England's longest running rural arts initiative
Photographs by James Ravilious from 1972 - 1989
Towards the end of the last century, James Ravilious created an "endless tapestry"
of life in rural north Devon. This site holds digital scans of the 1,700 negatives
which he regarded as his finest work.
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Roger Deakins
A collection of over 40 images taken by Roger Deakins during a one year residency at Beaford in the early 1970s.
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Beaford Old Archive
James Ravilious's project to collect older images of North Devon to add to the archive.
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Archive Shop
Books, cards and postcards for sale featuring the photographs of James Ravilious.
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Visit the Beaford Archive website
The Beaford Archive website features a searchable database of over 1,700 images of North Devon and it's people, photographed by James Ravilious.
Visit the new Beaford Archive site
The Beaford Old Archive
more than 7,000 rural images from 1870-1940
As well as making his own "endless tapestry" of rural north Devon life from 1972-1989, James Ravilious also initiated a project to collect older images of the area.
Inspired by a local WI meeting, James began to ask his subjects whether they had any old photographs which they thought might be interest.
He collected these images by rephotographing them, working closely with his colleague George Tucker to build what they called the "Old Archive".
Scans of the negatives making up the Old Archive are available in a searchable online database here
Visiting the Beaford Archive
The Archive itself is in fact a vast collection of negatives. As you’ll appreciate, these need expert handling and preservation – some are already suffering from fungal growth. For that reason, unfortunately the Archive isn’t open to public and is stored in atmosphere-controlled conditions in the North Devon Record Office.
In this section
Buy prints online
High quality prints of individual images from James Ravilious's "endless tapestry" of life in rural north Devon can be purchased from the Beaford Archive website.
"one of the great artistic and documentary achievements of photography in the 20th century"
The Independent
" … a unique body of work, unparalleled at least in this country for its scale and quality"
Barry Lane, Secretary General, Royal Photographic Society, April 1998
"These photographs, anything but nostalgic, reveal the persistence of an England one had thought long gone"
Alan Bennett