Restoration Village Author:Philip Wilkinson 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... more » 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 21 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.« less