Since the development of photography in the middle of the last century, the picture of our past provided by the written chronicle, the museum artefact or by failing memory has been augmented by the most vivid and immediate relic of former times, the photograph. Authenticating even as it describes, the photograph is of its time in a way that other representations of the past are not. This photographic journey recalls the final years in the life of the two canals, now being restored by the C...

This volume completes a trilogy of albums dedicated to capturing as much as possible of the evidence from historic photographs of two famous canals which together linked the rivers Severn and Thames. Today this route, now in part under active restoration, is known as the Cotswold Canals, a snappy modern name for the historic Stroudwater Navigation, opened in 1779, and the Thames & Severn Canal through which the first boat passed ten years later. Gathering over 800 images together in three ...

The scenic beauty of the canals' route through the Golden Valley provided professionals and amateur photographers of the 1870-1930 period with a plethora of subjects. Therefore, the commercial and pleasure aspects of the stretch from Eastington to Cirencester have been well recorded. As much of the two canals, especially the Thames & Severn, has been destroyed, this collection endeavours to show how they appeared and were used before closure. However, this pictorial record is not devoted s...

Sunderland 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 Sunderland, 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. Through the author's factual captions for every picture,...

The railway network within Birmingham has long been important for the movement of passengers and freight to serve the centre and its suburbs, and as the road network around Birmingham has become more congested, the railways in the city have, once more, taken on an important role. As the network declined in the twentieth century, trains were regarded as shabby and also suffered from poor punctuality and stations became unkempt and many had no staff, although the majority of the network rema...

Liverpool has many railway ‘firsts’ in the world: an inter-city service, an electrified overhead railway, a large-scale marshalling yard, a deep-level suburban tunnel and one under a tidal estuary. In Britain it can boast of other firsts: an escalator in a railway station, conversion from steam to electricity and the first main-line electrification, a widely reported death in a railway accident, a proper train shed constructed of iron and glass and automatic signalling and electric signal ...

Birmingham is famously reputed to have more miles of canals than Venice. These canals contributed much to the city's growth, bringing coal and merchandise from the surrounding areas. As the city prospered economically, it continued to grow and absorb neighbouring communities, a process in many ways bound together by the waterways. Although part of the national network, Birmingham's canals, including the Worcester & Birmingham, the Stratford-upon-Avon and the Birmingham Can...

Each of Sheppey's towns and villages is steeped in history and heritage. The island was where British aviation was born and came of age. The former dockyard is now little more than an industrial estate and the riotous dockside area, Blue Town is today just a quiet backwater. It's now hard to think of people like Pepys, Nelson, Collingwood, et al walking the streets of Blue Town but they once did.The area connecting Blue Town to Queenborough was once a thriving community known as West Minst...

Lytham St Annes has always been a bit posh, the yin to its neighbour Blackpool’s yang, and home to no fewer than four golf courses, including the illustrious Royal Lytham St Annes. The town actually comprises the two separate towns of Lytham and St Annes, which are joined together at Fairhaven Lake. Lytham is the older of the two, while St Annes-on-Sea (as it used to be known) was a planned town laid out by a Victorian mill owner for a better class of holidaymaker, its grid pattern of wide...

The Broads Through Time is a unique insight into the illustrious history of this part of Norfolk. Reproduced in full colour, this is an exciting examination of the well-known streets and 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, and careful...

Lowestoft, on the Sunrise Coast, is as far east as you can be in the United Kingdom without getting your feet wet. Once a major fishing port, the town was reinvented by Samuel Morton Peto in the nineteenth century as a resort to rival Brighton. Suffering from the decline of these industries, Lowestoft now seeks to become the onshore centre for the renewable energies industry. Michael Rouse's photographs chart some of these changes, from the loss of the old fishing industry to the town's ne...

‘The Gustav Holst Way’ is the first guidebook to describe the 35-mile rambling route across the Cotswolds to celebrate the life and work of the composer Gustav Holst. Published exactly 100 years after Holst began work on The Planets, the route visits many of the places that were important to the young Holst as his musical career took wing. Among the highlights are the house in Cheltenham where he was born (now the Holst Birthplace Museum) and several venues in the Cotswolds where he played...