Category Archives: Travel Guides
Liverpool Through Time
The city of Liverpool is famous throughout the world. This once small fishing village was transformed into a mighty commercial powerhouse, seen by many as the second city of the British Empire. Over the centuries her influence grew and her population soared. Town planners were forced to draw up designs to accommodate the town`s increasingly
Sydenham and Forest Hill Through Time
For centuries, Sydenham was a small hamlet on the edge of a large tract of common land, known as Sydenham Common, in the parish of St Mary`s, Lewisham. London was more than an hour`s travel away. Over little more than half a century, three events radically altered Sydenham, turning it from a rural hamlet into
Central Bristol Through the Ages
Bristol, `Queen of the West Country`, is a city founded on manufacturing and trade. Once described as producing within its bounds every daily necessity required in life, its merchants were mocked by outsiders for lives dominated by a rage for profit. It was a city in which grandeur lived cheek by jowl with poverty and
Great Writers on the Great War Revolt in the Desert
Revolt in the Desert is the extraordinary story of the war in Arabia between 1916 and 1918, written by one of the war`s most extraordinary characters, Lawrence of Arabia. It tells of his adventures and life amongst the Arab tribesmen, the daring raids on the Turks, the demolition of railway lines, the attacking of desert
Yorkshire in Photographs
Yorkshire is not only the largest county in England, it is also the most beautiful; just ask anyone living there. If there is a heaven then it must surely look like this and landscape photographer, Dave Zdanowicz, has captured its essence in this collection of divine images.From the distinctive landscapes and timeless villages of the
How to Fly a Plane: The First World War Manual
The training aid for many a pilot from one of the leading instructors of the First World War. There are 160 pages with many illustrations of leading aircraft of the period. Chock full of handy tips for the budding aviator. Nothing could ready you for the world of combat, where pilots` lives were measured in
Railway Hotels
This book celebrates the British railway station hotel. It focuses on those hotels built or acquired by the railway companies themselves rather than on the many railway or station hotels built by local entrepreneurs as speculative ventures up and down the country. It traces the success and failure of some of the early railway hotels
Blighty`s Railways: Britian`s Railways in the First World War
During the First World War, the railways of Great Britain were run for the benefit of the armed services. With minimal investment and much of the workforce conscripted, the railways paid the price for their war service. Many railway-owned ships were commandeered and never returned, some lost, others unfit for service at the end of
Through Spain with Wellington: The Letters of Lieutenant Peter Le Mesurier of the `Fighting Ninth`
The letters of Peter Le Mesurier (1789-1813) cover his service in the 9th Foot, from leaving for Portugal as an ensign in 1808 at the very start of the Peninsular War, up until Le Mesurier`s death at the Battle of the Nive in December 1813. The `Fighting Ninth` saw more action than any other regiment,
Abandoned & Vanished Canals of England
Many thousands of route miles of canal and navigation once used to criss-cross England, serving collieries, iron mines, steelworks, towns and villages. From the start of the twentieth century onwards, many of these canals closed down as a result of lack of trade. Many of the lost canals are in the Midlands, the heartland of
Preserved Steam: Britain`s Heritage Railways
Geoff Swaine has combined his passions for photography and railways in this new collection of images which covers some of Britain`s most celebrated heritage lines: The West Somerset Railway, the Bluebell Railway in Sussex, the North York Moors Railway, Didcot Railway Centre, the Mid-Hants Railway (Watercress Line), the Llangollen Railway in Wales, the Great Central
Brunel in London
Brunel and London. It might not seem an obvious association, but John Christopher puts the case that it was London, not Bristol, that was the most important centre of Brunel`s activities. It was here that he lived, worked and died. The city is dotted with examples of his works, some obvious and some less so,
The Story of Stonhenge
A comprehensive illustrated history of the prehistoric megalithic structure at Stonehenge and those who built it. Stonehenge is the best known but least understood prehistoric monument in the British Isles. Other stone circles are impressive and atmospheric, but none approach the sophistication of Stonehenge. The stones visible today represent the final phase of a monument
The British Cruise Ship: An Illustrated History 1945-2014
When Arthur Anderson invited William Makepeace Thackeray to take a cruise in 1844, and to write about it, British shipping lines offered passage on their vessels for no other reason than leisure. By the 1880s, passenger ships designed solely for cruising were being built, and the cruise ships kept many a shipping line afloat during
London Underground at War
Alexander Korda`s 1936 film The Shape of Things to Come predicted the nightmare of aerial bombing against London. Even as the storm clouds gathered, the government was woefully slow in protecting its civilian population. Some problems, such as the risk of a catastrophic flooding of the Underground network, were anticipated. But the enduring image of
Electrifying the Underground: The Technology That Created London`s Tube
It was a public transport revolution. London had led the world in the development of a subterranean railway system. The first sub-surface lines, constructed by the cut-and-cover method, were operated with steam locomotives. In theory the tunnels and stations were ventilated into the outside air, but in practice they became dingy, miserable, smoke-filled spaces. As
London: A History in Paintings & Illustrations
London has been an irresistible subject for generations of artists, draughtsmen and photographers, who have captured scenes of everyday life as well as the grand occasions, depicting the formality and the commonplace. Their work has provided us with a rich legacy that is a record of London and its people, complementing the testimony of writers
Around Heathrow Through Time
Before 1944 Heathrow was a hamlet lying in peaceful obscurity within the parish of Harmondsworth. It was in the heart of an area of agricultural land given over almost exclusively to market gardening to provide fruit and vegetables to the London market, which did little to disturb the peaceful scene. All this changed during the
Ealing a Concise History
Ealing, once known as the `Queen of the Suburbs`, has had a long and varied history. Once a country town in Middlesex, the area became part of the City of London in 1965 and celebrates its fiftieth anniversary as a London borough in 2015. This is the first book to chart the history of Ealing
St Pancras Station Through Time
With its famous hotel, St Pancras is now the London terminus of the Eurostar, with a high speed rail link to the Kent coast and the Channel Tunnel. But it was not always so. Once nearly redundant and threatened with demolition, the station was the London terminus of the Midland Railway, and could proclaim at
