the village should be open did it come close to 200,000 – and in 2014 only 118,000 were Not only that, but the overall floor space in new builds shrank Entitled ‘In Quest of an English Village’, the article advocated a to change and development: built. To meet demand, upwards of a million more homes will to the third lowest in the 28 EU countries, better only than scheme ‘for acquiring an unspoilt English village, which should need to be delivered over the next decade beyond what recent Romania and Italy. Given this, the concept of the village is never be preserved in its original state as a standing record of the ‘A study of the principles of design, whether they were delivery rates have achieved in order to meet the needs of the contemplated. rapidly passing beauty of the countryside’. It was proposed that conscious or unconscious, which have given our English next generation. the National Trust acquire ‘some beautiful old English village’, villages their beauty, their charm and their character, ‘not yet spoiled by the addition of the typical modern jerry- may elucidate principles that will be useful in our new built cottage… and its entire lack of artistic design’. The article, building’. abundant with elegiac and nostalgic language, stated: Presaging the advent of design codes and planning principles ‘Our English Villages, with their supreme sense of peace defined by vernacular architecture, Sharp firmly believed that and homeliness, with their gardens glowing from crocuses the rural English village could provide a model for solving the of March to the cluster-roses and the lilies midsummer, problems faced by housing and development in mid-twentieth- with their roofs set among apple-blossom and century England. immemorial elms, are part of our best national heritage. It is our duty to keep such a heritage for those that come after us, and to hand it on untouched and unspoilt.’

The vast, predominantly middle-class appetite for ‘discovering’ and learning about this ‘real’ England was fed by a plethora of rural literature, landscape painting, radio broadcasts and films on countryside life, such as the The Spectator article quoted at length above. In all of this, the economic and social realities – long-term agricultural depression, the persistent decline of centuries-old village crafts and the seemingly unstoppable depopulation of countless villages – was given scant attention. This idealisation of the countryside went largely unchallenged in the later twentieth century. A major and early proponent was Thomas Sharp, a key individual in town planning in the mid-twentieth century. He was a key figure in defining thinking about the forms that town and countryside should take, in reconciling existing and valued character with modernity, Urban extensions, Garden Cities and New Towns have propagated. Never the village.

16 17 How has planning policy and practice halted the The last major pre-war planning measure was the Restriction development of the English village? of Ribbon Development Act 1935. Designed to prevent the Many of the current housing and planning problems in further sprawl of towns and cities across the countryside, the rural England are rooted in the planning policy introduced Act legislated against linear, incremental development alongside incrementally throughout the twentieth century, which failed classified roads at the edges of settlements. Such attenuated to address problems specific to villages and rural settlements building had been one of the most pronounced, and in many ways in favour of the treatment of planning in the town or the city. undesirable, features of construction in Britain after 1918. By The former were seen to be part of the agricultural landscape, spreading development out along road frontages, not having to which was both protected from development to prevent build new roads or drains, the scale of impact per new dwelling further intrusion into the countryside, and heavily supported on local services was maximised. The provision of public services economically by agricultural subsidies. The result was the to this linear form was inefficient, and markedly more expensive beginning of a rural policy of urban containment, with growth than providing services, including schools and public health, to restricted mainly to small council housing estates on the edge of more concentrated forms of development. the village. New Towns were tasked with housing the bulk of the new population. However, the Act was difficult to enforce, and local authorities had not been stringent in their application of its controls. Such Pre-New Towns programme - how was development restricted? feeble policy meant that any efforts by central government to The interwar period witnessed the highest ever rate of control planning and development across Great Britain ultimately An example of ribbon development, the antithesis of good rural planning. construction of homes in Britain, the majority of which was ended in failure. At the end of 1941, only a fraction of the land uncontrolled and under-regulated development on green field in Great Britain was covered by planning schemes, and it was sites within striking distance of major towns and cities across possible for the Minister of Town and Country Planning to The policy has been attacked as too rigid in the face of new How did this happen? the country. With the rise of the motorcar transport was cheap, state, in 1947, that ‘more damage has been done, both to our urban and environmental challenges. In particular, it has been and decades of agricultural depression had resulted in a surplus towns and to the countryside, through sporadic and ribbon claimed that areas of green belt can be of unremarkable Why is it that an apparently free market economy has of inexpensive farmland ripe for development. These conditions development since 1909, the date of the first Town and Country environmental quality, and may not be well managed nor constrained housing supply? Why are homes not being built made for ready and rapid expansion around established villages, Planning Act, than in any period preceding it’. provide the recreational opportunities originally envisaged. to meet demand and quality, and why is price not improved towns and cities. through competition? However, the Green Belt has contained unrestricted sprawl New Towns Act 1946 and led to the regulation of many urban areas. The majority of this glut in development took place outside Inspired in part by the failures of planning policy and the negative In essence, the current UK planning system is based on the of any robust control by planning legislation, as weak planning impact it had had across England, and also stimulated by the ever- In 1947, the Minister of Town and Country Planning Lewis Silkin 1947 Town and Country Planning Act. The 1947 Act was policies were unable to prevent unstructured growth. For growing housing requirements in England (accentuated by the stated that the purpose of town and country planning was created in response to the numerous challenges faced in example, the first town and country planning policy, the 1909 widespread destruction felt throughout the Second World War), ‘to secure a proper balance between the competing demands England post-World War Two – inequality, a failing welfare House and Town Planning Act, permitted (but did not require) the New Towns Act 1946 allowed the government to designate, for land, so that all the land of the country is used in the best state, unemployment, environmental concern, agricultural local authorities to prepare plans for new suburban areas; acquire and develop sites for the construction of new towns. interests of the whole people’. Arguably, this noble goal requires th demands and the need for social improvement. built-up areas and open country were both excluded. Later, the On 19 October 1945, fresh from Labour’s convincing election a balance, and this balance has had a dramatic impact on the 1919 Housing, Town Planning, etc Act compelled towns with a victory, Town and Country Planning Minister Lewis Silkin nature, and sustainability, of the English village. One of the most tangible results of this policy was the population over 20,000 to prepare suburban planning schemes appointed a New Towns Committee. Its purpose was to: introduction of greenbelts into local town plans. The before 1st January 1926, although few of these schemes actually ‘…consider the general questions of the establishment, purpose of the greenbelt was to curtail urban development became operative. Subsequent Acts slowly granted more powers development, organisation and administration that will arise and to maintain open space around cities and towns in to planning authorities, but it was 1932 before the Town and in the promotion of New Towns in furtherance of a policy of which agriculture, forestry and outdoor leisure could Country Planning Act 1932 extended planning powers to almost planned decentralisation from congested urban areas; and in prevail. However, while preserving open space, the current all built-up and undeveloped urban and rural land (although rural accordance therewith to suggest guiding principles on which greenbelt policy has drawn some criticism in recent years. interests protested that ‘the Act regarded the countryside as a such Towns should be established and developed as self- mere appendage of the town’). contained and balanced communities for working and living’.

