100 Buildings 100 Years

1949: Windmill Green, Ditchingham, Norfolk

Status: Listed Grade II
Condition: Good condition
Type: Housing
Architect: Tayler and Green
Location: 1-30 Windmill Green, Ditchingam, Norfolk

‘An attempt to entrap the whole of East Anglian space in one great gesture. It is a kind of oath of allegiance to the landscape …’ wrote Ian Nairn about this early scheme by the masters of the rural council house, Tayler and Green, a partnership based in Lowestoft, who hated the effect of standard semi-detached pairs of houses like ‘a row of pointed teeth with alternate teeth extracted.’

Three ranges are set at an open angle around a large green, with clear views to the country on the western side, until insensitively infilled. Nowhere else did Tayler and Green build such long terraces, in homage to Ernst May’s Frankfurt Siedlungen. The problem of access to back gardens was solved with their invention of covered passageways for each house, while different coloured fronts relieved monotony and front gardens and wicket gates encouraged personal display.

by Alan Powers

Listing description: Windmill Green