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Books > Humanities > History > History of specific subjects > Local history
From reports of haunted castles, hotels, public houses, and even a prisoner of war camp, to heart-stopping accounts of apparitions, poltergeists and related supernatural phenomena, Ghostly County Durham investigates over twenty of the most haunted locations in the area today. Drawing on historical and contemporary sources, this selection includes a club-footed monk at Finchdale Priory, the Singing Lady Cauldron Snout, as well as a collection of spectres that call Durham Castle home - including a shadowy figure which haunts the Black Staircase. Illustrated with sixty photographs, together with access details for each location, this book is sure to appeal all those interested in finding out more about the area's haunted heritage.
London has charmed visitors for centuries, and this collection of intricate illustrations is a celebration of the city's unique appeal. Featuring famous London landmarks such as Buckingham Palace and the London Eye as well as beautiful scenes of London life, each stunning scene is full of intriguing detail sure to fire the imagination and make you reach for your colouring pencils. There are absolutely no rules - you can choose any combination of colours you like. Suitable for children. If you love London, then you will love colouring it in!
Great Railway Journeys: London to Oxford and London to Cambridge is the fourth in Roger Mason's Great Railway Journeys series. It is a fascinating record of things that can be seen from trains running from London to the two great university cities. The London to Oxford line includes Brunel's wonderful bridge over the Thames at Maidenhead and the Didcot Railway Centre, which is a living museum of the Great Western Railway. Included here is the story of how the author of a world famous book left the manuscript in a cafe at Reading Station. He had not kept a copy so he went home and wrote it again. The London to Cambridge line includes Mountfitchet Castle, a fabulous copy of the one that stood on the site shortly after the reign of William the Conqueror. There is also the Eleanor Cross at Waltham Cross, erected by Edward I in the 1290s as a tribute to his late wife, Eleanor of Castile.
Terry Boyle unveils the eccentric and bizarre in these mini-histories of Ontario's towns and cities: the imposter who ran the Rockwood Asylum in Kingston; Ian Fleming's inspiration for James Bond; the Prince of Wales's undignified crossing of Rice Lake; the tragic life of Joseph Brant; the man who advertised his wife's death before poisoning her; as well as Ontario's first bullfight and the answer to the question, "Why did so many lumberjacks sport beards?" The colourful characters, Native legends, and incredible tales that make up our province's fascinating past come alive in "Hidden Ontario." From Bancroft, Baldoon, and Brighton to Timmins, Toronto, and Trenton, find out more about the Ontario you thought you knew.
Approximately 75 detailed period photographs from the Francis Frith archive with extended captions and full introduction. Suitable for tourists, local historians and general readers. Includes a voucher for a free mounted print of any photograph shown in the book.
Cumbria Curiosities brings together a series of unusual, intriguing and extraordinary buildings, structures, incidents and people from all parts of the county. Included in these pages are the Fairy Steps of Beetham Fell; Bonnie Prince Charlie's Chimney; schoolboy graffiti by William Wordsworth at Hawkshead; a hilltop tower at Hampsfell which has poetic advice for travellers; and the world-famous gurning competition at Egremont. As well as these fascinating relics from Cumbria's industrial, ecclesiastical and military past are curious customs at locations ranging from the Irish Sea, to the dramatic peaks of the Lake District and the fertile lowland areas.
Ledbury lies in a quiet corner of Herefordshire, just about equidistant from the cities of Hereford, Gloucester and Worcester. Remote, but not isolated, the town is surrounded by ancient wooded hills, while the River Leadon, from which the town is thought to take its name, meanders slowly through the meadows to the west. Visitors and inhabitants alike can empathise with Ledbury-born Poet Laureate John Masefield, who 'felt the beauty of the place and the mystery of its past ... through century after century'. Ledbury: a Market Town and its Tudor Heritage tells the story of this ancient town from 1558, when Elizabeth I confiscated the bishop's manor and estate, through a period of great prosperity in the 16th century to the present day. During the Tudor period the town's cloth trade flourished and the market which served the rural parishes surrounding the town thrived. The resulting physical transformation, including the wide market place and streets lined with timber-framed buildings, still attracts visitors today. The story extends from the reign of the first Elizabeth to the present day. It traces the ups and downs of a market town which has benefited from its location on the route between Hereford and Worcester but remains a small town. Ledbury has enjoyed its share of changes in trade, transport, social provision, architecture, industry and leisure, developments which have individually and collectively helped to shape the town today. But what strikes the visitor is its Tudor heritage, which continues to reflect the unexpected and untold riches generated, albeit for such a short time, in the later Tudor and early Jacobean decades.
