ABSTRACT
The typical model village would be more like East Lockinge in Berkshire, which was an ancient historic village dating back to Saxon times; but which was partly resited and subjected to large-scale redevelopment, modernization, and 'prettification' by its owners, Lord and Lady Wantage, in the mid-nineteenth century. The typical Victorian model village was probably the handiwork of a paternalistic landlord; there were also other important types. These included co-operative settlement schemes inspired by people like Robert Owen and even Tolstoy; and the settlements established by the Chartists around the mid-century. If there were such a wide variety of model villages it is not surprising that the motivations and inspirations behind them should also have been many and varied. The economic problem was compounded by the fact that the inhabitants of model cottages, or model villages, were frequently not the employees of landlords but of tenant farmers.
