Burnage Garden Village

For the past few months I have been working on a small project looking at the early development of an Edwardian garden suburb in south Manchester. The impetus for the project came out of searching for a plan of this small housing estate back in summer of 2017 for inclusion in our Manchester: Mapping the City book.

The major goal was to produce a small exhibition celebrating the planning of the Burnage Garden Village and provide an explanation for the layout and house architecture, as well as some discussion of the social life for early residents. The exhibition was developed in collaboration with Alison Ronan, Vicky Jolley and Lois Smith.

The exhibition was displayed in Manchester Central Library from March to May 2019. 

The centre piece of the exhibition were two models showing the layout of the estate and the design of one of the houses. The custom-built models were the work of Jim Backhouse from the University of Manchester model-making workshop.

Two hundred copies of an small exhibition booklet were distributed, including a complimentary copy posted to all the residents on the Village. A version of the booklet can be downloaded for free.

The models and exhibition materials have been donated to Burnage Library.

Thanks to funding from School of Environment, Education and Development at the University of Manchester and to Manchester Geographical Society.