Back to the future

THE predominant image of the modern day housing development is of lines of identical boxes standing in neat rows.

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From the outside number one looks exactly the same as number 99, and it always seems -especially when they've been built on a green-field site - with addresses like Kingfisher Crescent or Heron Drive.

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But times are changing. Developers are becoming increasingly aware that while buyers appreciate all the mod-cons and the lack of the expensive maintenance bills that burden those with older properties, they want a bit of character as well.

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��Press Association

HRH's Poundbury Village

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While government committees have since proclaimed it as the way forward for urban design, critics see it as a step backwards, a 'Thomas Hardy theme park' as one described it.

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The first phase of Poundbury is now almost complete and the houses, from large detached to terraced, are selling well. So well, in fact, that prices have doubled within three years.

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At Poundbury the buyer gets a house which aims to combine the individualism of older properties with all the advantages of modern house-building techniques like up-to-the-minute heat insulation, better interior design and built-in computer cabling. Outside there are winding streets and communal areas where the population can bump into one another and pass the time of day.

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Similar mixed-property ventures are now springing up all over the country and proving very popular.

Major players like Westbury Homes and Redrow have embraced the theme.

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Westbury's Shilling Green, near Shaftesbury, Dorset, has been built to feel like a traditional English country town, while Redrow's Whittle Hall Farm development near Chorley, Cheshire, looks more like a country estate, surrounded by buildings designed to look like converted stables, barns and cottages.

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For more information telephone Westbury Homes on (01747 850657) or Redrow on (01257 260079).