Future-facing planning can help us build the 'model' villages of the future

My childhood holidays often included a visit to a compact and picturesque model village. My brother and I loomed delightedly down tiny streets like friendly giants, dripping ice cream on miniature tiled roofs.

- Nicola Chester

Model villages, as well as those real-life purpose-built ones, such as Saltaire, Hartley’s, Port Sunlight or Bournville, have intrigued me ever since. Real or miniature, model villages are a sometimes grandiose, wry and hopeful part of our cultural intent and desire. Rebecca Smith’s book Rural is an excellent, informative read on this.

My imaginary ideal village looked a lot like one I partly grew up in. It had friends within knocking distance, allotments, woods, fields and a river to explore, a tiny library, shops and a pub garden. There was a small police and fire station, horses clopping by, clubs in the village hall, school within walking distance and a train station to take you beyond its horizons. Everything I thought I'd ever need.

In 1949, rural writer Victor Bonham-Carter wrote about the village we live in now for