New Earswick - History

History

The village of New Earswick was built as a genuine mixed community. There was housing for both workers and managers, in a green setting with gardens for each home with its own fruit tree. It was founded by the York philanthropist, Joseph Rowntree, who was quoted as saying, "I do not want to establish communities bearing the stamp of charity but rather of rightly ordered and self governing communities". The first 28 houses were built between 1902 and 1904 by the architect Raymond Unwin, after which the Joseph Rowntree Village Trust was established to continue building and manage the new village.

The village had contemporaries such as Bournville, Saltaire, Port Sunlight and others. This was in sharp contrast to the slums that had developed in York and other cities during the previous century, the deprivation of which had been revealed in Seebohm Rowntrees' report of 1901, entitled Poverty: a study of town life. It revealed appalling statistics of dark, overcrowded and insanitary housing.

As a result of the report, Joseph Rowntree 's conviction that it must be possible to provide better housing for people on low incomes led him to acquire 150 acres of land near the village of Earswick, two and a half miles to the north of the centre of York. The planner Raymond Unwin and the architect Barry Parker were commissioned to produce an overall plan for a new 'garden' village and the detailed designs for its first houses. They also designed the garden cities of Letchworth and Welwyn Garden City.

The building of New Earswick created a balanced village community where rents were kept low,but still represented a modest commercial return on the capital invested. Houses were open to any working people, not just Rowntree employees. The village was to be a demonstration of good practice.

The Trust Deed of the Joseph Rowntree Village Trust, which was set up in 1904 to build and manage New Earswick, safeguarded generous open green space. All the grass verges were planted with trees after which almost all the roads are named. The village was built with bricks that were made in the brickworks on the outskirts of New Earswick. From 1950 the brickyard, which closed down in the 1930s, was developed into a nature reserve.