TWO senior residents of Laverton have put their interest in history together to produce a book on their village.

Buckland With Laverton An Ancient Manor, by 92-year-old Elin Dallas and Bridget Fletcher, will be launched by the authors at a coffee morning at Laverton Hall from 10.30am to 11.45am on Sunday.

Their book, illustrated with old photographs and coloured plates, traces the history of the two villages from the earliest days until the break up of the Thynne estate in 1952.

Bridget Fletcher explained: "We have both lived here since the 1960s and the book was Miss Dallas' idea. I was helping a resident research some history on his house, Miss Dallas has always been interested in history and we got together and it just grew from there. It has been very hard work, but we have both enjoyed it very much."

In chapters Today in Buckland and A Walk Round Laverton, readers are taken on a tour of the two villages, bringing their history right up to the present day with explanations of place and house names.

There is one rather poignant extract from the diaries of Arthur Bayston, reflections of a villager, which sadly sums up the changes in village life in the area generally.

He writes: "Where has rural England gone? All the village life is dying out. The village where I lived for more than 20 years, until the outbreak of the Second World War, as I knew it then is no more. In 30 years or so it has completely changed. No farm life, no cows, cattle, sheep or horses, or the people who used to tend them.

"The cattle yards, cow-sheds, pigstyes and cart horse stables have all been turned into holiday accommodation. Some of the lofts had been used to house some of the soldiers as they came back from Dunkirk. Now they are out of use more than they are used.

"The village is strangely quiet. No workers, no tradesmen's vans, and the local dialect, as used by farm workers, gardeners and others, is forgotten. There are only about four people left who have even heard any broad Gloucestershire, and they would hardly know what it meant, let alone be able to use it.

"There is no life in the old houses; they seem empty, although they are occupied. They have to run themselves, there are no servants or workers, and after all, these were the people, who with their children, made the village live; this is where they worked and played, but now they have gone. Some are remembered by their tombs in the churchyard, but none took their place in the village. The big houses used to have two lots of life, from the front door and the back. Visitors and callers to the front, tradesmen and others to the back.

"There is now hardly anyone to go to church, no choir, no bellringers, no club room, no cricket, no tennis or bowls, no Women's Institute, no Mother's Union, no Pig Club or allotments. No village life at all, only what you see on the telly."

The book costs £5 and is being sold in aid of St Michael's Church, Buckland, and Laverton Village Hall.