New Ash Green being built, 1968

Span, those midcentury developers known for their swanky estates in Blackheath and Ham Common, decided in the mid-sixties that they fancied an experiment on an altogether larger scale. Their plan: to design and build a modern village in the Kent countryside. The village, New Ash Green, is a beautiful place, notable for the striking Scandinavian-style designs of their genius Eric Lyons. But it overstretched the company, and when the financial collapse of the early seventies took hold, partial backers the GLC pulled out of the village, and Span was left to fold, and with it the village they had begun to create. Now, several decades on, the estate has been hugely extended in sad Brookside fashion by developers Bovis.

Here's a newsreel film made in 1968 by British Pathe, and it shows the non-standard construction and beautiful modern designs in the midst of their creation. Bit of a gem, this.