18 19 In order to create New Towns, industry and population cooperation (which failed) and the very best intentions failed to 15 new towns in the prosperous region around London, from congested areas would be systematically decamped to to provide an exemplary new village in the second half of the where housing demand was high but local planning was very sites at least 25 miles from the centre of London, or ten or twentieth century; although New Ash Green grew to become restrictive of developers. Each town would comprise around fifteen miles from the centre of other cities. This distance was an affluent and successful community, it did so as a commuter 5,000 dwellings, with social and physical infrastructure largely intended to ensure that the towns would be self-contained, town, not as a vibrant and sustainable village. provided by CDL. The concept was novel in twentieth century yet near enough to existing population centres to encourage Although no new towns have been formally designated since Britain, where new settlements had usually been developed people to move. Maximum population was set between 1970, several new towns (in the literal sense) have been built by philanthropic companies or by government agencies. CDL 30,000 and 60,000, and a protective greenbelt of agricultural on green field sites. Most notably perhaps at Cambourne in set about making ambitious planning applications across the land would surround each town. The goal was for a balanced southwest Cambridgeshire gained planning approval in the country with the intention of changing planning policy and community enjoying the latest architectural and engineering context of widespread rejection similar schemes and a system opening up the opportunity for the construction of new standards of layout, landscaping, communications, industry, which preferred to direct private development towards the settlements. Although the applications were unsuccessful, shops and social housing. The first New Town Designation peripheral expansion of existing towns and settlements. This CDL did create a policy opening for private sector new town th Order, for Stevenage, was issued on 11 November 1946; by was achieved through lengthy negotiation and careful planning, building. In 1988, the Department for the Environment issued a December 1949 eight New Towns had been designated. as well as a realistic attitude by the planning authorities to policy statement declaring that the need to provide additional housing in Cambridgeshire, ‘in a few cases it may be practicable to consider making However, the planned post-war new towns were unable to and a slight thaw in the institutional opposition to green field provision for new housing in the form of new settlements. contain the population growth of the 1950s and 1960s, and as development that had thwarted previous similar proposals. These might range in scale from moderate sized townships to a result many baby-boomers moved to live in smaller towns C. Willams-Ellis, England and the Octopus, 1928. small villages…’ and villages beyond London’s greenbelt (and elsewhere), often A savage manifesto against market-forced building and In the 1980s, despite an increase in political and cultural commuting back to their urban employment by car or by train. architecture. opposition to allocations of undeveloped land for housing, The principle of private new settlements was seized most Because of the strength and popularity of the greenbelt policy Britain’s biggest house builders formed a coalition with the energetically in Cambridgeshire, where rapid population and There was considerable opposition to the scheme, called New and the protection it afforded, and until 1970 (when the last hope of launching a privately initiated programme of ‘new employment growth coupled with rigid planning prohibition Ash Green, and planning permission was only granted following New Town, Central Lancashire, was designated) New Towns country towns’. Named Consortium Developments Ltd (CDL), around Cambridge had resulted in a severe housing shortage. a public enquiry in 1964. remained the primary solution to the country’s housing needs the group was established in 1983, intending to develop up So much so that in 1988, a County Structure Plan proposed and the English village was overlooked as a result. After 1970, New Ash Green was to consist of just 2,000 new houses built with demand for housing continuing and green belts continuing on 190 acres of green field land by a partnership between to confine development around existing settlements, urban private developers and the Greater London Council (GLC). infill and the reuse of brownfield sites became the development The intent was to build a range of houses, a quarter of which methods of choice. At around this point the British village would be occupied by GLC tenants. All houses were to back became a battleground between planning policy and market onto common land and pedestrian pathways and roads, in pressures. House prices surged as demand outstripped supply keeping with New Town practice, were to be kept apart. Offices, and growth was suppressed by planning authorities keen to studios, shops and light industry were to generate employment, prevent urban sprawl. and a community centre, library, church and school were to be created to encourage community spirit. Returning to Silkin, their point was to protect areas in attempt to maintain a balance. Green Belts restricted development In the event, the GLC withdrew and the scheme was not around towns and cities, requiring regeneration and New Towns completed in its original form – the size and density of the increase the supply through designation, which maintained development was increased, and less attention was given to the supply of housing.Despite the government’s emphasis design or the provision of public space. The development on the construction of New Towns between 1945 and 1970, of New Ash Green demonstrates how even extraordinary some attempts were undertaken to create new communities circumstances (a public enquiry), plans for public/private at smaller settlements, to varied success. At Ash, for example, on the North Downs in Kent, it was proposed to build a new village on land that had been designated for the Green Belt. Shopping precinct, New Ash Green 20 21 that the local demand for 18,000 houses could best be met Local Planning Authority. and recommendations for future best practice), development planning policy is that is is centralised and Brownfield policy by a pair of new towns located somewhere to the north of Central to the Cambourne appeal was its promise to be an in the countryside has for the most part been highly managed, must apply to all areas. the city. Although this did not occur, the county’s receptive idyllic modern village, where families could get the best of both with emphasis placed on protecting valued landscape and attitude to the creation of new settlements in Cambridgeshire worlds – a place in the country with urban amenities. This environmental features. This has not prevented all development Although it is logical to seek to develop Brownfield sites in eventually led, after five years of wrangling, to the construction claim recycled the promise of the Garden City movement, and (as the 1980s relaxation of planning rules, which allowed for large towns and cities, there are fewer Brownfield sites available of Cambourne. was a persuasive component of the planning application. The a great deal of modest development in many communities, for construction in rural areas, which automatically prejudices consensus is that much of the masterplan has been achieved. demonstrated), but it has significantly limited it, especially in against their development. In September 1992, a much-revised application for Monkfield Cambourne is not, however, either in terms of size or character, smaller rural villages and hamlets. Although there is strong Park Village (later to be renamed Cambourne) was submitted. a village. Nor is it a small town. It is in fact a hybrid, an ‘exurb’, policy to prevent development in rural communities, there has Narrow approach to sustainability On 8 December 1993, outline planning consent was granted. a large housing estate with some of the character of a village been very little produced to offer structured guidance to good In March 2012, the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition A Master Plan and Design Guide by Terry Farrell and Partners and some of the amenities of a town. At Cambourne, the built development in the countryside. government introduced some of the latest reforms to the was approved in 1996, and work started on site in June 1998, environment is not representative of a village’s architecture UK planning system. Then-Minister for Planning Greg Clark led by a developer consortium comprising Bovis, Bryant and or density and some would argue that the settlement feels A pertinent example is the current preference for new reiterated reform priorities from 2004 when he stated that ‘the George Wimpey. disconnected from other local villages and towns. However, development to Brownfield land has had an adverse effect purpose of planning [was] the help achieve it can be argued that Cambourne, offers some lessons and on rural areas. In 1999 Urban Task Force, a group founded sustainable development’. He also reflected Lewis Silkin’s ideals The 1994 planning permission allowed for the creation of a perhaps the position adopted by the Department of the by Richard Rogers Partnership to provide guidance for when he stated that ‘it is about positive growth – making ‘new settlement comprising up to 3,000 dwellings and 10 Environment in 1988 should be re-considered in the context of development in England, published a report promoting quality economic, environmental and social progress for this and per cent reserve; local centre comprising shops, community the current Welwyn Hatfield Local Plan process. design, brownfield development and higher densities. This future generations’. Such environmental concerns are laudable facilities, public houses, two primary schools, business park, led to a new target being set requiring 60 per cent of new and should remain central to new development. However, the public open space, landscaping and recreational uses; drainage How is planning policy failing the village, and development to be on Brownfield sites, meaning that local current methods have implications for the English village. infrastructure; highways infrastructure including dualling of the what can be done to address it? authorities had to focus on opportunities for redevelopment A45 on the site frontage, the Caxton By-pass and formation Lack of specific, detailed policy for rural development that entailed regenerating areas that had formerly been settled. As the 2008 Taylor Review of Rural Economy and Affordable Housing of site access; associated and ancillary development’, on the Since the 1942 Scott Report (a lengthy review of the complex It also meant that the green belt and open space were more noted, many small rural settlements that lack certain services requisite that a Master Plan was submitted and approved by the changes felt by agricultural society in rural England, and plans protected, helping to restrict urban sprawl. The nature of UK are written off as unsustainable. This is usually attributed to

