After a life of public service Sir Matthew Nathan retired to the Manor of West Coker near Yeovil in Somerset. He developed a keen interest in his new home; he began first to read about it, then to deepen and widen his research, and then to turn his knowledge into this connected account, which was originally published in 1957. The local sources - the manorial records of his own estate, the parish and county records - were very rich. With great thoroughness he incorporated them in a local history of the area up to the nineteenth century. Nearly all the forces which affect the affairs of the nation can be traced in the records of the area. It is local and amateur history, but of the best calibre, and there is much to interest historians interested in local records. These are liberally quoted and there are detailed maps.

This is an extraordinary collection of tales from one of the very greatest Gaelic storytellers, Angus MacLellan, and translated by one of Scotland's finest Celtic Scholars, John Lorne Campbell. The stories in the book include every type of tale found on South Uist, from Fingalian heroes and ghost stories to international folktales and humorous and historical local anecdotes. These tales of ancient kings, thrilling escapes, jealous stepmothers and magic spells are fascinating not only for their narrative power, but also their links with myths and legends from Ireland, Scandinavia, France and Greece. The Hebrideaen island of South Uist was one of the last places in Western Europe where the ancient art of Storytelling was still honoured and practised, and the style of these translations is at once original and hypnotic, reflecting the oral tradition at their source.

The astonishing story of a unique missionary project--and the America it embodied--from award-winning historian John Demos.
Near the start of the nineteenth century, as the newly established United States looked outward toward the wider world, a group of eminent Protestant ministers formed a grand scheme for gathering the rest of mankind into the redemptive fold of Christianity and "civilization." Its core element was a special school for "heathen youth" drawn from all parts of the earth, including the Pacific Islands, China, India, and, increasingly, the native nations of North America. If all went well, graduates would return to join similar projects in their respective homelands. For some years, the school prospered, indeed became quite famous. However, when two Cherokee students courted and married local women, public resolve--and fundamental ideals--were put to a severe test.
"The Heathen School" follows the progress, and the demise, of this first true melting pot through the lives of individual students: among them, Henry Obookiah, a young Hawaiian who ran away from home and worked as a seaman in the China Trade before ending up in New England; John Ridge, son of a powerful Cherokee chief and subsequently a leader in the process of Indian "removal"; and Elias Boudinot, editor of the first newspaper published by and for Native Americans. From its birth as a beacon of hope for universal "salvation," the heathen school descends into bitter controversy, as American racial attitudes harden and intensify. Instead of encouraging reconciliation, the school exposes the limits of tolerance and sets off a chain of events that will culminate tragically in the Trail of Tears.
In "The Heathen School," John Demos marshals his deep empathy and feel for the textures of history to tell a moving story of families and communities--and to probe the very roots of American identity.

"From the Hardcover edition."

Stamford has a reputation for being one of England's finest stone towns. It is a happy mix of medieval and Georgian architecture that was untouched by the Industrial Revolution or later large scale developments, so its central core has survived remarkably intact. Its architecture is outstanding and for this reason, in 1967, it became the country's first conservation area. In recent years the town has become a popular tourist destination for both home and overseas visitors. It has also attracted the attention of film makers who have been quick to see its potential as a back-drop for such TV productions as Middlemarch and Pride and Prejudice. Using contrasting photographs, this book sets out to show something of both the continuity and change in the town during the last 100 years.

How did Sussex get to look like what it looks like today? What does its distinctive landscape tell us about how people lived and worked here in the past? What impact have invasion, technology, war and, most importantly, sheep made on it? Find out how today's landscape is the joint and ongoing creation of nature's long, slow relentless shift and humanity's incessant bodging and fidgeting with its environment. To the untrained eye, the rolling Sussex landscape looks like a natural phenomenon that has been in place for millennia. But as this fascinating guide shows, what we see today is the result of centuries of human activity and interference. Did you know, for example, that Sussex was once the heart of the iron industry? The clues are in the hammer ponds, found in what are now idyllic backwater villages and bosky woodland. These were once Sussex's version of Blake's satanic mills. "The Shaping of the Sussex Landscape" will help train your historic eye to pierce through the layers of time, changing custom and technology, to discover the different ways the land has been used and really appreciate and understand the ingenious ways the landscape has been shaped and continues to be shaped to new needs and attitudes.

