Barn Building, The Golden Age of Barn Construction,  is Jon Radojkovic's latest attempt to preserve a piece of our rural heritage that is quickly disappearing from the landscape.

His new book, published by Boston Mills Press, chronicles the "golden age" of barn building from the early 1700s to the mid-twentieth century. It explores their variety, pays tribute to the craftsmanship of their builders and explores the lives they led.

From the early log barn structures that can still be found near Bancroft, to the larger, Old World-inspired designs that used heavy timber frame construction used in some of Europe's great cathedrals, Radojkovic, follows the history of the lowly barn.

He writes with an intimate knowledge of his subjects, having earned his living building and repairing the huge timber frame barns that dot the Grey-Bruce landscape for more than 20 years.

The freelance journalist and photographer lives on a farm in Sullivan Township, northeast of Chesley and has written numerous articles about historical buildings.

This is Radojkovic's second book about barns. His first, Barns of the Queen's Bush, was strictly a local effort, while this time he has ventured further a field, traveling across Ontario, Quebec, and the northeastern United States.

Over a two-year period, Radojkovic traveled thousands of miles and visited hundreds of farms, taking more than 4,500 slide on his 35m Nikon. He managed to narrow them down to 250 photographs, including 30 from the Grey-Bruce area.

Radojkovic  travelled with a laptop computer and a scanner so he could copy old, archival photographs right on the spot.

"I like to use the old photographs to compare with the scene today, to see how things have changed over the years, maybe how they've stayed the same," said Radojkovic.

"These magnificent structures are disappearing from our landscape. They will never be built again because we don't have the trees or the expertise to build them."

Radojkovic has a keen eye for detail and perspective. His beautiful colour photographs capture the character and purpose of these old buildings that were designed and built by the pioneers who settled this land.

That's what sets his book apart from other coffee table books about barns that often use stock photography.

"I went to every place. I took the photo. I interviewed the owner," he said.

It gives the narrative a real personal touch - a little bit like The Bridges of Madison County, without the romance.

"It gave me the taste... the flavour of where I was," he explained.

He would drive up out of the blue, and say "That's a great looking barn you've got there. What can you tell me about it."

A lot of times the stories he heard had nothing to do with the barn, but were more about the people who had built them and worked the land over the past 300 years.

"We're losing a lot of these structures. You can see them falling down all around the county here and it's a shame," he said, adding not only are we losing the barns, but an entire generation that still has a close relationship with the pioneers who cleared the land and built the farms that once were the backbone of the economy.

In one photo, he pays tribute to a neighbour of his, Lloyd Chittick, who passed away a few years back, who worked the land his entire life and was a wealth of knowledge.

The barns he features come in all shapes and sizes, from the long barns of Quebec, where the size was dictated by Samuel Chaplain; to the round barns of the northern United States, a "fad" promoted by the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture around the turn of the century.

"These round and polygonal barns show an amazing architectural concept and skill of design in their construction," said Radojkovic.

Others, like the "Pork Palace, " which looks like an upscale resort hotel in Muskoka, speak of a time when farmers made money and they re-invested it in their property and buildings.

Radojkovic ends his book with a photograph of a Grey County barn he took in the late 1970s.

"These amazing buildings will never be built again so it's important to preserve then as part of our common history," he writes.

This beautiful coffee table book is available for $35 at local book stores in Meaford, Collingwood and Owen Sound, or online through Indigo, amazon.com or Chapters.