Cambourne, Cambridgeshire Sequential development at Basildon, Essex 22 23 concerns that distributed rural communities will require the use In 2008, the University of Hertfordshire hosted a ‘ of more resources than larger developments, for the provision Hertfordshire Charrette’. The Charrette provided a chance for of infrastructure and services, and for the increased car-use that a diverse group of residents and professionals to convene and results from rural living. There is a widespread assumption that discuss the challenges faced by the County. Participants were because smaller rural communities may have little or no services, offered the opportunity to work directly with a design team in shops, or public transport of their own they are fundamentally developing sustainable growth strategies for Hertfordshire. This unstable – and therefore not suitable for development on the exercise produced six growth scenarios by which the County grounds of an implied greater need to commute and travel by might accommodate growth, critiqued existing settlements and car to access services and employment. However, the Taylor offered opportunities for typical village and hamlet extensions. Review argued persuasively that planning policy should consider issues of sustainability in a balanced and long-term way. The One such scenario studied during the charrette process was impact planning could make in creating a sustainable village the opportunity to create new satellite villages. These villages, should be central to the planning process, rather than the it was proposed, should be separated from existing urban current circumstances in many of the villages in England. settlements by enforceable ‘green wedges’ of a size small enough to be willingly walked or cycled. These ‘wedges’ would Since the post-war period, although recent government serve to preserve nearby houses views, prevent sprawl and has claimed they are acting in the interests of sustainable allow access to open spaces by allowing for a green corridor development (influenced by the 1947 Town and Country between new settlements and the old. Planning Act), the purpose of planning has moved in favour of facilitating economic growth, often to the detriment of As ever, public transport was identified as playing an important environmental and social considerations. role. The satellite villages must be appropriately served and Symondshyde proposed indicative Masterplan solve the housing crisis. The report argued that the local planning development today. Those seeking to valiantly protect the ‘green should feature the amenities ordinarily required by residents on system, which bases most new development on building around and pleasant land’ of England’s rural history fail to realise that Options for better village development a daily basis; shops, offices and community gathering spaces be existing communities, is failing. In response, Policy Exchange this image of the English village is nothing more than a false idol. It can be argued that the future of the English village is under that a pub or sports facility. The most effective satellite villages proposed that each of the 353 councils in England should build threat. Planning policy presently fails to adequately support the would be those designed to connect to the thoroughfare one garden village of 3,000 homes. This would provide more A new, mature and reasoned approach to English village planning sympathetic development of existing villages and it has similarly networks of existing towns with direct routes between the than 1 million new homes, and offer an alternative to edge-of- must become mainstream, rather than radical. The current prevented the growth of truly new independent settlements new and old centres for pedestrians, cyclists and buses. town development, which ‘ramps up local opposition to new system is failing, and as a country we stand to lose both the in rural England, halting a trend that has been prevalent across development and makes it ever more politically toxic for local ideal, and the reality, of rural village life. the United Kingdom for centuries. Much of current policy and Gascoyne Cecil Estates strongly concurs with many of the authorities and politicians’. opposition to development is predicated on the assumption outcomes from the Hertfordshire Charrette and have offered As seen in Appendix 1 Hertfordshire has some excellent that the quality of many modern developments fails to meet a variety of solutions to the question of new housing and The report proposed the revision of the New Towns Act (1946) examples of the English village. It is also acknowledged that people’s expectations. New development, does not however development within their formal representations to the to give local authorities the Act’s powers to designate new due to the presence of the Green Belt a solution to meet the have to be bad and The English village could continue to Welwyn Hatfield Local Plan. Rather than favouring any one garden villages, typically consisting of up to 3,000 homes, as part housing target in Wewlyn Hatfield is more challenging. For this flourish if rural policies are developed sensitively to address scenario however, Gascoyne Cecil Estates believe that a of their local plans. The villages would be managed by locally led reason it is proposed that alternative solutions for development local circumstances. balanced response will be required in order to address present delivery agents, which would be charged with masterplanning are explored including the provision of new satellite villages as development pressures. Put simply it is not believed that there and the setting of design quality standards, and would ensure a envisaged at the Hertfordshire charrette. is a single panacea to future growth. Development should mix of housing provision in the new settlement. thus be carefully planned and achieved through a variety of appropriate delivery models. Long term planning, with awareness that growth and change is inevitable, is an essential requisite for good practice in the Stimulated by the country’s housing crisis, some options for development of villages. Lessons from history have shown that better village development are now being explored, and indeed many of the most-loved English villages are the product of are gaining traction. In February 2015, the think tank Policy planned settlements in open countryside, and yet policy makers Exchange published Garden Villages - empowering localism to and popular opinion is almost universally opposed to such 24 25 Symondshyde proposed indicative Masterplan

