Art institutions from across the globe have rallied to defend Cookham’s historic landscape, which faces being developed into new homes.

The Cookham Society say they have received “important expressions of support” from a host of different galleries and museums who fear that the landscapes of Cookham, as painted by artist Sir Stanley Spencer, are threatened by developers’ proposals to build 28 houses in the Poundfield area.

Prime Minister Theresa May has previously championed the Save Poundfield campaign, but residents now have extra support from the likes of Stanley Spencer’s former art college.

Professor Susan Collins, from Slade School of Fine Art in London, says she has “deep concerns” about the proposal to build on the green space and urged the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead council to reject the plans.

She said: “Cookham village is a magical place firmly embedded in the art history of this country through one of its most famous former residents, the painter Stanley Spencer.

“Many of his most celebrated works were inspired and painted here. To develop Poundfield would be to irreversibly alter the character of this unique setting.”

Professor Paul Gough, Pro Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia said that at a recent Spencer exhibition in Adelaide, many of the 30 paintings shown featured Cookham. 

He said: “Britain cannot keep so blithely throwing away its cultural heritage to developers; it is a near-criminal waste of cultural value.”

Tim Craven, the curator of art at Southampton City Art Gallery, which holds Spencer’s painting Poundfield, Cookham, added: “I believe that it would be a very great shame and a big cultural mistake if Poundfield were to be built upon, for this unique place with so many important British art historical associations would be changed for ever, indeed spoilt, and to the detriment of our visual arts as well as the local environment.”

Berkeley Homes said their plans to build on the famous site would make it more accessible for those who admire the area.

A design and access statement prepared for the developers said: “The site is currently largely inaccessible to members of the public. Our proposals will open up large areas of the site, providing amenity space and access to the view of Poundfield made famous in the Poundfield painting by Sir Stanley Spencer.”

The council is expected to make a decision on the plans by October 24.