Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths Around Folkestone takes the reader on a sinister journey through the annals of crime in Folkestone, Hythe and the surrounding area. Along the way we meet villains, murderers and victims of many kinds, including cut-throat soldiers, a 'baby farmer', a Jack the Ripper imposter, two inexplicable suicides and five individuals who died violent deaths in the 'House of Horror'.There is no shortage of harrowing and revealing incidents of evil to recount, many of wh...

In this, a companion volume to his definitive history of Yorkshires pleasure piers, Martin Easdown turns his expert attention westward to the Lancashire coast. His highly illustrated survey of the piers constructed at famous resorts like Blackpool, Morecambe, Southport and St Annes-on-Sea celebrates structures that are among the most exuberant and evocative of the Victorian age. Each of these historic piers has its own character and story, yet all of them represent the optimistic style of ...

The nineteenth-century craze for building pleasure piers around the coast of Britain has left a legacy of seaside fun unmatched around the world. Although some of Britain’s piers have succumbed to fire and storm damage over the years, over fifty of these remarkable structures are still standing today. A number were built with railways and tramways to convey holidaymakers to the end of the pier, several of which survive today. These include the longest pier, at Southend-on-Sea, which opened...

Hythe is situated on the south-east coast of Kent, just 25 miles or so from France. One of the famous Cinque Ports, Hythe also became a popular seaside resort in the Edwardian era, providing fetes, fairs, donkey derbies, and bathing huts for its many visitors. Like all settlements, Hythe has had to alter and change, but unlike many, it has managed to retain its charm as a small English town steeped in history. Hythe continued to flourish in the interwar years, being advertised as the 'Prid...

The unique, but sadly short-lived, Brighton & Rottingdean Seashore Electric Railway must have presented quite an amazing spectacle, even during those late Victorian days of engineering excellence. Affectionately known as the ‘Daddy-Long-Legs’, ‘spider car’ or ‘sea car’, the railway resembled a piece of seaside pier that had broken away and was moving by itself through the sea. Although closed over a hundred years ago, interest in the Daddy-Long-Legs Railway remains strong and it has become...

The attractive seaside town of Hythe, on the south-east coast of Kent, is one of the famous Cinque Ports. With an illustrious history of guarding this vulnerable corner of England, Hythe blossomed into a quiet seaside resort famed for its Royal Military Canal, attractive old High Street and macabre collection of skulls and bones in the parish church crypt. The beauty and charm of Hythe was captured in the many picture postcards of the town issued from the beginning of the twentieth century...

Country houses were the showpieces of the nation’s elite and Kent can still boast some of the finest examples, with Leeds Castle, Chevening, Cobham Hall, Knole, Penshurst Place, Mereworth and Broome Park to name but a few. Sadly, the county has also witnessed the demolition of several of its grander houses due to changes in social habits and the decline and amalgamation of great estates, not to mention fire, dry rot and death duties. Estates of modern houses now cover the site of the many ...

Hythe History Tour is a unique insight into the fascinating history of this attractive seaside town on the south-east coast of Kent and shows just how much it has changed during the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Readers are invited to follow local authors and historians Martin Easdown and Linda Sage as they guide them along its streets, canal-side and seafront, pointing out the well-known and lesser-known landmarks along the way.

One of the most evocative reminders of Victorian ingenuity at the British seaside is the much-loved cliff lift. This simple method of transporting people up and down the cliff side has been a feature of our coast, and a few inland towns, for over 150 years and has recently undergone a renaissance at places as varied as the National Coal Mining Museum, Legoland and the Centre for Alternative Technology. The cliff lift, otherwise termed the cliff railway or tramway, is also known as a funicu...

Despite their popular association with fun and frivolity, the function of piers as both an amusement centre and landing stage was varied, and nowhere was this better illustrated than on the coasts of Hampshire, the Isle of Wight and east Dorset. The area's association with piers dates right back to 1814 with the opening of Ryde Pier, often regarded as the earliest in the United Kingdom. Southampton opened a landing pier for steamers in 1833 and Portsmouth and Gosport followed suit in the 1...

Wales is known for its green hills and valleys, narrow gauge steam railways and medieval castles, but not, it appears, for its pleasure piers. This is a shame, as the country has some of the finest surviving piers in England and Wales, with three particularly fine examples. Llandudno, 'Queen of the Welsh Resorts', has an elegant pier to match that title. The pier is Grade II listed and has retained much of its Victorian ambience. It is often used for film and television work requiring a Vi...

A ride on a rollercoaster is the highlight of any trip to an amusement or theme park, and such attractions have been entertaining the public for well over a century.From the first mass-produced rollercoaster, the Switchback Railway, through to the giant wooden coasters of the inter-war period, seaside historian Martin Easdown uses historic postcards and photographs to chart their development and that of other amusement rides including revolving towers, aerial rides...