Gascoyne Cecil Estates are actively promoting the development of a new model village north west of Hatfield.

A new village provides a unique opportunity to comprehensively plan new housing, necessary supporting infrastructure, and to create a sustainable form of development for enjoyment by future generations. Furthermore, Symondshyde’s location, with good potential for connections to the urban area of Hatfield, and also close to Welwyn Garden City, makes this one of the most sustainable locations for new development in the Borough. The preservation of a green corridor between the proposed village and the urban area also ensures that views and open space can be retained and enjoyed by residents of both settlements. The function of the Green Belt is thus preserved.

The wider benefits accruing from the creation of a Green Corridor offer an exciting opportunity to provide sustainable linkages between the existing village settlements of Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield.

Gascoyne Cecil Estates commend this vision and would welcome the opportunity to engage with Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council and the local community in the preparation of the new Local Plan.

Hertfordshire countryside

26 27 APPENDIX 1: HERTFORDSHIRE VILLAGES CASE STUDY 1: ASHWELL

In 1999, the Town and Country Planning Association urban centres. Given that the Garden City movement (TCPA) produced a report of their inquiry into the future sought to balance urban living with an appreciation of of planning in the UK. Although the report was published urban life, Hertfordshire was well situated. Similarly, over 15 years ago, it remains relevant to the debate when New Towns sought to draw people from the city, surrounding the future of planning in this country. A they also needed to remain close enough to establish significant message was the importance of foregrounding economic relationships with London. Spanning an area an awareness of the interconnected, multi-tiered and of 634 square miles, Hertfordshire also offered the constantly shifting environment in which planning in space to accommodate these new settlements. Sitting England takes place. Historically, the report argued, there above London, Hertfordshire contains many key routes has been a tendency to conceptualise places – be they between the capital and the major cities of the Midlands villages, towns, cities or counties – as closed systems, and the North. Major road and rail networks cross the disregarding the interdependency between locations and county, and the importance of this infrastructure in the the implications this might have on planning practice. establishment of new villages, towns and cities should not Instead, planning in the future should enable locate needs be underestimated. and top-down priorities to be reconciled – it is no longer appropriate to assume that a single national policy is able Many sources concur that the requirement for the to meet the different needs of the various regions and construction of new housing in England has mounted localities across the country. to critical levels, and forced the debate on the future of such restrictions in their current forms. In this context is This devolved, subsidiary approach should inform planning it instructive to look at current villages in the county for on all scales across the UK, with stronger regional the contribution they make to the networked settlement identities and regional agencies developing new policies infrastructure across the county. and strategies to provide development plans that are appropriate to local needs. In Hertfordshire, this approach The following six – Ashwell, Aldbury, Essendon, Much has particular merit, because much of the county is Hadham, Welwyn and Codicote - have been considered to restricted by planning policy in a manner unlike anywhere this end. 724 Units else in the UK; when much of the undeveloped land in 1667 Residents Hertfordshire was designated green belt in 1971, future development in the country was immediately bound together, and curtailed.