Rathmines is one of the oldest and most vibrant parts of Dublin. In this compendium of fascinating, obscure, strange and entertaining facts you will find out about Rathmines' past, its proud sporting heritage, its arts and culture, and its famous (and occasionally infamous) men and women. A reliable reference book and a quirky guide, this can be dipped into time and again to reveal something new about the people, the heritage and the secrets of this much-loved area.
In 2003 the US Supreme Court overturned anti-sodomy laws across the country, ruling in Lawrence v. Texas that the Constitution protects private consensual sex between adults. To some, the decision seemed to come like lightning from above, altering the landscape of America's sexual politics all at once. In actuality, many years of work and organizing led up to the legal case, and the landmark ruling might never have happened were it not for the passionate struggle of Texans who rejected their state's discriminatory laws. Before Lawrence v. Texas tells the story of the long, troubled, and ultimately hopeful road to constitutional change. Wesley G. Phelps describes the achievements, setbacks, and unlikely alliances along the way. Over the course of decades, and at great risk to themselves, gay and lesbian Texans and their supporters launched political campaigns and legal challenges, laying the groundwork for Lawrence. Phelps shares the personal experiences of the people and couples who contributed to the legal strategy that ultimately overturned the state's discriminatory law. Even when their individual court cases were unsuccessful, justice seekers and activists collectively influenced public opinion by insisting that their voices be heard. Nine Supreme Court justices ruled, but it was grassroots politics that vindicated the ideal of equality under the law.
This is a terrifying collection of true-life tales of ghosts, poltergeists and spirits of all kinds in the streets, buildings and graveyards of York. Drawing on historical and contemporary sources, Haunted York contains a chilling range of ghostly phenomena. From the medieval stonemason who haunts York Minster to a re-incarnation mystery at St Mary's Church, the spectres of King's Manor, Micklegate Bar and Exhibition Square and the many spirits to be found in the city's public houses, this phenomenal gathering of ghostly goings-on is bound to captivate anyone interested in the supernatural history of York.
On August 7, 2011, former Pennsylvania Railroad type E8A diesel units No. 5711 and No. 5809 are passing through the borough of Greenville in Mercer County, Pennsylvania on the former Erie Railroad now Norfolk Southern Railway on a rail excursion in this photograph by the author. The Erie and Pittsburgh line of the Pennsylvania Railroad once served Greenville. Kenneth Springirth, with a lifelong interest in rail transportation, has been researching the Pennsylvania Railroad since 1960. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he commuted to Drexel Institute of Technology (now Drexel University) in Philadelphia by trolley car, subway, and sometimes Pennsylvania Railroad commuter train. His father was a trolley car motorman in Philadelphia, and his grandfather was a trolley car motorman in Washington D.C. This book is a photographic essay documenting the Pennsylvania Railroad, which considered itself the standard railroad of the world. Classic scenes of the Pennsylvania Railroad's amazing GG1 electric locomotives operating on the most successful electrification project in the United States are included. This book provides an insight to an extensive railroad system that survives today with the Norfolk Southern Railway owning much of former mainline trackage in Pennsylvania and Amtrak owning the Northeast Corridor plus trackage between Philadelphia and Harrisburg. In addition, there are a variety of regional and shortline railroads that contribute to Remembering the Pennsylvania Railroad.
Dundee Worthies, a rare collection of tales of colourful Dundonians, was first published in 1934, compiled by George M Martin. Reminiscences of the city, old time games, period advertisements and poems sit alongside tales of the folk that populated the city - including Blind Hughie, Tea Pot Tam, Pie Jock. Delve into Dundee's past with this funny, entertaining classic, a valuable historic account of the Worthies of Dundee.
