The slow-paced wagons and carts of yesteryear can provide clues into the way past rural communities lived and worked. The varying landscape of the British Isles created different agricultural demands, and this is reflected in the extremely localized design and craftsmanship of pastoral vehicles. This book explores the origins of wagon design, and describes the specific uses of these vehicles across Britain, drawing on a wide range of colloquial words, and providing a list of places where surviving wagons and carts can be found. Detailed line drawings and photographs complete this nostalgic...

The fossil-bearing rocks of the British Isles represent life from the last 2,900 million years and the UK is seen by many as the cradle of modern geology. Using the geological map of Britain, expert palaeontologist Peter Doyle offers a comprehensive guide to fossils in the UK, plotting the main fossil groups around the country, and relating them to the different ages of the rock in which they are found. With photographs of the fossils that can be discovered, and tips on how to find them yourself, British Fossils is the perfect companion for the novice fossil hunter or enthusiast.

This account examines the history of coachbuilding, beginning with the coachbuilders who for generations had built horse-drawn wooden carriages, and then explaining how they turned their craft to building the bodywork of the first motorised cars. Using photographs of the different stages of coachbuilding, the author describes the materials, equipment and key techniques involved. Today the profession of coachbuilding is almost a lost art, yet as the restoration of vintage cars seeks to keep the trade alive, this book reflects back on the heyday of the coachbuilt motor car and the skilled...

The radio has been part of home entertainment for over 75 years and generations of listeners have enjoyed their favorite music or programmes, or sat enthralled as an historic event unfolded through the radio's loudspeakers. This book explores the development of the radio from the late Victorian era until the late 1960s, including photographs of rare and unusual styles. A surprising number of early radios have survived to this day, some of which were made before broadcasting was introduced in the early 1920s, and the author discusses these old sets as well as the different and improving models...

During their heyday in the mid-eighteenth century the pleasure gardens were one of the hubs of polite society. Laid out with formal gardens and buildings for dining and amusement, the pleasure gardens were the scene of upper class exercise and entertainment. Most famous were Vauxhall Gardens, Cremorne Gardens and Ranelagh Gardens. In Bath, Sydney Gardens is the only English pleasure garden that has not since been closed and built over. This book tells the story of the pleasure gardens, explaining their beginnings in the seventeenth century, their rising social importance, the variety of...

The Victorian period has been described as the 'Great Age of Death'. The customs of death, notably burial and mourning, were taken very seriously and elaborate rituals of commemoration were part of everyone's lives. As demand grew for hygienic and dignified burial places, the humble parish graveyard - unable to cope - was joined by a newcomer to the landscape, the garden cemetery. Sarah Rutherford tells the story of Victorian cemeteries in their many guises, of the variation in their size, design, planting and monuments, and how most of them survive to this day. Some, having been neglected,...

For thousands of years peat was the main fuel that that warmed houses all over the British Isles, and the mark of the peat cutter is written deep in the landscape. This book is a celebration of a cultural history that extended from the Iron Age to the twentieth century. It tells the story of the use of peat for fuel in the British Isles, and the people who cut it. It also examines the methods of cutting, the tools that were used, and the organization of cutting. It chronicles the beginning of commercial extraction and the exhaustion of this precious resource.

The Volkswagen Transporter is one of the best-loved and most recognisable motor vehicles of all time. The preferred transport for surfers and hippies everywhere, the Volkswagen Type 2 'bus' was born in 1950, the first of a new breed of vehicle, the ancestor of today's people carrier. Available in various versions, including panel van, pick up and minibus, Transporters were often converted into campervans for a newly motorised class of holidaymaker. This book looks at the development, production and use of the class first, and second, generation Transporter. With archive illustrations...

In the aftermath of World War II, design was key to a new way of living as carefully thought-out principles were applied to new homes and commercial buildings across the country. From open plan living to new materials in buildings and furnishing, the 1950s marked a bright new era.