Before 1971 however, Hertfordshire had enjoyed over seven decades as the site of some of the most innovative instances of town and village planning ever attempted. A set of conditions made this possible, and in their combination Hertfordshire was able to function as an incubator for novel planned settlements in the UK. Firstly, the county benefited from its location. Within striking distance of London, Hertfordshire was well placed to offer capacity to house the burgeoning populations of existing

28 29 CASE STUDY 2: ALDBURY CASE STUDY 3: ESSENDON

30 31 CASE STUDY 4: MUCH HADHAM CASE STUDY 5: WELWYN

MUCH HADHAM

32 33 CASE STUDY: CODICOTE APPENDIX 2: ENGLISH MODEL VILLAGES

34 35 Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire Location The Cotswolds, Gloucestershire Village type Organic Population (2011) 3,676 Households unknown Density 2,414.7 inhabitants/km2

Bourton-on-the-Water is a village and civil parish in construction of larger, better roads. In the 1930s a group of Gloucestershire, England, within the Cotswolds Area of houses was built by the Rural District Council (RDC) north- Outstanding Natural Beauty. The village is one of the most west of the village, and another estate was later built beside the popular tourist attractions in the Cotswolds. Its centre is station. After World War Two many more houses were built, picturesque, with ornamental low stone bridges spanning by the RDC and by private developers, along the road leading the clear waters of the River Windrush, and a broad village southeast from the village. green flanked by many fine Cotswold-stone building. Bourton is a large village centred on the historic core, a straight high As elsewhere in England, the late-19th century saw a decline in street descending from the church to the north alongside the agricultural trades at Bourton. This decline was balanced the Windrush, from which residential roads branch. Several and perhaps outweighed by an expansion of the building trades; twentieth-century medium-to-high density housing estates even more important was the growth of the tourist trade, and some light-industry extend to its north and west. accompanied by an increase in road traffic. The attractions Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire Despite its modern additions, the village is the epitome of to the tourist have also drawn numbers of people seeking Cotswolds charm; the historic core has been protected as a retirement and seclusion, and Bourton has overtaken other UK Conservation Area and English Heritage designates 117 local centres (such as Stow-on-the-Wold and Northleach, both buildings within Bourton as having Grade II or higher listed towns) in both population and amenities. Sadly, however, some status. of the architectural charm of the village has been lost with the proliferation of garish shop fronts and signage designed to There have been settled populations at Bourton-on-the- appeal to the tourist trade. Water since Neolithic times. By the 11th century the church was established at its site at the northwest end of the village, The buildings of Bourton-on-the-Water are of the 17th century and by the 12th century Bourton had begun to assume its and later, except for part of the church and two or three orientation along the course of the Windrush. The village grew houses that incorporate 16th-century work. Modern additions in size and prosperity from the mid-17th century (towards aside, Bourton remains a highly beautiful example of the English the end of the ‘rural renaissance’), and by 1700 the village had village, replete with a wealth of vernacular architecture and grown to stretch along both sides of the Windrush, connected local character that enjoys a deserved reputation as one of the by low arched bridges and fords and focused around a most attractive villages in the Cotswolds. The historic centre central village green. This growth was perhaps stimulated by of Bourton is the archetypical village that exists in the English agricultural changes in the parish, and is reflected in the size cultural imagination, the idealised subject of panegyric for the and architectural richness of the houses. By the end of the 18th rural idyll, and its peripheral housing estates represent the century the village had further expanded, structured around the harsher reality of 21st-century villages in England. organising principle of the river Windrush and the High Street, and had become renowned for its attractive appearance. Since, the growth of the village has been organic and incremental, influenced by such factors as the arrival of the railway or the Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire

36 37 Milton Abbas, Dorset Location Dorchester, Dorset Village type Estate Population (2011) 730 Households 232

Density unknown

Joseph Damer, 1st Earl of Dorchester, purchased Milton Abbey Milton Abbas has a typical ‘English’ character, its uniformity in Dorset in 1752. Having set about the construction of a large combined with the texture and limited pallet of local vernacular country house at the Abbey, Damer commissioned Capability materials (whitewashed walls, steep thatched roofs and small, Brown to remodel and landscape his estate. As part of this black-framed windows) creating an extremely attractive village process, Damer set about the systematic removal of the small that is both cohesive and ordered. The uniformity of design is town of Middleton from land near to his new manor house. pleasing, rather than overpowering or oppressive. This is due This was a result of the fashion among English landowners to to the relative width of the street. Each cottage is placed in a convert farmland around their homes into open parkland. To comfortably sized plot with equal spaces either side between rehouse the evicted tenants, the model village of Milton Abbas neighbours. These spaces and views through to the gardens was built. beyond contribute greatly to the street scene, providing uniform breaks between the façades of the cottages and a The village, which embodies the vision of the rural idyll, is landscaped, naturalistic setting; they are an important part of Milton Abbas, Dorset characterised by its surrounding wooded slopes, which provide the original design and contribute to both the character and a strong sense of enclosure and security. Based around a single appearance of the village. road, The Street, the historic centre of Milton Abbas follows a simple linear pattern along a gentle curving road, comprising of a wide street with houses on both sides set back behind wide grass verges, with each of the houses being similar in size and proportion. The town has a post office, a primary school, several pubs and a church. To the north of the historic centre, the village was extended in the mid-twentieth century with more modern housing, and other facilities including a doctor’s surgery.

Milton Abbas

38 39 Old Warden, Bedfordshire Location near Biggleswade, Bedfordshire Village type Estate Population (2011) 328 Households 119 Density (parish) unknown

Situated near to the town of Biggleswade in Bedfordshire, Old The present village is a carefully created composition reflecting Warden is a small, well-preserved estate village in the heart of an appreciation for picturesque architecture through its various rural Bedfordshire. The village is situated in a hollow between elaborate designs for cottages arranged irregularly in loosely high ground, and consists of a single road lined with houses on spaced groups, surrounded by a setting of trees, hedgerows both sides. and slopes. Designs for the houses at Old Warden range from whitewashed, thatched cottages with eyebrow dormers and tall The main and northern parts of the village settlement were chimneys, to Arts-and-Crafts style, half-timbered buildings, and almost all created by the Third Lord Ongley in the later part redbrick houses with latticed windows and steep-sloped roofs. of the eighteenth and early part of the nineteenth centuries as a model village to replace the old village at Warden Street. In the last quarter of the nineteenth century, Joseph Shuttleworth, who acquired the Old Warden estate from the Onley family in 1872, also carried out some improvements some of the housing Old Warden, Bedfordshire on the estate.

