FIRST GARDEN CITY

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 April 1938, Page 8

FIRST GARDEN CITY

PORT SUNLIGHT’S GROWTH LONDON, March 2. Port Sunlight, Cheshire, the pioneer industrial garden city, created by the first Viscount Leverhulme, celebrates its Golden Jubilee to-morrow. On March 3,18 SS, the first square of turf was turned with a. silver spade by Mrs. William Hesketh, who afterwards was Lady Lever. The country where Port Sunlight stands along the Mersey, between Bebington and Bromborough, was at that time open fields and marshes, carrying a few scattered slums where Primrose Hill now rises. There were 56 acres of land, 24 intended for the soap factory and 32 for homes for the workpeople. To-day Port Sunlight comprises more than 500 acres, and the first factory lias grown into four, with many auxiliary establishments and a. huge private dock. What 50 years ago was dreary marshland is now a wellplanned town of tree-lined avenues and broad roads. The first of the public buildings, the village hall, was opened by Mr. Gladstone in 1801, and was named after him. Then there were built schools, a library, a church, social clubs, an inn, and in memory of Lady Lever, a beautiful art gallery which contains many British masterpieces and important connections. There is a theatre, a technical institute, an open-air swimming bath

and gymnasium, and a hospital. In founding Port Sunlight, Lord Leverhulme’s purpose was a co-part-nership of capital and labour which he termed “prosperity-sharing,” This principle, is expressed by moderate house-rents, high rates of wages, summer holidays with pay, retirement pensions, good service awards, and, in the past two years, a five-day week with no decrease in pay.