Leicester History Tour is a unique insight into the illustrious history of this East Midlands city. Local author Stephen Butt guides us through the streets and alleyways, showing how its famous landmarks used to look and how they've changed over the years, as well as exploring its lesser-known places and hidden corners. With the help of a handy location map, readers are invited to follow a timeline of events and discover for themselves the changing face of Leicester.

Professor F. W. Maitland was the foremost Victorian scholar on English legal history, and Mary Bateson a Cambridge medieval historian. This 1901 volume was edited for the Corporation of Cambridge and the Cambridge Antiquarian Society. It provides a transcript and translation of the royal charters issued to the borough of Cambridge between the twelfth and the seventeenth centuries. Maitland lays stress on the considerable independence the medieval borough had. It was largely self-governing, royal charters bestowing or confirming liberties rather than regulating the town governance or providing a constitution. However, there were some limitations, chiefly relating to justice, for which royal permission was needed. It was not until the late seventeenth century that royal authority began to tighten its control of borough affairs. The introduction explains the conventions of such charters, and how the reader should interpret the information contained therein. A valuable source of local history with wider significance.

Where in Yorkshire can you walk on a dragon's backbone? Who goes dancing at the Spot Bottom Hops? Which very old story gives advice about loading a dishwasher? Which mischievous child invented Yorkshire pudding? And is it safe to offer a gift to a small-toothed dog? Yorkshire has a rich heritage of fantastical folk stories, traditional tales and words of wisdom handed down through generations. These tales are beautifully retold here for 7- to 11-year-old readers, written and illustrated by storyteller and artist Carmel Page -a southerner by birth but who has lived in Sheffield for so long that she now uses her backdoor as her frontdoor and has started to eat her dinner at lunchtime.

This is a fact-packed compendium of snippets from the past and present, including historical tales, legends and myths of the Lake District and the rest of the region from Barrow to Carlisle. The towns and villages all have their stories to tell of industries past and present, of natural and man-made disasters, of battles, of law and order, crimes and punishments. In The Little Book of Cumbria you will read of the people, their traditions, their heritage, language and folklore. The topics range from amusing trivia to great events that changed things forever. You can read the book from cover to cover or dip in at your leisure.

The builder of the White House, the hero of Aboukir Bay, a murderer who inspired Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, a decadent society hostess... Set in 66 Queen Street, a townhouse in Edinburgh's New Town, this book tells the story of people and events associated with the house for 210 years from 1790 and whose lives were empowered by the Scottish Enlightenment. The diverse characters range from heroes to villains, and from people of conscience to subjects of tabloid scandal and moral prurience. Edinburgh emerges from its past to become the intellectual, banking and professional capital of an enlightened Scotland. The story reflects how our modern world is shaped but above all it is about its people; some masters of their circumstances and others prisoners

Former Cornish fisherman Paul Greenwood vividly describes life as a young crewman aboard the Looe lugger Iris in the 1960s. His frank account of the hardships he encountered at sea in "Once Aboard a Cornish Lugger", overcoming sea-sickness, fatigue, cold and wet while working by day and night hauling nets and lines is a brilliant evocation of a bygone age that contrasts with modern conditions in the fishing industry. This illustrated account pays tribute to the crewmen he left behind.