Forages through New England's most famous foods for the truth behind the region's culinary myths Meg Muckenhoupt begins with a simple question: When did Bostonians start making Boston Baked Beans? Storekeepers in Faneuil Hall and Duck Tour guides may tell you that the Pilgrims learned a recipe for beans with maple syrup and bear fat from Native Americans, but in fact, the recipe for Boston Baked Beans is the result of a conscious effort in the late nineteenth century to create New England foods. New England foods were selected and resourcefully reinvented from fanciful stories about what English colonists cooked prior to the American revolution-while pointedly ignoring the foods cooked by contemporary New Englanders, especially the large immigrant populations who were powering industry and taking over farms around the region. The Truth about Baked Beans explores New England's culinary myths and reality through some of the region's most famous foods: baked beans, brown bread, clams, cod and lobster, maple syrup, pies, and Yankee pot roast. From 1870 to 1920, the idea of New England food was carefully constructed in magazines, newspapers, and cookbooks, often through fictitious and sometimes bizarre origin stories touted as time-honored American legends. This toothsome volume reveals the effort that went into the creation of these foods, and lets us begin to reclaim the culinary heritage of immigrant New England-the French Canadians, Irish, Italians, Portuguese, Polish, indigenous people, African-Americans, and other New Englanders whose culinary contributions were erased from this version of New England food. Complete with historic and contemporary recipes, The Truth about Baked Beans delves into the surprising history of this curious cuisine, explaining why and how "New England food" actually came to be.
Borley Rectory in Essex, built in 1862, should have been an ordinary Victorian clergyman's house. However, just a year after its construction, unexplained footsteps were heard within the house, and from 1900 until it burned down in 1939 numerous paranormal phenomena, including phantom coaches and shattering windows, were observed. In 1929 the house was investigated by the Daily Mail and paranormal researcher Harry Price, and it was he who called it 'the most haunted house in England.' Price also took out a lease of the rectory from 1937 to 1938, recruiting forty-eight 'official observers' to monitor occurences. After his death in 1948, the water was muddied by claims that Price's findings were not genuine paranormal activity, and ever since there has been a debate over what really went on at Borley Rectory. Paul Adams, Eddie Brazil and Peter Underwood here present a comprehensive guide to the history of the house and the ghostly (or not) goings-on there.
Author and historian David Paul brings us a selection of strange and mythical tales from across Yorkshire, from the Wolds, Dales and Moors to its lesser-known rural landscape, from the coast to its towns, villages and cities, including a whole range of places, events and people that are seldom mentioned in standard histories or guides. Interesting remains, strange happenings, hoaxes, witchcraft and incredible legends are all featured in Illustrated Tales of Yorkshire. Included is an unusual mix of the curious, the quaint and the mysterious, where even those who know this northern county well will find something new and surprising.
Dublin has many histories: for a thousand years a modest urban settlement on the quiet waters of the Irish Sea, for the last four hundred it has experienced great - and often astonishing - change. Once a fulcrum of English power in Ireland, it was also the location for the 1916 insurrection that began the rapid imperial retreat. That moment provided Joyce with the setting for the greatest modernist novel of the age, Ulysses, capping a cultural heritage which became an economic resource for the brash 'Tiger Town' of the 1990s. David Dickson's magisterial survey of the city's history brings Dublin to life from its medieval incarnation through the glamorous eighteenth century, when it reigned as the 'Naples of the North', through to the millennium. He reassesses 120 years of Anglo-Irish Union, in which Dublin - while economic capital of Ireland - remained, as it does today, a place in which rival creeds and politics struggled for supremacy. Dublin reveals the rich and intriguing story behind the making of a capital city.
Stroud is a compact cultural soup of stories waiting to be told. Rupert's photographs take you under the skin of the people in this unique town, at times part of the picture-perfect Cotswolds it occupies and at times set very apart.
This fascinating new book presents some of the events and people who have made up the life of the historic market town of Ledbury. Ruth Smith has gathered together a multitude of old photographs to illustrate the history of her home town, and compares them with modern images to clearly show the changes in street scenes, leisure, agriculture, transport, shops and businesses that have taken place during the last century. Ledbury Past & Present is a well-researched book that is sure to bring back cherished memories of yesteryear for all who know and love this part of Herefordshire.
