ALMOST the entire village of Leigh is contained in a new booklet giving a snapshot of residents in the Millennium year.

Photographer Malcolm Scott has compiled the booklet, which has the village's longest standing resident, 80-year-old Harry Banner, on the cover.

Mr Scott said: "I had thought of taking a series of 'then and now' photographs of Leigh as a personal Millennium project, but I found that the old photographic records of the village were, unlike Cradley, not very good.

"For this reason, the project changed to one of photographing all the inhabitants and their houses, so as to provide a complete portrait of the village."

The portraits were included in an exhibition in the Tithe Barn, as part of the village's flower festival in June, and will also be shown in an exhibition at The Architecture Centre, Bristol, at the end of November.

Portraits include the choir and bell ringers of St Edburga's Church, the former postmistress Elizabeth Portman, whose grandfather bought the family home in 1898, and new arrivals, such as Rob Mottram, who moved in last year.

The publication has prompted communication with Bob and Prue Wilesmith, who now live in New Zealand, and may yield a project to record an oral history of the village.

Copies of the book are available from Beacon Books, priced at £6.