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.
The term model village was first used by the Victorians to describe the new settlements created on the rural estates of the landed gentry in the eighteenth century. As landowners sought to improve their estates for aesthetic reasons, new landscapes were created and the cottages of the poor were demolished and rebuilt out of sight of their country house vistas. [1] New villages were created at Nuneham Courtenay when the village was rebuilt as plain brick dwellings either side of the main road, at Milton Abbas the village was moved and rebuilt in a rustic style and Blaise Hamlet in Bristol had individually designed buildings, some with thatched roofs. [2]
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 Edward Akroyd at Copley between 1849 and 1853 and Akroydon 1861-63. Akroyd employed George Gilbert Scott. Titus Salt built a model village at Saltaire. [7] Henry Ripley, owner of Bowling Dyeworks, began construction of Ripley Ville in Bradford in 1866. [8] Industrial communities were established at Price's Village [9] by Price's Patent Candle Company and at Aintree by Hartley's, who made jam, in 1888. [10] William Lever's Port Sunlight had a village green and its houses espoused an idealised rural vernacular style. [7] Quaker industrialists, George Cadbury and Rowntrees built model villages by their factories. Cadbury built Bournville between 1898 and 1905 and a second phase from 1914 and New Earswick was built in 1902 for Rowntrees. [11]
As coal mining expanded villages were built to house coal miners. In Yorkshire, Grimethorpe, Goldthorpe, Woodlands, Fitzwilliam and Bottom Boat were built to house workers at the collieries. The architect who designed Woodlands and Creswell Model Villages, Percy B. Houfton was influential in the development of the garden city movement.
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.
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Sir Titus Salt, 1st Baronet was a manufacturer, politician and philanthropist in Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire, England, who is best known for having built Salt's Mill, a large textile mill, together with the attached village of Saltaire, West Yorkshire.
New Earswick is a model village and civil parish in the unitary authority of City of York in North Yorkshire, England, near the River Foss, north of York and south of Haxby. According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 2,812, reducing to 2,737 at the 2011 Census.
A semi-detached house is a single family duplex dwelling house that shares one common wall with the next house. The name distinguishes this style of house from detached houses, with no shared walls, and terraced houses, with a shared wall on both sides. Often, semi-detached houses are built in pairs in which each house's layout is a mirror image of the other's.
Woodlands is a model village 4 miles (6 km) north-west of Doncaster in South Yorkshire, England. The village lies adjacent to Highfields and Adwick le Street within the City of Doncaster. The colliery village was designed and built in the early 20th century by the architect Percy Houfton as tied cottages for the miners of the neighbouring Brodsworth Colliery. In an era of model villages such as Saltaire, Port Sunlight and Bournville, Woodlands, with extensive open spaces, many different designs of houses, and overall living conditions excellent for their time, possibly represents the height of the model village movement. The village is a conservation area.
Maltby is a former mining town and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England. It was historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire. It is located 6 miles (10 km) east of Rotherham and 10 miles (16 km) north-east of Sheffield. It forms a continuous urban area with Hellaby, separated from the rest of Rotherham by the M18 motorway. It had a population of 16,688 at the 2011 Census.
Bessbrook is a village in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. It lies about three miles (5 km) northwest of Newry and near the Newry bypass on the main A1 Belfast-Dublin road and Belfast-Dublin railway line. Today the village of Bessbrook straddles the three townlands of Maghernahely, Clogharevan and Maytown. Bessbrook is near Newry railway station. It had a population of 2,892 at the 2021 Census. The model village of Bessbrook, County Armagh is a visible memorial to the commercial endeavours of the Richardson family over a number of generations.
A company town is a place where practically all stores and housing are owned by the one company that is also the main employer. Company towns are often planned with a suite of amenities such as stores, houses of worship, schools, markets and recreation facilities.
Guildwood, also known as Guildwood Village, is a residential neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located in the eastern area of the city, in the district of Scarborough. It is bounded by the Scarborough Bluffs, south of Kingston Road, from Grey Abbey Trail in the east.
Lieutenant Colonel Edward Akroyd (1810–1887), English manufacturer, was born into a textile manufacturing family in 1810, and when he died in 1887, he still owned the family firm. He inherited "James Akroyd & Sons Ltd." from his father in 1847, and he became the owner of one of the country's largest worsted manufacturers.
Sir Raymond Unwin was a prominent and influential English engineer, architect and town planner, with an emphasis on improvements in working class housing.
A pit village, colliery village or mining village is a settlement built by colliery owners to house their workers. The villages were built on the coalfields of Great Britain during the Industrial Revolution where new coal mines were developed in isolated or unpopulated areas. Such settlements were developed by companies for the incoming workers.
Brodsworth Colliery was a coal mine north west of Doncaster and west of the Great North Road. in South Yorkshire, England. Two shafts were sunk between October 1905 and 1907 in a joint venture by the Hickleton Main Colliery Company and the Staveley Coal and Iron Company.
Bournville Village Trust is an organisation that was created to maintain and improve the suburb of Bournville, located in Birmingham. However, during the 20th century it expanded its geographical coverage to include developments in Shenley Green, Lightmoor in Telford, Bloomsbury in Nechells and Rowheath.
The Akroydon model housing scheme is a Victorian-era model village at Boothtown, Halifax, in the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale in West Yorkshire, England. It was designed in the Gothic style by George Gilbert Scott in 1859 for the workers at the mills of Colonel Edward Akroyd, who had bought, in 1855, the 62,435 acres (25,267 ha) of land on which the houses were to be built.
Sir Henry William Ripley, 1st Baronet, was a British businessman, philanthropist and Liberal Party politician who switched to the Conservative Party.
Kiveton Park Colliery was a coal mine in the village of Kiveton Park, near Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England.
Boothtown is a suburb of Halifax, West Yorkshire, England, which falls within Town Ward, one of the 17 wards of Calderdale.
Sharlston is a village and civil parish, situated 4 miles (6.4 km) east of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England, and includes the settlements of Old Sharlston, Sharlston Common and New Sharlston. Its population at the 2001 census was 2,756, reducing to 2,663 at the 2011 Census. The village lies in the City of Wakefield unitary district.
New Bolsover model village is a village adjoining the town of Bolsover in Derbyshire.
The Joseph Rowntree School is a comprehensive school on Haxby Road in New Earswick in the unitary authority City of York, England.