Delves deep into the underbelly of the NYC subway system to reveal the tunnels and stations that might have been.
Robert A. Van Wyck, mayor of the greater city of New York, broke ground for the first subway line by City Hall on March 24, 1900. It took four years, six months, and twenty-three days to build the line from City Hall to West 145th Street in Harlem. Things rarely went that quickly ever again. TheRoutes Not Taken explores the often dramatic stories behind the unbuilt or unfinished subway lines, shedding light on a significant part of New York City's history that has been almost completely ignored until now.
Home to one of the world's largest subway systems, New York City made constant efforts to expand its underground labyrinth, efforts that were often met with unexpected obstacles: financial shortfalls, clashing agendas of mayors and borough presidents, battles with local community groups, and much more. After discovering a copy of the 1929 subway expansion map, author Joseph Raskin began his own investigation into the city's underbelly. Using research from libraries, historical societies, and transit agencies throughout the New York metropolitan area, Raskin provides a fascinating history of the Big Apple's unfinished business that until now has been only tantalizing stories retold by public-transit experts.
The Routes Not Taken sheds light on the tunnels and stations that were completed for lines that were never fulfilled: the efforts to expand the Hudson tubes into a fullfledged subway; the Flushing line, and why it never made it past Flushing; a platform underneath Brooklyn's Nevins Street station that has remained unused for more than a century; and the 2nd Avenue line long the symbol of dashed dreams deferred countless times since the original plans were presented in 1929. Raskin also reveals the figures and personalities involved, including why Fiorello LaGuardia could not grasp the importance of subway lines and why Robert Moses found them to be old and boring. By focusing on the unbuilt lines, Raskin illustrates how the existing subway system is actually a Herculean feat of countless political compromises.
Filled with illustrations of the extravagant expansion plans, The Routes Not Taken provides an enduring contribution to the transportation history of New York City.

A provocative look at the mystery surrounding the Jersey Devil, a beast born of colonial times that haunts the corners of the Pine Barrens-and the American imagination-to this day. Legend has it that in 1735, a witch named Mother Leeds gave birth to a horrifying monster-a deformed flying horse with glowing red eyes-that flew up the chimney of her New Jersey home and disappeared into the Pine Barrens. Ever since, this nightmarish beast has haunted those woods, presaging catastrophe and frightening innocent passersby-or so the story goes. In The Secret History of the Jersey Devil, Brian Regal and Frank J. Esposito examine the genesis of this popular myth, which is one of the oldest monster legends in the United States. According to Regal and Esposito, everything you think you know about the Jersey Devil is wrong. The real story of the Jersey Devil's birth is far more interesting, complex, and important than most people-believers and skeptics alike-realize. Leaving the Pine Barrens, Regal and Esposito turn instead to the varied political and cultural roots of the Devil's creation. Fascinating and lively, this book finds the origins of New Jersey's favorite monster not in witchcraft or an unnatural liaison between woman and devil but in the bare-knuckled political fights and religious upheavals of colonial America. A product of innuendo and rumor, as well as scandal and media hype, the Jersey Devil enjoys a rich history involving land grabs, astrological predictions, mermaids and dinosaur bones, sideshows, Napoleon Bonaparte's brother, a cross-dressing royal governor, and Founding Father Benjamin Franklin.

Singapore Then and Now brings together rare archival images of this global city-state and matches them with specially commissioned photos of the same sites as they appear today. Vaughan Grylls (author/photographer of Oxford Then and Now, Cambridge Then and Now and Hong Kong Then and Now) has rounded up all of the key sites that make up this fascinating and diverse place, from gleaming new skyscrapers and shopping malls to magnificent temples and ancient rainforests. The breathtaking contrast between past and present make this a fascinating addition to the long-running Then and Now series. Sites include: Elgin Bridge, Empress Place Building, Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall, Fullerton Hotel, Johnston's Pier, Singapore Cricket Club, the Supreme Court, Capitol Theatre, Raffles Hotel, Masjid Sultan Mosque, Ellison Building, Coleman Bridge, Fort Canning, National Museum, YMCA Building, Cathay Building, Thian Hock Keng Temple, Sri Mariamman Temple, Tanjong Pagar Dock, Marina Bay Sands Hotel, Johor-Singapore Causeway, Ford Factory, Changi Village.

Portland, Oregon, though widely regarded as a liberal bastion, also has struggled historically with ethnic diversity; indeed, the 2010 census found it to be "America's whitest major city." In early recognition of such disparate realities, a group of African American activists in the 1960s formed a local branch of the Black Panther Party in the city's Albina District to rally their community and be heard by city leaders. And as Lucas Burke and Judson Jeffries reveal, the Portland branch was quite different from the more famous-and infamous-Oakland headquarters. Instead of parading through the streets wearing black berets and ammunition belts, Portland's Panthers were more concerned with opening a health clinic and starting free breakfast programs for neighborhood kids. Though the group had been squeezed out of local politics by the early 1980s, its legacy lives on through the various activist groups in Portland that are still fighting many of the same battles. Combining histories of the city and its African American community with interviews with former Portland Panthers and other key players, this long-overdue account adds complexity to our understanding of the protracted civil rights movement throughout the Pacific Northwest. A V Ethel Willis White Book