Snelston, Derbyshire Location near Ashbourne, Derbyshire Village type Estate Population (2011) 202 Households 78 Density (parish) unknown

Snelston is a small village located three miles south-west of Many of the houses were occupied by estate workers, which Ashbourne in Derbyshire. The village is located in a valley continues to be the case today. bounded on its eastern side by Darley Moor, and on its western side by the river Dove. A small brook, which joins the Dover, Many of the village houses feature Flemish brickwork with flows through the centre of the village. Tudor chimney stacks, and lacy-style windows set deep in stone mullions. There are some timber-framed houses, the Snelston Hall, once the seat of the Stanton family, was built in best examples being the former inn and the old post office. 1828 to designs by architect Lewis Nockalls Cottingham. It The school, built in 1847 to educate 40 pupils, was erected and was occupied until around 1945, and demolished in 1951. Two maintained entirely at the expense of John Harrison. decades later, the local squire John Harrison also commissioned Cottingham to remodel Snelston village, which remains today. The village is structured around a ‘T-junction’, around which clusters of houses are built to an unstructured, organic lay out. Snelston, Derbyshire 40 41 Selworthy, Somerset Location near Minehead, Somerset The history of Selworthy dates back to the Domesday Book, Village type Estate although the village as it stands today was rebuilt in 1823 by Sir Thomas Acland of Killerton. Sir Thomas was a philanthropist Population (2011) 477 and designed the model village himself to provide housing for Households 217 the aged and infirm of the Holnicote estate. Density (parish) unknown

The houses are built from cream-washed stone, with thatched The small village of Selworthy lies at the heart of the Holnicote roofs, and were deliberately designed to evoke the appearance estate, located three miles from Minehead. The village lies of an old-fashioned, ideal village. It is likely that Sir Thomas was within an estate of 12,443 acres. influenced by his friend John Harford, who commissioned John Nash to build Blaise Hamlet at Hembury between 1810-11 The village of Selworthy is located on the south-facing wooded for his aged retainers. Both Blaise Hamlet and Selworthy are slopes of Selworthy Combe, one of the hills between the Vale examples of the picturesque style of architecture, but whereas of Porlock and the Bristol Channel. The focal point of the village the cottages of Blaise Hamlet are deliberately asymmetrical and is the whitewashed, 15th-century church, set on a terrace above varied, the buildings at Selworthy are pleasingly homogenous the town. Several dwellings are situated beside the church, with with deep thatched roofs, eyebrow dormers, Tudor-lattice six more located around the village green, which is located windows and tall chimneys. between the old road and a stream. Three more houses are located beneath the green, on the west bank of the river. Cottage at Selworthy, Somerset

Englefield, Berkshire Location near Reading, Berkshire Village type Estate Population (2011) 286 Households 124 Density (parish) unknown

Englefield is a small village on the Englefield Estate in West and embellished the Elizabethan manor house, and at this time Berkshire, close to Reading. The village’s name of derives set about modernising the Englefield Village, whose community from the battle fought there between Saxons and Danes in thrived under his influence. He created the model estate village AD870, Englefield meaning ‘Englishmen’s Field’, or ‘Warning as it stands today, modernising cottages and farm buildings and Beacon Field’. The Estate passed between various families until providing a bathing pool for boys, a penny soup kitchen, a new eventually passing to the Benyon family. In the late 19th century, school and a renovated church (designed by Gilbert Scott). Richard Fellowes Benyon rebuilt the villagers’ houses as a model estate village. Richard Benyon was philanthropic on a Many cottages at Englefield are similar in style, featuring grand scale and fascinated by agricultural economics. Causes distinctive brickwork. The village is laid out along a single street, close to his heart in 1862 included the Mendicity Society, the and consists of large detached and semi-detached cottages. National Society for School Furniture, the building of the Albert Memorial and the Society for the Augmentation of Small Livings. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, Benyon restored Englefield, Berkshire 42 43 Saltaire, near Bradford Location near Bradford, West Yorkshire Village type Industrial Population (2011) unknown Households unknown Density unknown Titus Salt, a wool producer, found in the late 1840s that bathing pools, washhouses, an alms-house for retired workers, Bradford city was no longer able to support his business in a dispensary, a hospital, a school and a church. Although the mill the manner he wished, due to its pollution and overcrowding. fell out of use in 1986, the village continues to flourish and was So, between 1851 and 1853 he relocated his factory to the designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2001. UNESCO countryside, together with a few workers’ cottages and plans describes the integrity of Saltaire as a model industrial village for a much larger new settlement, Saltaire. By 1868 over 800 as almost total, with only 1 per cent of the original buildings homes had been laid out at Saltaire, on wide streets arranged destroyed since its foundation. Beyond the site’s boundaries in a gridiron pattern south of the river and Salt’s mill. Each twentieth-century development has surrounded Saltaire to the house provided for the best in contemporary living, with its east, south and west. own water and gas supply and an outside lavatory. Sizes varied from the two-up-two-down scale to much larger houses to reflect the hierarchy of the workers within the wool mill. A true community was founded with amenities such as dining blocks, Saltaire, near Bradford

Port Sunlight, The Wirral Location The Wirral, Merseyside Village type Industrial Population (2011) unknown Households unknown Density unknown

