Model village
A model village is a type of mostly self-contained community, built from the late 18th century onwards by landowners and business magnates to house their workers. Although the villages are located close to the workplace, they are generally physically separated from them and often consist of relatively high-quality housing, with integrated community amenities and attractive physical environments. "Model" is used in the sense of an ideal to which other developments could aspire.
British Isles
The term model village was first used by the
The Swing Riots of 1830 highlighted poor housing in the countryside, ill health and immorality and landowners had a responsibility to provide cottages with basic sanitation. The best landlords provided accommodation but many adopted a paternalistic attitude when they built model dwellings and imposed their own standards on the tenants charging low rents but paying low wages.[3]
As the Industrial Revolution took hold, industrialists who built factories in rural locations provided housing for workers clustered around the workplace. An early example of an industrial model village was New Lanark built by Robert Owen.[4] Philanthropic coal owners provided decent accommodation for miners from the early nineteenth century. Earl Fitzwilliam, a paternalistic colliery owner provided houses near his coal pits in Elsecar near Barnsley that were "...of a class superior in size and arrangement, and in conveniences attached, to those of working classes."[5] They had four rooms and a pantry, and outside a small garden and pig sty.[6]
Others were established by
As coal mining expanded villages were built to house coal miners. In Yorkshire,
In the 1920s, Silver End model village in Essex was built for Francis Henry Crittall. Its houses were designed in an art deco-style with flat roofs and Crittall windows.[12] The more recent development of Poundbury, a model village in rural Dorset, has been supported by the Prince of Wales.
England
(Chronological order)
- Trowse, Norfolk (1805)
- Blaise Hamlet, Gloucestershire (1811)
- Selworthy, Somerset (1828)
- Barrow Bridge, Bolton (1830s)[13]
- Vulcan Village, Merseyside (1833)[14]
- Snelston, Derbyshire (1840s)
- Swindon Railway Village, Wiltshire (1840s)
- Withnell Fold, Lancashire (1844)
- Meltham, Yorkshire (1850)
- Price's Village") (1853)
- Saltaire, Yorkshire (1853)
- Akroydon, Yorkshire (1859)
- Nenthead, Cumberland (1861)
- New Sharlston Colliery Village, Yorkshire (1864)[15]
- Ripley Ville, Yorkshire (1866)
- Copley, Yorkshire (1874)
- Howe Bridge, Lancashire (1873–79)
- Bournville, Worcestershire (1879)
- Barwick, Hertfordshire (1888)
- Port Sunlight, Cheshire (1888)[16]
- Creswell Model Village, Derbyshire (1895)[17]
- New Bolsover model village, Derbyshire (1896)[18]
- Vickerstown, Lancashire (1901)
- New Earswick, Yorkshire (1904)[19]
- Woodlands, Yorkshire (1905)[20]
- Whiteley Village, Surrey (1907)
- The Garden Village, Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire (1908)
- Silver End, Essex (1926)
- Stewartby, Bedfordshire (1926)
- Poundbury, Dorset (construction started 1993; ongoing)
Ireland
- Milford, County Armagh, Northern Ireland (1800s)
- Portlaw, County Waterford, Republic of Ireland (1825)
- Sion Mills, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland (1835)
- Bessbrook, County Armagh, Northern Ireland (1845)
- Laurelvale, County Armagh, Northern Ireland (1850s)
- Model Village, County Cork (1910s; usually called Tower, the name of the pre-existing hamlet)
Scotland
- New Lanark, Lanarkshire (1786)
Wales
- Tremadog, Caernarfonshire (1798)
- Elan Village, Powys (1892)
- Portmeirion, Merioneth (1925)
Europe
Czech Republic
- Bata Shoes.
Germany
- Stadt des KdF-Wagens was built for the Volkswagen factory.[citation needed]
Italy
- Adda.[citation needed]
Spain
- mercantilist and entrepreneurial ambitions of an industrialist from the early-eighteenth century.[citation needed]
Australasia
Australia
- Australian Newsprint Mills established a worker's village at Boyer, Tasmania to accommodate workers of the Boyer Mill
- Cadbury established the Cadbury's Estate in Claremont, Tasmania in 1921
- EZ Industries constructed homes at Lutana, Tasmania for workers of the nearby Risdon Zinc Works, commencing in 1916[21]
New Zealand
Asia
China
- Huawei Ox Horn Campus, research and development buildings of technology company Huawei
See also
- Company town
- New Towns in the United Kingdom
- Garden city movement
References
Citations
- ^ Burchardt 2002, p. 58
- ^ Burchardt 2002, p. 59
- ^ Burchardt 2002, p. 60
- ^ Burchardt 2002, p. 61
- ^ Thornes 1994, p. 78
- ^ Thornes 1994, p. 79
- ^ a b Burchardt 2002, p. 62
- ISBN 0 9532139 2 7
- ^ Historic England, "Prices Village (1560975)", Research records (formerly PastScape), retrieved 10 May 2014
- ^ Hartley's jam village made a conservation area, BBC News, 16 December 2011
- ^ Burchardt 2002, p. 63
- ^ Silver End - a window on the past, BBC, 22 July 2009, retrieved 20 June 2015
- ^ Barrow Bridge Conservation Area (PDF), bolton.gov.uk, archived from the original (PDF) on 25 August 2012, retrieved 28 July 2011
- ^ Vulcan Village Conservation Area appraisal (PDF), St Helens Council, retrieved 4 January 2023
- ^ Sharlston Colliery Model Village, Heritage Gateway, retrieved 13 August 2015
- ^ Historic England, "Port Sunlight (1362582)", Research records (formerly PastScape), retrieved 10 May 2014
- ^ Historic England, "The Model Village (929805)", Research records (formerly PastScape), retrieved 10 May 2014
- ^ Historic England, "New Bolsover Model Village (613327)", Research records (formerly PastScape), retrieved 10 May 2014
- ^ The garden village of New Earswick (PDF), Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust, p. 2, archived from the original (PDF) on 4 October 2013, retrieved 10 May 2014
- ^ A study of Woodlands Model Colliery Village 1907-1909, Royal Institute of British Architects, retrieved 10 May 2014
- ISSN 0819-7008
- ^ Pawson, Eric. "Wason, John Cathcart". Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved 31 July 2010.
Bibliography
- Burchardt, Jeremy (2002), Paradise Lost: Rural Idyll and Social Change Since 1800, I. B. Tauris, ISBN 1860645143
- Thornes, Robin (1994), Images of Industry: Coal, Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, ISBN 1-873592-23-X
Further reading
- Gillian Darley's 'Villages of Vision: A Study of Strange Utopias' first published 1975 (Architectural Press, pb 1978 Paladin) and republished with fully revised gazetteer 2007 (Five Leaves Publications)