2-8, Poplar Grove

This is a terrace of eight cottages, numbered 2-8 Poplar Grove, built between 1902 and 1905. Designed by Parker and Unwin for the Joseph Rowntree Village Trust, the terrace is constructed of whitewashed brick with a French tile roof. The cottages are arranged in two pairs, and each has a living room extending through the width of the house. They are two storeys high, with eight first-floor windows and paired gables emphasizing the second and third, and sixth and seventh bays. Original half-glazed double doors are present, along with the distinctive "New Earswick" window panes throughout. Each house has a recessed porch sheltering the front door, above which is a fanlight. The porch is flanked by a two-light casement window and an altered opening, now containing a window with a vented half-height door below, but originally the entrance to a W C, with a single-pane larder window completing the frontage. Continuous tile trim accents all features. The first floor has three-light casement windows in the gables, and lower three-light casements on the left and right sides. Chimney stacks have been removed. The development of New Earswick and these cottages is significant in the context of British social history, particularly for its contribution to the development of low-cost housing. The experience and practices employed here influenced the 1918 Tudor Walters Report, which in turn led to the 1919 Addison Act, and subsequent Government Manuals on low-cost housing.