Port Sunlight is located on the banks of the Mersey, near the settlements principal buildings – the school, hospital, church Bebington in the Wirral. Like Salt, William Hesketh Lever had and inn. Residential accommodation was arranged in courtyard- become wealthy from the profits of industry, and he too was style blocks, with allotments at their centre. Further important appalled by the squalor of his workers’ housing and by the high buildings, such as a town hall, public baths and art gallery, were price of city rents for factory space. Thus, in 1888 he moved his interspersed throughout the village, connected by axial roads factory and workers to a new site out of town; the new factory and sight lines. and village was named Port Sunlight. In exchange for improved standards of living, the workers were expected to follow a life Although no longer leased to factory workers, the village of sobriety, thrift and a desire for self-improvement. The village is controlled by a village trust, which aims to enhance and came equipped with schools, a library and public buildings, preserve its character. Over 900 houses are Grade-II listed, providing lessons in cookery and dressmaking. By 1909, there demonstrating the historical legacy of this planned village. were over 700 residences on a 130-acre site. The village was laid out with a large green at its centre, which was occupied by Port Sunlight, the Wirral

44 45 Bournville, near Birmingham Location near Birmingham, West Midlands Village type Industrial Population (2011) 25,938 Households 7,800 Density 3,990/km2

In 1879, George and Richard Cadbury moved their chocolate However, after several years it became apparent that the factory from central Birmingham to a rural location, at what Bournville Building Estate was becoming threatened by is now Bournville. From the outset, the Cadbury’s offered encroaching urbanisation and the sale of houses by factory hard-workers good salaries and working conditions, including worker lessees for personal profit. To retain control of the the pioneering development of pensions. In addition, a 120- Village, George Cadbury decided to turn it into a Charitable acre site was purchased in 1894 with the intention of building Trust; the Bournville Village Trust (BVT) was created on 14 a model village to ‘alleviate the evils of modern more cramped December 1900. The BVT is bound by a Deed, which specified living conditions’ for the Cadbury’s factory workers. Designed how the Village could develop in the future, and as a result the by architect William Alexander Harvey, Bournville was laid out original village has remained largely untouched by the passage with a variety of housing types (detached, semi-detached and of time. Bournville Village soon became highly regarded and terraced) arranged along long streets, with large gardens and renowned. Early visitors included the Krupp’s architect from modern interiors. A large recreation ground was situated next Germany, Dame Henrietta Barnet who founded Hampstead Bournville to the Cadbury factory, as well as a park and alms-houses. Garden Suburb, William Hesketh Lever who founded Port The community’s social life was also catered for; although Sunlight, and the Rowntrees who founded New Earswick. The the Quaker Cadbury family ensured no public houses were town has been a continuous success. Now a Conservation Area built, other amenities were provided such as infant and junior containing some 7,800 homes on 1,000 acres of land, it remains schools, a day school for adults, meeting houses and a host of a popular residential area of Birmingham. events such fetes.

Bournville Village Trust housing, c.1905

46 47 Garden Village, Kingston-upon-Hull Location Kingston-upon-Hull, East Riding Village type Industrial Population (2011) unknown Households unknown Density unknown

Garden Village is a planned early-20th-century model village The 130-acre site on which Garden Village was to be built built for the employees of Reckitts, a manufacturing firm. The was purchased in 1907, and its development took place in two existence and character of Garden Village stemmed from distinct phases, starting in 1908 and 1923. The majority of the the desires of James Reckitt (1833-1924) to provide a good 600 houses were completed in the earlier phase, to designs quality living environment for his firm’s employees. Lever’s Port by architects Percy Runton and William Barry. The low density Sunlight and Cadbury’s Bournville were important examples to of the development, as well as the remarkable uniformity in follow, as was the nascent Letchworth Garden City, based on the overall design of the housing, are its most striking feature; the principles of the Garden City movement as advocated by the 600 houses are constructed in 12 different styles and Ebenezer Howard. five grades, averaging 12 houses to the acre. The structure of Garden Village is formed by the tree-lined roads, some straight Reckitt proposed the idea of the ‘Village in the Town’, providing and some sinuous, and the open spaces, such as The Oval, not just homes for the workers but also shops, community which acts as a village green. This is where the largest and most Garden Village, Kingston-upon-Hull map c.1928 facilities and ‘Havens’ for pensioners. The main features of elaborate houses are situated, which create a sense of being at Garden Village stem from the Reckitt’s aims of achieving a the heart of the community. good standard of housing and environment for his employees. His object was to provide his employees with a house and In 1950 the Garden Village Company was disbanded; some garden for the same rent as for existing inferior housing, which houses were sold to tenants, the Bradford Property Trust in general consisted of long terraces with back yards, built at bought the entire estate, and the open space known as The a much greater density. Garden Village represented an early Oval was transferred to the Hull City Council for a nominal fee. example of Garden City planning and an enormous advance in The area became a designated conservation area in 1970. housing layout in Hull compared to that of nineteenth century workers’ dwellings.

Garden Village, Kingston-upon-Hull

48 49 Whiteley Village, Surrey Location Hersham, Surrey Village type Planned Population (2011) c.320 Households 262 Density unknown

Whiteley Village was founded on the bequest of William A wholesale modernisation programme was carried out on Whiteley, in 1907. He bequeathed £1 million (equivalent to the cottages between 1962 and 1970, and all 262 cottages are £92,301,980 in 2015) towards the foundation of the villages, Grade II listed. In her history of English villages, Gillian Darley to be used for the purchase of land and the erection thereon noted that Whiteley Village ‘continues successfully today… The ‘of buildings to be used and occupied by aged poor persons of human scale of the buildings emphasized the individual’s place in either sex as homes in their old age’. the life of the community whilst the overall planning reinforces the visual unity of the village. It is an extremely attractive Whiteley’s idea was a development of the long-established example of architectural form and function happily integrated’. almshouse tradition, but it is the scale – and architectural and social ambition – of Whiteley’s vision which makes it outstanding and still. The development provided not simply cottages, but a village with churches, a shop, a village hall, a library and other care and social facilities.

