23 AUGUST 1935, Page 15

The Happy Craftsman

• The other day I came up a little narrow valley cut by a hill stream ; and towards the top of it, while yet the water had six miles to cut a yet deeper passage to the sea, I saw two water-wheels, at the edge of a lamlet of five or six houses. The quiet place was very busy. One wheel was helping the work of quarrying granite, the other drove a line of machines within a sort of stone barn, that proved on closer acquaint- ance to be a very efficient factory. Here was that blessed thing, decentralisation, with a vengeance. All the workers were much more than extra-urban. They were working, with economic efficiency, in a most lovely spot that was too small to be called even a village. This factory was, in short, in the deep, deep country.