Exmoor is one of southern England's few remaining wild landscapes. In this area there are a scattering of attractive villages and the occasional town. Exmoor's importance to the nation is recognised in its protected status as a National Park, and it covers much of western Somerset and an adjacent area of Devon. This book looks at a selection of those villages, including historic Dunster, Selworthy, and the popular Porlock. Dulverton, Lynton and Lynmouth also feature. Views of many of the i...

Between Sidmouth and Beer lies one of England's most attractive coastlines. This book uses pairs of historic and modern photographs to explore this coast and four settlements along it - the popular tourist town of Sidmouth and some of its hinterland, Salcombe Regis hidden in its little valley, the dispersed Branscombe which is really a series of several villages, and Beer with its little sheltered cove that was an ideal base for fishermen. The varied geology, from the red sandstone around ...

Brothels and taverns, alehouses and inns, Portsmouth has seen it all. Many of the old port’s drinking establishments have historic and literary associations, as well as stories of their own to tell. Most of the older ones can be found in and around Old Portsmouth, including the survivors of the numerous pubs that once clustered around the dockyards, providing food and drink for naval personnel and other seafarers. Others date from the expansion of the city beyond the old defences and becam...

The city of Portsmouth has a long literary history. It is perhaps best-known as the birthplace of Charles Dickens in 1812, and the house in which he was born is one of the city's many tourist attractions. In the 1880s H. G. Wells spent several years here as an apprentice and his unhappy experiences of this time were brought out in some of his later novels. Around the same time, Arthur Conan Doyle came to Portsmouth and set up a medical practice, while also continuing his budding writing ca...

Dorchester History Tour is a unique insight into the illustrious history of this famous Dorset town. This is an exciting guided walk around the town, its well-known streets and historic sites, and explains what they meant to local people throughout its eventful history. Readers are invited to take a tour and watch the changing face of Dorchester as Steve Wallis guides us through the local streets.

In these days of ubiquitous, non-stop media and information you would think that there were few secrets anywhere left to reveal. However, when it comes to the grand old city of Portsmouth, there remain a surprising number of facts and idiosyncrasies which, over the years, have remained obscure, to say the least. Secret Portsmouth is an historical journey through one of England’s oldest sea ports, unearthing nuggets of its early history and revealing many hidden secrets and little-known det...

Lyme Regis is Dorset’s most westerly town, lying hard by the Devon border. It is famous as one of the main attractions of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site, and also has important literary connections with Jane Austen and is the setting for John Fowles’ novel The French Lieutenant’s Woman. Historically, Lyme Regis was a port and fishing town, and its centre extends up a steep hill from the coast. Lyme Regis Through Time looks at the old part of the town in particular, together with it...

The Thames is justifiably known as ‘London’s river’. It flows through the heart of the capital and has played a pivotal role in the city’s expansion and success. The river’s bridges are among London’s most iconic features and many other major landmarks (the Houses of Parliament and the Tower of London to name but two) lie beside it. Throughout the city, numerous other historic sites and features along the river remind us of its historic importance. But the Thames belongs not just to London...

Bridport is a thriving market town in western Dorset. It lies a short distance inland of a spectacular section of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site, and is surrounded by some equally attractive hilly countryside. Although the town originated in Saxon times, it expanded a great deal in the Middle Ages, partly due to the success of the local rope industry. Many of its products were used in the local fishing and shipbuilding industries, which were concentrated around Bridport Harbour. At...

Wiltshire is one of the largest counties in southern England and has a wide variety of landscapes, from river valleys lined with picturesque villages to the expanses and open skies of Salisbury Plain. It is also a vibrant county where things have changed regularly. In keeping up with the times, though, it has kept much of what is best about its past, and much of the county's charm comes from features that can seem changeless. Individual chapters cover towns, villages, life in Wiltshire and...

Glastonbury is one of Somerset's, if not Britain's, most attractive historical towns. The many ancient buildings are set in a stunning landscape, which together with historic and legendary connections to figures such as King Arthur and Joseph of Arimathea, have attracted visitors for centuries. The old views mostly date from the first half of the twentieth century, while the modern images were taken by the author. The photographs are laid out as an absorbing tour of Glastonbury. This first...

Swanage lies in a particularly attractive corner of Dorset, in a sheltered bay overlooked by the Purbeck Hills, with chalk cliffs along the coast and views across to the Isle of Wight. Until late Victorian times it was a fishing village and transfer point where locally quarried Purbeck stone was loaded onto ships that took it to London and the wider world. Many of the old images in this book capture the expansion of Swanage around a century ago when it was evolving into the thriving holida...