To visit Whitby's 'Yards' is to step back in time. Hardly changed from the Middle Ages, this is where one can still meet old Whitby - a secret Whitby - unspoilt and untroubled by the holiday visitor. The yards, alleyways and ghauts are fascinating places to explore. Though often private, there are enough remaining to catch a glimpse of what this small seaport must have been like two or three hundred years ago. Today, over eighty named yards still exist out of more than one hundred and there are, in addition, another thirty or so places of similar character but perhaps called 'steps', 'lane',...

Hemel Hempstead's history goes back a long way and is mentioned in the Domesday Book survey. St Mary's Parish Church is one of the oldest buildings and dates from 1150. Henry VIII came to Hemel Hempstead and granted a Charter in 1539 which also put the town on the map. In more recent times Hemel Hempstead was designated to be a New Town in 1946 which caused it to grow from being a market town of 22,000 to one of the largest in the county. This book shows how the town has changed - many people consider it to be improved while others wish time could hark back to the days when small shops were...

Isambard Kingdom Brunel was Britain's greatest engineer, he was the man who built everything on a huge scale, he built Britain's biggest ship, some of Britain's most spectacular bridges, a tunnel under the Thames and the finest railway line in Britain, the London to Bristol route of the Great Western Railway. Everything he did was on a scale not seen before, not just in Britain, but in the world. Brunel left a legacy of industrial architecture and design, from the vaulted roof of Paddington station to the SS Great Britain, the first true ocean greyhound, from the Clifton Suspension Bridge to...

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...

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...

It is hard to imagine the Middlesbrough area before its industrial might was established. In 1801, the area was a small hamlet with a population of just twenty-five. Middlesbrough's growth began with the development of the coal export trade in the area, but expanded rapidly with the discovery of extensive iron ore deposits in the Cleveland Hills. The burgeoning manufacturing town subsequently gained the nickname 'Ironopolis' and was hailed as 'the youngest child of England's enterprise'. It is thought that Middlesbrough was the first major British town and industrial target to be bombed...

'Whitstable is a stirring little town, with strong business proclivities, and a history stretching far back into the remote past.' So wrote a Kentish Gazette correspondent in 1873, although he could have been writing of Whitstable today. Roman soldiers are thought to have dined on its oysters, and the area was certainly settled at the time of the Domesday Book. Over the years, the lives of Whitstable's people have been inextricably linked with the sea. Sea salt production, diving, smuggling, shipbuilding and fishing have all sustained the lives of the townspeople, along with copperas mining...

Battersea has grown to be a fashionable and vibrant district of south-west London. Referred to as Patricesy in the Domesday Book, Battersea was historically best known for market gardening, providing fruit, vegetables and flowers for the City of London. However, the area moved from rural to urban with the coming of the railways, industry and large-scale housing from the 1840s, provoking a population growth from 4,000 to 120,000 by the beginning of the twentieth century. Glimpses of the past can still be seen around modern Battersea, but much has changed over the years. Using a selection of...

The River Forth is one of Scotland's great waterways. It has a majestic history and heritage, part of which is the Forth bridges. Of these, the most iconic is the Forth Rail Bridge, which opened in 1890. But there is also the Kincardine Bridge, opened in 1936 and once the longest swing bridge in Europe, the Forth Road Bridge, opened in 1964, and the new Queensferry Crossing, due to be completed in 2016. In this book, Michael Meighan looks at all these bridges as well as the Clackmannanshire Bridge and the fords, ferries and smaller bridges which preceded these great crossings. The Forth...