Ealing was once known as the 'Queen of the Suburbs', though this phrase is more commonly used now by estate agents. Ealing Through Time enables the reader to judge for themselves whether the viewpoints of Ealing justify the title in question, both in the past and in contemporary times. Ealing was a 'country town near London' when these postcards were commissioned. It was blessed by many fine open spaces and was near to the countryside too. Yet it also had good transport links by train and tram to the capital and the West of England. It had a number of prestigious private schools and other...

Wensleydale & Coverdale Through Time documents not only how the towns and villages of two related Yorkshire dales have developed and changed, but also gives the reader an insight into how the lives of the 'dalesfolk' have altered beyond all recognition. Wensleydale is the larger of the dales, while Coverdale is a secluded miniature of its 'parent' and was once passed by the main route from London to the North. Following the rivers Ure and Cover from the stark beauty of the high dales eastwards down through the hay meadows and pastures to their convergence beyond Ulshaw Bridge, the beauty of...

East Dulwich Through Time contains 180 images of East Dulwich in London, of which 90 are old photographs, (some printed in a sepia tone and some in full colour). Each photograph is printed alongside a contemporary full colour photograph illustrating the same scene. The contrasting illustrations show how the area has changed and developed during the last 100 years. The photographs are of shops, schools, garages, churches, houses and street scenes and each photograph is captioned. The book also has an introduction which gives a brief overview of the history of the area.

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 need to cater for modern holidaymakers with car parks and enhancement schemes along the beautiful South...

The Scarborough & Whitby Railway was opened in July 1885. The 21 miles of line traversed the picturesque coast between the two towns for eighty years. There were eight stations on the line all with their own distinctive character and serving the different needs of visitors and local people. All of the stations along the route are fully illustrated in this book. The line closed in March 1965 and the buildings were later sold into private ownership and have been put to a variety of uses since that time. The aim of this book is to illustrate the changes both before and after closure along this...

'Llandudno is more stylish than either Rhyl or Blackpool and not dearer', observed Edwardian author Arnold Bennett. Prime Minister Lloyd George considered the resort a perfect tonic, advising colleagues 'to come to Llandudno is a great pick-me-up'. An 1890 visit by romantic novelist and erstwhile Queen of Romania, Carmen Sylva prompted a description so apt it was adopted as the town's official motto, 'A Beautiful Haven of Peace'. To everyone Llandudno evokes an era of quiet traditional seaside pleasures but has the town entirely escaped the destructive winds of change? The 1933 Official Guide...

Chatham is a town that has been undergoing change for the last five hundred years. It all began with the arrival of the naval dockyard in the sixteenth century. From this, a town was created which began to grow with the rapidity of a Chatham built warship. The site of the former dockyard is still under development and in the town major changes are not only underway but others are in the pipeline and will include the Brook, the waterfront and the area of the railway station. What better time can there be for a book on Chatham that not only looks at the past but also the present? While many of...

The communities that feature in this book lie to the east of Edinburgh and all have fallen prey over the years to its inevitable expansion. Portobello accepted merger with Edinburgh in 1896 when this proudly independent burgh was not only Scotland's premier seaside resort but also boasted a strong local economy based on its thriving pottery, brick and glass manufacturing works. All of these underpinned a wide range of retail and commercial enterprises. Suburban sprawl spread to the west of Portobello in the 1930s when a mix of local authority and private housing was built over the fields of...

From the late eighteenth century, the Industrial Age transformed Belper from a small village of nail-makers to a busy and successful town. Thanks to the Strutt family, the town was the first in the world to have water-powered cotton mills, and the hundreds of people that flocked to work in those mills were provided with homes, chapels, schools and much more. Since Belper was inscribed on to the UNESCO World Heritage List as part of the Derwent Valley Mills Site in 2001, the drive to save, enhance and restore the historic town has never been greater. By comparing views from years past, this...

'Go where we will throughout England, there is no spot which is not boundup with our history. The New Forest is, perhaps, as good an example as could be wished of what has been said of English scenery, and its connection with our history. It remains after some eight hundred years still the New Forest. True, its boundaries are smaller, but the main features are the same as on the day when first afforested by the Conqueror.' The words of John R. Wise, author of The New Forest: Its History and its Scenery, echo across one and a half centuries since its first publication in 1863. The Forest...