The familiar history of jazz music in the United States begins with its birth in New Orleans, moves upstream along the Mississippi River to Chicago, then by rail into New York before exploding across the globe. That telling of history, however, overlooks the pivotal role the nation's capital has played for jazz for a century. Some of the most important clubs in the jazz world have opened and closed their doors in Washington, DC, some of its greatest players and promoters were born there and continue to reside in the area, and some of the institutions so critical to national support of this uniquely American form of music, including Congress, the Smithsonian Institution, the Kennedy Center, the Library of Congress and the Historical Society of Washington, D.C., are rooted in the city. Closer to the ground, a network of local schools like the Duke Ellington High School for the Performing Arts, jazz programs at the University of the District of Columbia and Howard University, churches, informal associations, locally focused media, and clubs keeps the music alive to this day. Noted historians Maurice Jackson and Blair Ruble, editors of this book, present a collection of original and fascinating stories about the DC jazz scene throughout its history, including a portrait of the cultural hotbed of Seventh and U Streets, the role of jazz in desegregating the city, a portrait of the great Edward "Duke" Ellington's time in DC, notable women in DC jazz, and the seminal contributions of the University of District of Columbia and Howard University to the scene. The book also includes three jazz poems by celebrated Washington, DC, poet E. Ethelbert Miller. Collectively, these stories and poems underscore the deep connection between creativity and place. A copublishing initiative with the Historical Society of Washington, DC, the book includes over thirty museum-quality photographs and a guide to resources for learning more about DC jazz.
There is something special about Liverpool. From its earliest beginnings it has always been associated with the ups and downs, the triumphs and tribulations of the rest of the country, acting like a mirror to the events that have shaped the country we now think of as Great Britain. As one of the major ports in the land, Liverpool has witnessed the comings and goings of people from all corners of the world who, over the centuries, have constituted the melting pot of nations which has given rise to what we now think of as a typical scouser. In The Story of Liverpool the author has tried not to present the reader with facts and figures, diagrams and statistics that usually form an integral part of an academic history, but to concentrate on the story or romance of Liverpool's evolution over the years. Uppermost in his mind was an attempt to bring history to life, to give it a plot and characters and to convey to the reader and idea of what it would have felt like to be alive at various stages in the city's evolution. The first popular history of Liverpool for many years, this is a comprehensive and revealing account of the city's development from it's earliest days to modern times. Lively, readable and well-illustrated, this is a tremendous book for locals and visitors alike to enjoy.
In 1889, Annie Nathan Meyer, still in her early twenties, led the effort to start Barnard College after Columbia College refused to admit women. Named after a former Columbia president, Frederick Barnard, who had advocated for Columbia to become coeducational, Barnard, despite many ups and downs, became one of the leading women's colleges in the United States. A College of Her Own offers a comprehensive and lively narrative of Barnard from its beginnings to the present day. Through the stories of presidents and leading figures as well as students and faculty, Robert McCaughey recounts Barnard's history and how its development was shaped by its complicated relationship to Columbia University and its New York City location. McCaughey considers how the student composition of Barnard and its urban setting distinguished it from other Seven Sisters colleges, tracing debates around class, ethnicity, and admissions policies. Turning to the postwar era, A College of Her Own discusses how Barnard benefited from the boom in higher education after years of a precarious economic situation. Beyond the decisions made at the top, McCaughey examines the experience of Barnard students, including the tumult and aftereffects of 1968 and the impact of the feminist movement. The concluding section looks at present-day Barnard, the shifts in its student body, and its efforts to be a global institution. Informed by McCaughey's five decades as a Barnard faculty member and administrator, A College of Her Own is a compelling history of a remarkable institution.
Vital and colorful, witty and entertaining, full of the youth and
vigor and optimism of the frontier, the weekly issues of St. Paul's
"Minnesota Pioneer" from the spring of 1849 to the summer of 1852
reflect the robust personality of James M. Goodhue (1810-1852) and
through him the world of the American frontier.
This folded map (890mm x 1000mm when unfolded) is an ideal souvenir for tourists to Middlesex and also a valuable reference resource for local and family history research. It includes 4 Historic maps of Middlesex, John Speed's County Map of Middlesex 1611, Johan Blaeu's County Map of Middlesex 1648, Thomas Moule's County map of Middlesex 1836 and The Environs of London by Thomas Moule 1836. All the maps have been meticulously re-produced from antique originals and printed on 90 gsm "Progeo" paper which was specially developed as a map paper. It has high opacity to help reduce show through and a cross grain giving it greater durability to as the map is being folded. |
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