THERE were many attempts by companies to provide housing for their workers before the First World War but very few can match Vickerstown, on Walney, in still having the industry which prompted its development.

By 1899 Vickers shipyard – now BAE Systems Submarines – had bought the Isle of Walney Estates Company which by 1904 had built 930 houses.

The company had bought 341 acres of land at £100 per acre and aimed to provide a “marine garden city” complete with churches, public halls, sports pitches, parks and the King Alfred Hotel.

The whole project cost £413,900 and the new industrial suburb was given a major boost with the 1908 opening of what we now call Jubilee Bridge.

The acute need for accommodation for munitions workers during the First World War saw the building of a cinema, the George Hotel and another 610 houses at a cost of £150,000.

Port Sunlight, on the Wirral, was developed as a model village from 1888 for the workers who made Sunlight soap bars for Lever Brothers.

It contains 900 Grade II listed buildings and has been a conservation area since 1978.

Saltaire, near Shipley, was built as a model village for workers from 1851 by Sir Titus Salt.

Textile production ended at his giant woollen mill in 1986.

It is now home to shops, cafes and exhibition spaces but retains many of its original features. Since 2001 Saltaire has been a World Heritage Site.

Even though Barrow developed at a break-neck speed in the 1860s and 1870s it avoided the worst excesses of many new industrial communities as the town’s founding fathers used their dominant position to insist on minimum standards.

It missed out on the back-to-back housing which led to overcrowding and poor sanitary conditions in much of the industrial North and Midlands.

Almost all of those houses were cleared away by the 1970s but you can still take a guided tour round the Birmingham Back to Backs.

This set of 19th century working people’s houses built around a courtyard with shared toilets and washhouse have been carefully restored by the National Trust.

There are narrow staircases and dark, small rooms packed with artefacts which give a feel for how families lived – and in some cases also worked to make everything from watch parts to glass eyes.

The houses can be found on the corner of Hurst Street and Inge Street, near New Street Station and are open daily, except Monday, from 10am during the school holidays.