Sadly, Sutcliffe did not live to see the implementation of all of his plans. In Wavertree, he had designed a purpose-built Garden Suburb Institute on Queens Drive, the foundation stone of which was laid on 4th July 1914. One month later, the First World War broke out, and before long all civilian building work was brought to a halt. In any case, the introduction of rent controls and the inflation of building costs after the war was to make the co-partnership system uneconomic.

Sutcliffe - who had moved to London, and lived at 25 Cannon Place, Hampstead - died in 1915 of heart disease. He was buried in the Baptist Cemetery at Slack, just outside Heptonstall. The centenary of his death gives us an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of a man who - like the garden suburb movement as a whole - was "years ahead of his time" in recognising the importance of house design as a way of improving the health of the nation, and whose aim was to create new communities rather than just 'places to live'.

Above: The 'architect's impression' of Fieldway Square, Wavertree, drawn by Sutcliffe in 1912. He had envisaged tennis courts being built, but the first tenants of the houses petitioned against the idea and the Green was instead left as an open space and a venue for community events.