DOI Heft:
No. 49 (April, 1897)
DOI Artikel:Morris, G. L.: Evolution of village architecture in England
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18388#0190
Evolution of Village Architecture
given to the general scheme, and the dwellings sides of a square and forms the most delightful por-
might have been arranged in some better relation tion of the village with its pleasant-coloured brick
to the factory. base rising to the height of the ground-floor sill
A well-conceived scheme, taking advantage of any windows, its rough cast above, thatch roof, and large
natural peculiarities of the site, should always be a wide-spreading gable facing the village green that
first consideration. (At Port Sunlight a little valley lies away in the front. At the far end is a glimpse
between two parts of the village has been turned to of the partly external staircase leading to the first
good account.) The dwellings at Bournville are floor, and over the roof is seen the church tower,
not free from vulgarity and ostentatious display of the church being built some way up the slope,
moulded brick. A want of restraint and the sub- Further down the road, towards the middle of the
urban villa-like air that characterises the houses is village, are the butcher's-shop and the reading-room
particularly exasperating, the more so as the district (page 180), forming the projecting wings of another
is beautiful; still, with its technical school, large quadrangle on somewhat similar lines. On page
dining-room, and its rural surroundings it is pos- 178 is illustrated a block of cottages at the far end
sible that, as time moves on, some of its short- of the village, where the valley is becoming hill,
comings may be eradicated. Returning over the ground traversed, one calls to
A few miles from Tonbridge, in the county of mind that description of a New building, by Ken-
Kent, is the village of Leigh, built partly on the neth Grahame, in which he says: "The grey stone,
slope, down which the traveller wends his way new and yet not smugly so, new and yet possessing
on entering the village. To the right, as the corner distinction, marked with a character that does not
is turned at the base of the slope, is the Conval- depend on lichen or on crumbling semi-effacement
escent Home (page 179), while facing it is the front of moulding and mullion ; faintly scented, beautiful
and one end of the quadrangle; this group is three with a strange new beauty, born of what it had, and
A BLOCK OF COTTAGES AT TORT SUNLIGHT
(From a Photograph by G. Close)
182
W. OWEN, ARCHITECT
given to the general scheme, and the dwellings sides of a square and forms the most delightful por-
might have been arranged in some better relation tion of the village with its pleasant-coloured brick
to the factory. base rising to the height of the ground-floor sill
A well-conceived scheme, taking advantage of any windows, its rough cast above, thatch roof, and large
natural peculiarities of the site, should always be a wide-spreading gable facing the village green that
first consideration. (At Port Sunlight a little valley lies away in the front. At the far end is a glimpse
between two parts of the village has been turned to of the partly external staircase leading to the first
good account.) The dwellings at Bournville are floor, and over the roof is seen the church tower,
not free from vulgarity and ostentatious display of the church being built some way up the slope,
moulded brick. A want of restraint and the sub- Further down the road, towards the middle of the
urban villa-like air that characterises the houses is village, are the butcher's-shop and the reading-room
particularly exasperating, the more so as the district (page 180), forming the projecting wings of another
is beautiful; still, with its technical school, large quadrangle on somewhat similar lines. On page
dining-room, and its rural surroundings it is pos- 178 is illustrated a block of cottages at the far end
sible that, as time moves on, some of its short- of the village, where the valley is becoming hill,
comings may be eradicated. Returning over the ground traversed, one calls to
A few miles from Tonbridge, in the county of mind that description of a New building, by Ken-
Kent, is the village of Leigh, built partly on the neth Grahame, in which he says: "The grey stone,
slope, down which the traveller wends his way new and yet not smugly so, new and yet possessing
on entering the village. To the right, as the corner distinction, marked with a character that does not
is turned at the base of the slope, is the Conval- depend on lichen or on crumbling semi-effacement
escent Home (page 179), while facing it is the front of moulding and mullion ; faintly scented, beautiful
and one end of the quadrangle; this group is three with a strange new beauty, born of what it had, and
A BLOCK OF COTTAGES AT TORT SUNLIGHT
(From a Photograph by G. Close)
182
W. OWEN, ARCHITECT