Restoration Village - Hardcover

Many villages in Britain today are battling for their very survival. The original reasons for their existence and the working lifeblood that gave them their wonderful individuality fishing, mining, agriculture, seaside holidays etc., have gradually disappeared. The result is that the fabric of Britain is rapidly changing. An awful blandness is creeping over large parts of the countryside at all points of the compass. Restoration Village, working in partnership with rural regeneration agencies, identifies three villages in seven regions: North, South, East, West, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. All 20 villages have a building that was once a lively much-loved part of the village - schools, shops, pubs, chapels, village halls together with warehouses, factories, barns where the village once held dances, or simply a building whose purpose everyone has forgotten and that now stands boarded up and sad. The chosen buildings each have a unique social history and all are in public or trust ownership. Whatever the building, it is given a new life for the 21st century, recreating a village hub that will reverse the decline of the village, raise morale, bring people together and galvanise them to action. This work contains a foreword by Ptolemy Dean.

by Philip Wilkinson

Williams' advertising and editorial clients include such major corporations as Ralph Lauren and Credit Lyonnais. His award-winning photography has been featured in major cookbooks and flower arranging books.

Bruce Marshall is the author of Building New York (2005). Ptolemy Dean is a leading British architect and host of the popular television program, Restoration.