A DAIRY farmer from Tytherington has made a foray into the greetings card industry to bring a little bit of home to the community.

Fed-up with the bog standard images of rural scenes available in most card shops these days, Richard Cornock decided to offer his friends, neighbours and people in the region the opportunity to buy local prints representing not just any meadow or luxuriant green fields but those right on their doorstep.

He unearthed four shots captured while putting together a book on rural life on his farm a few years ago and turned them into top of line greetings cards.

The four rural scenes feature buttercups in a hay meadow, bluebells in the woods, a ‘happy cow’, and a dandelion-seed head.

Mr Cornock said: "Three years ago I had a book published called 'A Year on a Dairy Farm' featuring photos of day-to-day life on the farm over a whole year. As well as showing the work on the farm, I also photographed the beautiful countryside and wildlife that surrounds us.

"The book proved very popular and a number of people said I should do something else with the pictures. It’s nice for people to have the chance to buy a greetings card featuring local photographs rather than ones taken hundreds of miles away. In this way people can send a little piece of Gloucestershire through the post."

The cards are now available from Surroundings gift shop in St Mary Street in Thornbury.

Owner Richard Edwards told the Gazette the card had been a hit with townspeople.

"They have been so popular," he said. "The familiar scenes seem to strike a chord in the same way Rich's book did."

The cards are also on sale at Tytherington Village Shop and at www.richardcornock.co.uk