This book vividly reconstructs the social world of upper middle-class Belfast during the time of the city's greatest growth, between the 1830s and the 1880s. Using extensive primary material including personal correspondence, memoirs, diaries and newspapers, the author draws a rich portrait of Belfast society and explores both the public and inner lives of Victorian bourgeois families. Leading business families like the Corrys and the Workmans, alongside their professional counterparts, dominated Victorian Belfast's civic affairs, taking pride in their locale and investing their time and money in improving it. This social group displayed a strong work ethic, a business-oriented attitude and religious commitment, and its female members led active lives in the domains of family, church and philanthropy. While the Belfast bourgeoisie had parallels with other British urban elites, they inhabited a unique place and time: 'Linenopolis' was the only industrial city in Ireland, a city that was neither fully Irish nor fully British, and at the very time that its industry boomed, an unusually violent form of sectarianism emerged. Middle-Class Life in Victorian Belfast provides a fresh examination of familiar themes such as civic activism, working lives, philanthropy, associational culture, evangelicalism, recreation, marriage and family life, and represents a substantial and important contribution to Irish social history.

The years immediately after the Second World War were known as the decade of disappearing Irish - the peak period of emigration since the Great Famine. Many of these migrants went to Britain and played a key role in the rebuilding the country after the ravages of war. Their legacy, both in bricks and mortar and also in their cultural and social influences, can still be seen today. Following a brief overview of Ireland and Britain during the post-war years, this book explores the economic and social factors of migration, the work, such as navvies and nurses, that the migrants found in Britain, and the various support systems, such as the Church, pubs, Irish clubs and charities, that were formed as a result, and which created a vibrant legacy that survives to this day.

This oral history of London's East End spans the period after World War I to the upsurge of prosperity at the beginning of the 1960s--a time period which saw fresh waves of immigrants in the area, the Fascist marches of the 1930s, and its spirited recovery after virtual obliteration during the Blitz. Piers Dudgeon has listened to dozens of people who remember this fiercely proud quarter to record their real-life experiences of what it was like before it was fashionable to buy a home in the Docklands. They talk of childhood and education, of work and entertainment, of family, community values, health, politics, religion, and music. Their stories will make you laugh and cry. It is people's own memories that make history real and this engrossing book captures them vividly.

In the Victorian era, sensational ghost stories were headline news. Spine-chilling reports of two-headed phantoms, murdered knights and spectral locomotives filled the pages of the press. Spirits communicated with the living at dark seances, forced terrified families to flee their homes and caused superstitious workers to down their tools at the haunted mines. This book contains more than fifty hair-raising - and in some cases, comical - real life accounts from Wales, dating from 1837 to 1901. Unearthed from newspaper archives, they include chilling prophecies from beyond the grave, poltergeists terrorising the industrial communities, and more than a few ingenious hoaxes along the way.

With a proud history of industry and creativity, Manchester is one of the world's greatest cities. In 2015 it was designated 'The Northern Powerhouse' but, of course, being the home of the Industrial Revolution, it always was. Manchester gave the world technological innovation as well as manufacturing strength. By the second half of the nineteenth century Manchester was home to more than 100 mills and well over 1,000 warehouses. It was in Manchester that Whitworth devised a standard for screw threads in 1841. Here John Dalton developed modern atomic theory, Rutherford split the atom and Alan Turing and colleagues developed the world's first computer. It also has a great cultural heritage, from the Halle Orchestra, founded in 1858, to the first regional repertory theatre set up by Annie Horniman in 1908. 'Madchester' was at the centre of the UK music scene in the '80s. 2015 saw the opening of HOME - a major new GBP25 million arts centre. The skyline of Manchester is again being transformed. The Victorian men of Manchester would be surprised to see the vast modern buildings that now sit side by side with the old. Here we tell Manchester's story from Roman Britain through to the twenty-first century.