Beningfields English Villages

Gordon Beningfield is one of the country's finest and best-loved painters of the English landscape. His campaigning for the English countryside encompasses a passionate concern for the conservation of our villages. Encircled by its rural landscape, the ideal village is made of local materials, with local people and local occupations in mind. But all too often villages no longer reflect their location.In Beningfield's English Villages, the author went in search of traditional village life, finding special places with interesting architecture, wildlife and country characters. Here he records in words and pictures what he found.Cottages, people, shops, windmills, oast-houses, orchards, churches, ponds - all are delightfully recorded here. And in his quest for the perfect village there were many moments of pure magic: a cricket match, washing on the line in a cottage garden, the laying of a hedge, the discovery of an old-fashioned post office or a surprisingly attractive little garden.The result is a wonderfully evocative and beautiful celebration of the English village in all its glory.