Wiltshire village exhibits Martin Parr’s final photos of scarecrows and prize veg

The images are colourful, characterful and thought-provoking. They capture a flower show, a Women’s Institute meeting, a scarecrow festival. A local vicar features, resplendent in a union jack bowler hat, as does a band of bellringers and a bulldog called Billy. Rev Si Dunn, resplendent in his union jack bowler hat. Photograph: Martin Parr/Magnum Photos Four decades after chronicling life in the picture-postcard English village of Lacock in Wiltshire, the photographer Martin Parr returned to document what had changed – and what had not. The results of the project , which turned out to be Parr’s final commission and was completed just months before his death last December , are going on show at the National Trust’s Lacock Abbey. Andy Cochrane, curator at Lacock, said working with Parr – who was globally recognised for his wry observations of ordinary Britons and British life – was a joy. He said Parr had been careful to make sure the village was on board. “It had to be a community effort. I don’t think it would have worked if it had just been the National Trust working with a Magnum photographer . It needed to be a grassroots project. “Martin explained what he was intending to do and people began to invite him to their clubs, into their homes to meet their families. …