Owing its name to the famous battle, Waterloo is nearly two centuries old. Growing inland from an attractive seafront, it has retained its character and most of its buildings during that time. It has attracted the attention of photographers who have left an illuminating record of the past comparable with the still recognisable present. In contrast, Litherland was an agricultural community from the Domesday Book until industrialisation. William Gladstone's father built Seaforth House, which gave its name to the area. Others were encouraged to build magnificent residences enjoying views over...

'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...

Guernsey is the most western of the Channel Islands, with a proud maritime history spanning many centuries. Only 25 square miles, the island nevertheless has a great variety of landscapes, from the rugged cliffs in the south to the low-lying dunes in the north. The ten parishes, each with their own unique community spirit, are home to over 60,000 people. This grows greatly during the summer as visitors come to experience the island's quiet country lanes and the bustling streets of St Peter Port. Historically, Guernsey people have made their mark not just on the sea, but in thriving stone...

The impact of people and places in Wolstanton and May Bank is recorded in this pictorial record that recognises the contribution of village notables, dear old friends and long-gone institutions. A wealth of photographs depicting the joys of community life mingle with contemporary pictures, showing, often with dramatic impact, the shocking demolition of facilities we perhaps took for granted, such as The Plough, the Oxford Arms and The Marsh Head. Elsewhere, images of former shops such as Holdridge's, Swettenham's and the Spinning Wheel show how High Street shopping patterns have changed....

Great Torrington, or Cheping Torrington as it was once known (Chipping being the old name for market) was a considerable town, even in medieval times. It grew steadily from its agricultural roots through an industrial phase and was at the centre of road, canal and railway links. In Victorian times it had mills for corn, sawmills, grist mills and tucking mills, lime kilns and a glove-making factory, which employed 1,000 people, mostly in their own homes. Then there was a fell mongers and skivers works for curing the chamois leather to supply the glove factory. In the twentieth century a giant...

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...

Situated within the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Dartmouth is a popular tourist destination on the River Dart. As Ginny Campbell's beautifully illustrated pages show, it has an abundance of history. Its port was the sailing point for the Crusades of 1147 and 1190, and the Pilgrim Fathers visited in 1620 to repair the Speedwell. The area boasts many picturesque medieval and Elizabethan buildings, including the Butterwalk, where Charles II once dined, and Dartmouth Castle, which has guarded the mouth of the river for over 600 years. The admiralty began officer training on the...

With one foot in the countryside and the other connected to the metropolis, Newton Mearns is the southernmost suburb of Glasgow. The parish of Mearns bounds southwards over undulating landscape and moors to Ayrshire, with the slopes of Clarkston and Busby within its northern edge, marked by the River Earn. From Rouken Glen to Fenwick Moor, from castles and mansions to farmlands, fermtouns, and cotton mills, its 800-year history records a fertile area and an ever-increasing population. In the twelfth century, King David I granted lands to Walter Fitzalan, and subsequent landowners built Mearns...

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 a populous, even fashionable, suburb of London: the enclosure of Sydenham Common, the coming of the railway in 1839 and the construction of the Crystal Palace on Sydenham Hill. Today, Sydenham and Forest Hill are attractive and popular places to live, with good access to green spaces and...

Derby is an exceptional and underrated city. It was an important centre of the Midlands Enlightenment, boasting Dr Erasmus Darwin and John Whitehurst FRS among its eighteenth-century residents. It produced an artist of international repute in Joseph Wright ARA and has been a centre for the production of fine porcelain and fine clocks for almost three centuries. It was a county town for five centuries and was in its Georgian heyday much admired by writers such as Daniel Defoe. Despite the best endeavours of a peculiarly unappreciative and iconoclastic bunch of city fathers over the years, many...