ROCK star Brian May’s quest for a lost village has ended – in Hinton Waldrist.

The tiny village in the Vale of White Horse turns out to be the setting of a collection of old photographs that came to obsess the Queen guitarist.

Since he came across a series of photographs taken in the 1850s, called Scenes in Our Village, Mr May had been trying to find the location of the tiny settlement.

And he has written a book, called A Village Lost and Found, about his search.

Tomorrow he will be speaking about the book and his quest at Blackwell’s Bookshop, in Broad Street, Oxford, at 7pm.

The book grew from the musician’s fascination with 3D images, which began as a boy when he found a 3D picture card of an animal in a packet of Weetabix cereals.

But what really intrigued him was a series of three-dimensional photographs showing life in an unidentified village, featuring local characters like John Sims at his pigsty and reapers in the field.

They were taken by TR Williams, who was once commissioned to photograph Queen Victoria’s family.

Mr May set himself the task of finding the village the photographer had managed to keep secret. The breakthrough came when he posted a picture of the village church on the Internet.

He said: “With the help of some kind correspondents we were able to discover what had been hidden for 150 years – the location of the beautiful village of Williams’s vision.”

When Mr May set off for Hinton Waldrist he described it as “a Holy Grail moment”.

He said: “I found myself standing looking in wonder at the very church which had haunted me for so many years. ”

When he was approached by villagers, taken aback to find a rock star in their midst, he told them of the historical importance of Hinton Wald-rist.

He said: “People knew nothing about Williams or Scenes in Our Village. When they found out it created quite a buzz. I was able to show them how their village used to be.”

The guitarist is now working on a biography of TR Williams.