Poundbury is the large housing development under construction on the edge of Dorchester in Dorset. Famous for being the brain-child of Prince Charles, all the houses are built in a traditional style.  

On a recent visit to a friend in Dorchester I was taken on a tour of the development and wondered – if the 6,000 home Strategic Development does come to north of Hedge End – how much could be learnt from Dorchester’s experiences.

Built on land owned by the Duchy of Cornwall, Poundbury is being built in phases. Due for completion in 2025, the development will, according to the Duchy of Cornwall website, add 5,000 to the population of Dorchester and there will be 2,000 people in work across the site, in factories, offices and other amenities.

The buildings visible from the A35 have always seemed rather stark, perched on a still relatively un-landscaped hilltop – and so I wasn’t prepared for how attractive the buildings and layout are up close. From elegant townhouses in Georgian crescents to definitive chocolate-box cottages with roses around the door, I could certainly have stepped back a century in time and it was genuinely impossible to distinguish the renovated original dwellings from the newly-constructed. The market square could have been a costume-drama film-set.

There are plenty of green spaces, and the medical centre (with surgeries for doctors and dentists) is state of the art – ‘Fabulous to work in,’ according to Sue Criswick, clinical researcher as well as being my tour guide for the day, ‘And absolutely beautiful – more like an art gallery.’

But the whole place has the feel of a model village. Partly that’s because of the lack of people on the streets. Compared with the bustle of Dorchester town centre (a five minute drive away) the streets were deserted and the fabulous playground empty – Poundbury has a reputation for being full of retired people and second home owners.

There are also few cars on the roads. Their use is discouraged and the road layout has been constructed to be ‘deliberately inconvenient’ for cars. We needed numerous about-turns to complete our tour.

The main reason for the air of unreality, though, is that everything fits so neatly. There is nothing that is ugly or appears out of place in the fine design – and that doesn’t happen in real life.

There's no incongruous block of flats where a grand house might once have stood. There are no terraces with the end house converted to a Chinese take-away or newsagents. There are few shops at all. We passed only one – an expensive-looking carpet shop – and indeed my friend confirmed that the development has put pressure on existing shopping facilities, as it has on places for schools.

That 30,000 people visit the development each year just to have a look adds to the feeling of it being a visitor attraction.

So, would a Poundbury-type development fit in here?

What do Hedgeendpeople think?

Certainly 30,000 visitors arriving for a guided tour would certainly clog up the roads in and around Hedge End.

However, Poundbury does have a chocolate factory, the House of Dorchester.

And personally, I think all new developments should include a chocolate factory...