Seven Houses; Alkington Garden Village

A GARDEN VILLAGE, THE OPENING UP OF THE ALKINGTON ESTATE – The first house of the garden village which is to be laid out on the Alkrington estate, near Middleton on the eastern border of Manchester, was opened on Saturday afternoon by Mr T C Horsfall. The trustees of the late James Lees, to whom the land belongs, determined to develop the estate largely on co-partnership lines. As was reported some months ago, they had plans prepared by Mr Thomas Adams for laying out the whole estate of 700 acres as a model suburb which might serve both Manchester and Middleton, the tramway running along the main road between the two places providing a convenient means of access. For immediate development, however, fifty acres have been set aside. The co-partnership societies have not yet been formed, but the owners of the land have done some of the preliminary work and have built seven houses, which they intend as specimens to show people what may be done in the way of providing at a low cost well-built, airy dwellings, pleasant to look at and pleasant to live in. Each house has its bit of garden, and the plans for the village make provision for plenty of open spaces. The minimum values which have been fixed for the houses to be built on the various plots range from £250 to £600.

The scheme contemplates the formation of two societies; one a tenants’ co-partnership, the other a co-operative building society by means of which people may be enabled to become owners of their houses by a system of gradual payment. It is calculated that a man can acquire a £250 house by paying £63 down and then twenty annual payments of £20. He would then get his house, in fact by paying what is no more than an ordinary rent for 20 years.  It is suggested in the prospectus which has been issued that in cases where the raising of the initial £63 is impossible, arrangements could be made for advancing the whole of the capital and for extending the period of repayment.

Mr Pepler, of Messrs Pepler and Allan, the architects of the houses that have already been built, explained some of the features of the scheme. Mr James Lees, one of the trustees of the estate, said that the main idea behind the scheme was to substitute for the familiar ugly rows of terraced houses, all exactly alike, something a little more artistic, with plenty of house space and garden space, noting additionally that the scheme was started in 1907. [Manchester Guardian 31 July 1911 page 14 Manchester Guardian 31 July 1911 page 14]