Dumfries, a market town in south-west Scotland known as the Queen of the South, is the administrative capital of the Dumfries and Galloway region and has a population of almost 32,000. Dumfries has a turbulent and sometimes bloody history with links to the Roman occupation of Britain, Bonnie Prince Charlie’s failed Jacobite uprising, the colonisation of America and imperialism. Most famously Scotland’s bard, Robert Burns, spent his final years in Dumfries with many places in the town havin...

The market town of Castle Douglas, beside Carlingwark Loch in the southern Scottish region of Dumfries and Galloway, is relatively new, though the area has been inhabited from prehistoric times and the Romans had a military base close by. In the fourteenth century, Archibald the Grim, the 3rd Earl of Douglas, built Threave Castle nearby. The town came into being thanks to fertiliser found in the loch and wealthy merchant William Douglas, who laid out the present town in 1792. Though his dr...

This walk is one of twelve walks in John Wilks' Walks Through History - Birmingham series which contains twelve walks within the city. The whole book is available as an ebook or physical book or you could try this one out first. The book is a celebration of the beauty and poetry of the county. Each walk in this book has been chosen not only because it is a pleasant walk in its own right, but also because it goes past sites which reveal the rich and varied history of the county. Each walk i...

Felixstowe owes its existence to the 19th-century fashion for seaside holidays when the gentry and businessmen chose to build their summer residences in the parishes of Walton and Felixstowe. In earlier centuries Walton had been the more significant settlement, with a manor and a castle. Even the later fort guarding the Suffolk side of Harwich harbour was often considered to be part of Essex. When the Dutch landed on the Common in 1667 and were defeated by Land guard Fort's garrison, all E...

Hereford Through Time is a unique insight into the illustrious history of this part of the country. Reproduced in full colour, this is an exciting examination of Hereford, the famous streets and the famous faces, and what they meant to the people of this area throughout the 19th and into the 20th Century. Looking beyond the exquisite exterior of these well-kept photos, readers can see the historical context in which they are set and through the author's factual captions for every picture, ...

This new collection of images traces some of the changes that have taken place in and around this vibrant community over the centuries. It is a town with a long and surprising history, which began with the imposing Norman castle in the control of the infamous Mortimer family. Due to its position in the borderlands, by the Tudor period it became the virtual capital of neighbouring Wales, and the castle was home to some of the country's best known nobles.Though the town's importance declined...

East Kilbride Through Time is a unique insight into the illustrious history of this part of the country. Reproduced in full colour, this is an exciting examination of East Kilbride, the famous streets and the famous faces, and what they meant to the people of this area throughout the 19th and into the 20th Century. Looking beyond the exquisite exterior of these well-kept photos, readers can see the historical context in which they are set, and through the author's factual captions for ever...

The unique profile of Edinburgh was born of a marriage between nature's sculpture and man's architecture. The epicentre is Castle Rock - a volcanic plug - which constantly draws the eye from all parts of the city. Sloping down from it is a jagged outline of impossibly high medieval tenements lining the Royal Mile which is punctuated at the foot of the tail of glacial debris by Holyrood Palace. That Edinburgh is beautiful is not in doubt.It is a city blended in to the countryside, with the ...

Bucknall to Cellarhead Through Time follows a short stretch of the A52 from the ancient village of Bucknall, at the edge of the Stoke-on-Trent conurbation, to Cellarhead in the Staffordshire Moorlands. Although often thought of as simply a route out of ‘the city’, this area, like everywhere else in England boasts a rich history. It is a journey of just four miles, beginning in densely populated Stoke and ending in the countryside of the Staffordshire Moorlands. Bucknall, which appeared in ...

Abingdon History Tour is a unique insight into the illustrious history of this Oxfordshire town. This is an exciting guided walk around Abingdon, its well-known streets and striking buildings, and explains what they meant to the people of this town throughout the nineteenth and into the twentieth century. Readers are invited to follow a timeline of events and watch the changing face of Abingdon as Pamela Horn guides us through the local streets.

For centuries Uxbridge, whose origins lie in Saxon times, was a market town serving much of West Middlesex and South Buckinghamshire. At one time there were thirteen water mills in the area where corn was processed. Situated on the London - Oxford road, it was an important town in the stagecoach era. This collection of images old and new charts the history of the area, and reveals many hidden aspects of this urban sprawl. In the early twentieth century London sprawled out westward, and the...

A glorious insight into the history, landscape and people of Britain, from The Sunday Times bestseller.The Scottish west coast was one of the most challenging stretches of line to confront railway engineers. Extreme gradients, curves, bogs and scree left them scrambling around for ideas, but the result is one of the most scenic railway journeys in the world. En route Michael Portillo discovers local authors such as Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott, local industries including haggi...