In 1911, a 225-estate was purchased to accommodate the construction of the village. Walter Cave was appointed as consulting architect, and together with the Trustees of the estate selected R Frank Atkinson to design the village layout. Although subsequently altered, the distinctive octagonal design of the village remains. In 1913 Cave designed single- storey ‘Model Cottages’ as a test for cottage design; they were deemed too spacious, and the cottages built later were somewhat smaller. Between 1914 and 1921 240 cottages were built at Whiteley, designed by Cave and six other leading architects. In order to avoid an institutional appearance by encouraging variations in style, one block was entrusted to each architect, except Sir Ernest George, who designed two. Each of the eight sections comprised sixteen single-occupancy cottages, four two-storey cottages, six double cottages and a nurse’s cottage.

Whiteley Village, Surrey

50 51 Poundbury, Dorset Cambourne, Cambridgeshire Location Dorchester, Dorset Location Cambridge, Cambridgeshire the size of the settlement is much larger than a village, and the form and density of the housing and civic buildings is quite Village type Modern planned Village type Modern planned different. Population 6,000 (completed) Population (2011) 8186 Households 2,500 (completed) Households 3300 The high street contains businesses for a local community, including a pharmacy, a fish and chip shop, a bookmaker, and Density unknown Density a pub. Morrisons has opened a 5,575m2 supermarket with a Poundbury is an experimental new village on the outskirts these measures, the town has been much criticised, particularly petrol station. An ecumenical church, a library, a four-star hotel, of Dorchester, Dorset. The village is built on land owned by for the use of non-local building materials that are out of Cambourne is a stand-alone new town located roughly nine a day nursery and two primary schools have opened, as well as a the Duchy of Cornwall, and has been led by the Prince of context alongside traditional Dorchester building stock. Many miles west of Cambridge on the site of a former airfield. The medical centre. Other community facilities include a community Wales as a challenge to post-war trends in town planning. people also perceive the development, with its collection of 1,030-acre site is still under development and will accommodate centre, a cricket field and pavilion, and a village green with a pond three distinct ‘villages’, called Great Cambourne, Lower and play areas. European architect Leon Krier developed the masterplan in neo-classical architectural buildings, to be kitsch. It is expected Cambourne and Upper Cambourne. The project has been led by the late 1980s, and construction began in 1993. The village is that the plan’s four phases will be developed before 2020, with a consortium of builders including Bovis Homes, Bryant Homes, The economy of the new settlement is aided by the development built as a high-density urban setting, rather than a suburban a total of 2,500 dwellings and a population of about 6,000. and George Wimpey Homes, with the masterplan developed of Camborne Business Park, which in 2003 employed 500 people, one. It attempts to create an integrated community of shops, by Terry Farrell and Partners. Construction began in 1998, the of whom 10 per cent were Cambourne residents. The relocation businesses and private and social housing, hence there is no first residents moved in a year later, and the town became a civil of South Cambridgeshire District Council to the Business Park zoning, and the plan is centred around people rather than the parish on 1 April 2004. In 2006 1,000 homes were occupied with was also beneficial to the economic viability of the town. Large 2,300 further homes to be completed, and the final population is areas of green open space, including a country park, an eco-park, car. A high quality environment has been strived for through expected to be in the region of 8,000-10,000. The architectural a golf course, wetland and new woodland, separate the villages. the choice of materials, landscaping and other features such as styles aim at individualism, with terraced cottages, large detached The plan has tried to preserve existing landscape features as well signage, and the houses are designed to be traditional. Despite homes, semis and town houses mixed together to imitate a as provide 11 miles of new hedgerow. The transport system has village that has grown organically over many centuries. However, over 12 miles of footpaths, cycleways and bridleways.

Poundbury, Dorset

Cambourne, Cambridgeshire

52 53 APPENDIX 3: SCOTTISH MODEL VILLAGES

Inveraray, Argyll & Bute Location Loch Fyne, Argyll & Bute Village type Estate Population (2011) 596 Households unknown Density 1,610.8 inhabitants/km2 The historian T C Smout has estimated that over 120 such Running off Front Street are two parallel roads, the first is Main new villages were built in Scotland during the Georgian period. Street along the waterfront and the other is called The Avenue. Notable examples included Inveraray, which was created by The town was quickly equipped with a smithy, bake house, inn, the 3rd Duke of Argyll. The Duke wished to have a new, more Town House and pier, with grander houses such as Ivy House habitable castle upon his accession in 1743, and with this he and Chamberlain’s House built for the middle classes. The 2011 also envisaged a new village. However, it was the 5th Duke who census recorded a population of 596 at Inveraray, with a density built the majority of the settlement, between 1772 and 1800. of 1,610.8 inhabitants per square kilometre. Front Street is aptly named, the urban façade of a straight-lined plan, with the white houses symmetrically placed.

Inveraray, Argyll

Port Ellen, Inveraray Location Islay, the Inner Hebrides Village type Estate Population (2011) 846 Households unknown Density 1,658.8 inhabitants/km2

When Walter Frederick Campbell inherited estates in Islay Port Ellen is a coastal settlement built around a small natural in 1816, he set about a process of radical improvements harbour on Islay’s south coast, on the southernmost island to the island’s economy. He thus reorganised land holdings, of the Inner Hebrides. The main street front the horseshoe- dispossessing many in the rural townships in order to reduce shaped harbour, and several perpendicular streets extend the number of people dependent on the land, while at the same inland, lined with houses. A housing estate for fishermen, time introducing better methods of husbandry to improve weavers and workers at the distillery was added to the village agricultural production. Those displaced were re-housed and in the twentieth century. Islay’s other new planned villages re-employed in new planned villages such as Port Ellen, which include Port Charlotte, Portnahaven and Bowmore, the latter was founded on the south of the island in 1821, together with a laid out in 1768 when the laird razed the old village of Kilarrow new distillery in 1825. as part of the improvements around Islay House.

Port Ellen, Islay

54 55 Further Advice and Information can be obtained from; Anthony Downs Director - Planning and Development Hatfield Park Estate Office, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, AL9 5NQ Tel: 01707 287000