Garden Village

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Burnage Garden Village was built 1908-1910 with the intention of creating a self-contained and self-sufficient community. At the heart of the Village lies a village hall, bowling green and tennis courts. Residents enjoyed activities from amateur dramatics to sports days. The Village is still managed by a local committee of Manchester Tenants Ltd, formed in 1906.

The Burnage Garden Village, along with Garden Suburbs across the country, gave inspiration to reformers and architects as they looked for ways to solve the problems of overcrowding and the insanitary conditions soldiers were returning to.

There were several publications, such as ‘To-Morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform’ by Ebenezer Howard, which expressed in detail why Garden Villages should be used as a model and described how the cul-de-sac style, internal layout and space between houses could influence future house planning on a broader scale:

“What, then, is the most terrible evil of city life? Surely it is overcrowding. And what is the most glaring evil of country life? Surely it is depopulation. The Garden City has, therefore, been started, in the midst of a group of agricultural villages, in order to show, by concrete example, how we as a nation may deal with the twin evils of overcrowding in the city and of depopulation of the villages.” Ebenezer Howard