Events
Posted on: 8th May 2026
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Pontefract Civic Society Monthly Talk – Model Villages by Eric Jackson
May 19 @ 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Our speaker for the evening Eric Jackson details the transformation of England from a rural, agricultural society to an urban, industrial one with the concomitant population growth of towns and cities, picking apart the advantages, disadvantages and the history of the project, including the infrastructure required for the logistics of such an undertaking and the individual Model Villages themselves and their famous sponsors.
The beginnings of the philanthropic movement, The Society for Improving the Conditions of the Labouring Classes, the Peabody Trust and others and the Great Exhibition of 1851 and Prince Albert’s Cottages are all discussed as are the later model villages, Port Sunlight, Bournville and New Earswick, which led to the gestation of the ‘Garden City’ concept and ‘Homes fit for Heroes’. The talk concludes with a virtual visit to the final iteration of the model village concept, the colliery village of Woodlands.
Free for members of the society or £3.96 from eventbrite for non members (or pay £3.00 on the door) https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1984974355732?aff=oddtdtcreator