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...

Peeblesshire and its attractive county town are situated in Upper Tweeddale, an area of great beauty and tranquillity. Tucked into the Borders Hills, with the River Tweed at its heart, Peebles has much to offer both tourists and residents, including walking, fishing and cycling or simply strolling along the river banks or exploring the charming high street. The city of Edinburgh is a mere 22 miles north but Peebles retains its market town identity and is very much part of The Borders. Peebles was created a Royal Burgh in 1367 by David II. Some remnants of its past are easily seen such as the...

Prior to the nineteenth century, Bradford was very much a backwater. After that it was to become the metropolis of the worsted industry and enjoyed a prosperity scarcely equalled by any other portion of the kingdom. It was said at the time that the real energy of Yorkshire centred in Bradford. The times of growth were astounding and in 1897, when the town received its city status, Bradford truly was magnificent.Wherever you go in Bradford you cannot escape its rich industrial past. Many of the old mills remain, either converted to housing or awaiting demolition. Bradford Through Time goes to...

Yorkshire remains the largest county in England, and to those born within its boundaries it is unquestionably the greatest; whether this pride is justified or not, it would surely be difficult to find a county with more claims to the visitor's interest. These include the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors. One of the grandest areas of unspoiled country in the whole of England, the Dales are mountains and moorland, as well as peaceful villages, waterfalls and awe-inspiring caverns.The North York Moors, another of the loveliest parts of England, is bounded by the splendour of the...

Ripon's story comes alive on this tour around the city. Evidence of life here hundreds of millions of years ago, with 'Ripon' at the edge of a tropical sea, can be observed at Quarry Moor; bronze age henges are to be found to the north and east of the city; Celts and Anglo-Saxons settled between the rivers. The King of Northumbria granted land for the establishment of a monastery in the seventh century and the famous St Wilfrid's monastery acquired international renown. As a result, the church gained control of thousands of acres of land, with the grant of a judicial franchise or liberty that...

The Cambridgeshire Fens lie north of Cambridge and share boundaries with Lincolnshire and Norfolk. Until the seventeenth century the fens were marsh and swamp, with wide sluggish rivers. Those that could survive the damp and the fen ague made a living catching fish, wildfowling and cutting sedge and reeds. After the drainage, which revealed the rich fertile peat soil, man battled with flooding and isolation to create the richest farming land in the country. At the moment a car is essential to reach most areas, but new cycle ways are taking shape and there is great potential for tourism and...

Chatham has had an association with the Royal Navy since Elizabethan times, moving to its current site in 1622. It provided the facilities to build, repair, maintain and supply ships. In the mid-nineteenth century, work began on expanding the dockyard into St Mary's Island, where three huge basins and five new docks were constructed, almost quadrupling its size, in order to support twentieth-century vessels. Work then commenced on a new home for Royal Navy seamen. The new barracks, HMS Pembroke, opened in 1903 providing accommodation for 5,000 officers and ratings for the following eighty...

Devizes is a typical bustling Wiltshire market town. Architecturally the town boasts a variety of buildings spanning almost a thousand years, and over 500 are currently listed. The town, located centrally in the county of Wiltshire, continues to thrive as a commercial hub despite losing the canal to industrial traffic and the railway by the mid-1960s. A range of industries have made Devizes their home, including Brown & May and Wadworth's, and there has been major development in and around town. This series of images - many not published before - has been drawn from the collection housed at...