The burbs

When S and his family moved into their new-build house in 1964, it was one of the first post-war houses to be built on the outskirts of a small traditional village. Over the years a few extra streets of large detached houses were added, and the orchard behind the house built over, as the village is handy commuter distance from Middlesbrough, but there were still fields at the end of the road and views over open countryside from the upstairs windows.

In the last three or four years the building boom has gone berserk. Just since the last time we visited a year ago, a hundred new houses have gone up or are under construction. Gated communities with at least two cars outside every house and lawns and flowerbeds manicured to within an inch of their lives (or in a few cases actual astroturf to save the bother).

The really bizarre thing is that since the general store and post office closed about five years ago, the only shop in this booming village is ... a nail bar. There is still a pub, but no bus services. If you need stamps or just run out of milk or eggs, you have to get in the car and drive a few miles to the local shopping centre. It's such a shame seeing the green meadows giving way to acres of housing without any corresponding community benefits being added. At least some of the magnificent old trees have been retained, adding a certain rural charm to the burbs.

Extra: a speckled wood butterfly seen in the little patch of woodland that has been saved from the bulldozers thanks to a local community group -- a lovely place to walk just yards from the constant traffic rumbling by on the main road.