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...

This walk is one of twelve walks in John Wilks' Walks Through History - Birmingham series which contains twelve walks within the city. The whole book is available as an ebook or physical book or you could try this one out first. The book is a celebration of the beauty and poetry of the county. Each walk in this book has been chosen not only because it is a pleasant walk in its own right, but also because it goes past sites which reveal the rich and varied history of the county. Each walk i...

A glorious insight into the history, landscape and people of Britain, from The Sunday Times bestseller.One of the earliest railway freight routes in Britain, the Buxton to London line was built to whisk goods to the nation’s capital. Starting at the elegant spa town of Buxton, Michael Portillo travels through Britain’s industrial heartland, visiting the site of Awkwright’s first mill at Cromford, the home of brewing, Burton-on-Trent, and Bournville, forever associated with chocolat...

This walk is one of twelve walks in John Wilks' Walks Through History - Birmingham series which contains twelve walks within the city. The whole book is available as an ebook or physical book or you could try this one out first. The book is a celebration of the beauty and poetry of the county. Each walk in this book has been chosen not only because it is a pleasant walk in its own right, but also because it goes past sites which reveal the rich and varied history of the county. Each walk i...

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 pas...

For the last 150 years, every Londoner, tourist, and visitor uses the tube to explore and enjoy London. But behind the facade of ox-blood brick buildings and colourful diagrams lies a wealth of history and interesting facts. This book tests your knowledge in this area with 250 questions (and answers) about this incredible network.

The railway network within Birmingham has long been important for the movement of passengers and freight to serve the centre and its suburbs, and as the road network around Birmingham has become more congested, the railways in the city have, once more, taken on an important role. As the network declined in the twentieth century, trains were regarded as shabby and also suffered from poor punctuality and stations became unkempt and many had no staff, although the majority of the network rema...

Sunderland Through Time is a unique insight into the illustrious history of this part of the country. Reproduced in full colour, this is an exciting examination of Sunderland, the famous streets and the famous faces, and what they meant to the people of this area throughout the 19th and into the 20th Century. Looking beyond the exquisite exterior of these well-kept photos, readers can see the historical context in which they are set. Through the author's factual captions for every picture,...

The railway came to Oxfordshire during the 1840s, the core of the present-day local railway network being completed by 1853. Other lines were subsequently constructed and, despite some branch line closures during the 1960s, these Victorian railways are still serving the public during the first decades of the twenty-first century. Their longevity is a tribute to the energy and vision of the nineteenth-century entrepreneurs who brought the railway system into existence over 160 years ago. Th...

The designated 'new town' of Telford in Shropshire received its name in 1968; in fact, it is not a new town but rather a conurbation of townships and villages whose story goes back 3,000 years. In recent years, the area governed by Telford & Wrekin Council has been extended to include a wider area - and history - than originally conceived. The Telford landscape is an ever-changing canvas in which so much has disappeared forever under the banner of progress. New roads, housing estates, shop...

Stevenage Through Time is a unique insight into the illustrious history of this part of the country. Reproduced in full colour, this is an exciting examination of Stevenage, the famous streets and the famous faces, and what they meant to the people of this area throughout the 19th and into the 20th Century. Looking beyond the exquisite exterior of these well-kept photos, readers can see the historical context in which they are set and through the author's factual captions for every picture...

Incorporated by Act of Parliament in 1835 and completed just six years later, the Great Western Railway became one of the great icons of the Age of Steam, and perhaps the world’s most famous railway company. Spanning Southern England from the Thames to the Bristol Channel, the history of Brunel’s greatest achievement, and the surprising offshoots of the company as an industry, are represented here for the first time in full colour from the Amberley Archive.