The Georgian boom in country estates often involved neglect or demolition of housing for local people. Sometimes entire parishes were emptied so Lords if the major were freed from responsibility for their tenants.

There were some impressive exceptions such as the south facing crescent built by the squire of Maugersbury. They were built of Cotswold Stone, of 2 stories and an attic. A large room in the middle of the group was intended as a Sunday School, to teach literacy to working children. Beneath this was a communal oven, furnace and coal store. Each occupant received an acre of land and a pig.

More famous is the estate north of Bristol of where banker Hartford employe John Nash to build a model hamlet. It comprised 9 small gabled detached dwellings, each of separate design. They were arranged around a green but Hartford disapproved of gossip so doorways cannot be seen from the neighbours.

At Warmley another Quaker, William Champion built a row of cottages for his workmen with a clock tower above a shop in the centre. His own house was near a 13 acre lake with a 60 foot high statue of Neptune in the centre.