This scarce book was first published in 1908 and is both expensive and hard to find in its first edition. It provides an absorbing insight into the history of a selection of Manchester streets and their occupants - Cheetham Hill Road, Withy Grove, Shuderhill, Rochdale Road, and Oldham Road. A fascinating read for any local historian. With nine full page illustrations. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasing...

They emerged from the harrowing slums of one of the world's great cities, malnourished youths clad in bizarre fashions. They were the hooligans of their day and for thirty years they held the streets of Manchester and Salford in a grip of fear, fighting pitched battles in a brutal war for supremacy. They delighted in names like the Bengal Tigers and the Little Forty, but to a horrified press and public they were simply 'the scuttlers'.The Gangs of Manchester traces the his...

Strangeways Gaol opened in 1868, and replaced the New Bailey Gaol, where public executions had taken place before their abolition that same year. Strangeways was to be a major location of execution for murders commited in the Northwest of England, for the next 100 years. Between 1869 and 1962 exactly 100 people were hanged, several women included in this number.

The streets of London flourish like possibly no other city on earth, with stories from its rich history, stories of death - fire - disease, of riots, and grisly murders, but also of tales of happiness, determination and success. Behind every story and every street however, are the people who lived, worked, played, and even murdered there.Everyone thinks they know of the legend of Dick Turpin, the gentleman highway robber, but Turpin was far from being the gentleman he was portrayed...

A facsimile edition of Bradshaw's Handbook of 1863, the book that inspired the BBC television series 'Great British Railway Journeys'.When Michael Portillo began the series 'Great British Railway Journeys', a well-thumbed 150-year-old book shot back to fame. The original Bradshaw's guides had been well known to Victorian travellers and were produced when the British railway network was at its peak and as tourism by rail became essential. It was the first n...

A cinematic and thrilling true story exploring the life and catastrophic marriage of Mary Eleanor Bowes, Countess of Strathmore—“a tale of wealth, status, and privilege, laced with lust, greed, [and] pride” (The Times)“Spectacular . . . Serious, perceptive, thoughtful and—by no means least—compulsively readable.”—Jonathan Yardley, The Washington PostWith the death of her fabulously wealthy coal magnate father, Mary Eleanor...

Criminal incidents, accidents, whippings, beatings, jail escapes and hangings were all part of Dublin's 'brilliant parade' in the eighteenth and nineteenth century, including actors, clergymen, scientists, politicians and rogues and rascals of every hue. Hopkins describes the poverty, soup kitchens, food riots, street beggars and workhouses that were all a feature of Dublin life. He also introduces us to the weird, wonderful, and often downright strange customs and pastimes of Dubliners st...

There have been more prisons in London than in any other European city. Of these, Newgate was the largest, most notorious and worst. Built during the twelfth century, it became a legendary place - the inspiration of more poems, plays and novels than any other building in London. It was a place of cruelty and wretchedness, at various times holding Dick Turpin, Titus Oates, Daniel Defoe, Jack Sheppard and Casanova. Because prisons were privately run, any time spent ...

Tyburn is synonymous with the idea of execution - over 50,000 people died there between the twelfth century and 1783. Among those who met their end at Tyburn were William Wallace, the Scottish patriot, Perkin Warbeck, who claimed to be one of the Princes in the Tower and the hated Jonathan Wild, perhaps London's first master criminal. Alan Brooke and David Brandon tell the story of how Tyburn came to be the place of execution and of the rituals and spectacle assoc...

In the early evening of 16 October 1834, to the horror of bystanders, a huge ball of fire exploded through the roof of the Houses of Parliament, creating a blaze so enormous that it could be seen by the King and Queen at Windsor, and from stagecoaches on top of the South Downs. In front of hundreds of thousands of witnesses the great conflagration destroyed Parliament's glorious old buildings and their contents. No one who witnessed the disaster would ever forget it.The events of that Octo...

A beautifully illustrated biography of Thomas Bewick (1753-1828), the man whose art helped shape the way we view the natural worldAt the end of the eighteenth century, Britain, and much of the Western world, fell in love with nature. Thomas Bewick's History of British Birds marked the moment, the first "field guide" for ordinary people, illustrated with woodcuts of astonishing accuracy and beauty. But his work was far more...

In September 1665, plague was inadvertently transported from London to Eyam in Derbyshire on a consignment of cloth. This small country village subsequently became famous for its decision to instate a ‘cordon sanitaire’, isolating itself to prevent the disease from spreading. Much of Eyam’s population perished during that torrid period. Eyam: Plague Village follows the local rector, the Revd William Mompesson, as he tries to support his parishioners and contain the disease. Basing his acco...