Houses, The Green, Worsley Road, Worsley

In 1903, the Bridgewater Trust, set up under the will of the Duke of Bridgewater expired, and Francis Charles Egerton (1847-1914), the 3rd Earl of Ellesmere set up the Ellesmere Trust in order to facilitate the management of his estates at Worsley. He was succeeded by his son, John Francis Egerton (1872-1944). 

The Green was originally the site of the workshops and yard associated with the canal and mines at Worsley but these workshops were transferred to Walkden in 1903. In an early example of post-industrial land reclamation, the Earl’s agent, Henry Hart Green, wrote in 1904, “I am turning the old Worsley Yard into a kind of Village Green, with houses for his Lordship’s employees.”

In Pevsner’s South East Lancashire, Clair Hartwell attributes most if not all the houses on the Green to Douglas and Minshull.  Hart Davis certainly approved plans by Douglas and Minshull for a block of four cottages in 1905 (but requested the bathrooms be omitted for fear of misuse).

Although it is suggested that these houses are early examples of the Garden City Movement, it is more probable that the Earl of Ellesmere was attempting to transform the area into a more traditional, less industrial, estate village associated with Worsley New Hall. Douglas and Minshull, having carried out work for the Duke of Westminster on his Cheshire estates and W H Lever at Port Sunlight were thus well-versed in this building type.

The houses round the Green were sold by 4th Earl in Sept/Oct 1919 to raise monies to pay death duties on his father's estate.

The numbering system is that of the whole of the Ellesmere estate, rather than street numbers.

Individual blocks are listed separately