I was last here in 2016 on a much brighter, blue skied day in March.
2020 mid-lockdown and overcast, I took a walk to take another look.
There is a perennial appeal to this well ordered island of tranquility, an archetypal suburbia incubated in 1906, a copy book estate.
The housing estate of 136 houses known as Burnage Garden Village, a residential development covering an area of 19,113sqm off the western side of Burnage Lane in the Burnage ward. The site is situated approximately six kilometres south of the city centre and is arranged on a broadly hexagonal layout with two storey semi-detached and quasi detached dwelling houses situated on either side of a continuous-loop highway. The highway is named after each corresponding compass point with two spurs off at the east and west named Main Avenue and West Place respectively. Main Avenue represents the only access and egress point into the estate whilst West Place leads into a resident’s parking area.
The layout was designed by J Horner Hargreaves. Houses are loosely designed to Arts and Crafts principles, chiefly on account of being low set and having catslide roofs.
At the centre of the garden village and accessed by a network of pedestrian footpaths, is a resident’s recreational area comprising a bowling green, club house and tennis courts. The estate dates from approximately 1906 and was laid out in the manner of a garden suburb with characteristic hedging, front gardens, grass verges and trees on every street.
Verges and paving were freshly laid, hedges and gardens well tended, cars parked prettily.
The central communal area calm and restful, but lacking the clunk of lignum vitae wood on jack, hence the scorched earth appearance of the normally well used crown green.
A detailed appreciation the estate is available here.
Let’s take a leisurely look.
modernmooch.com 
My family moved from Westminster Street in Levenshulme, across Stockport Road, to Milwain Road, off Burnage Lane, when I was nine years old, so the Garden Village was one of my earliest bike-borne discoveries. I suspect the price of such civic rapture is quite high; trim begonias, no audible reggae after 9pm, and no pyjamas street-side. I’ve often pondered what a similar social collective might look like a century on. Rather in the way that sheltered accommodation for the over-55s is punctuated by Motown & RnB nights and Post-Punk discos these days, might the socially purposed Garden Village de nos jours, be a seventies cul-de-sac with picture windows and car ports, with plenty of room for weekend car-boot sales. Timely re-imagining.
LikeLike
Fantastic pictures, here’s a photo of the sunset from our garden
LikeLike
Thank you so much for posting this. I lived in the Burnage Garden Village from 1953 to 1961. We lived at 150 Burnage Lane which was considered part of the village. My grandparents lived here before me. This article brought back so many memories but I had no idea of the history of the village. What a fantastic place it was and such a wonderful concept which should be copied far and wide.
LikeLike
So happy to evoke such fond memories.
LikeLike