Many books have been written about Leamington's history, but this one is unique - it is the first to document the history of its pubs. The authors have painstakingly researched more than 200 years of history tracking back to a time in the late 1700s when the small village of Leamington Priors had around 300 residents and just 2 inns. With more than 220 entries and 250 illustrations, this comprehensive work traces the number of co-existing pubs from just 2 to a peak of over 100 before the progressive decline to less than 60 at the end of 2013; opening/closing dates, licence listings and snippets of social history are also included. Whether you are a serious historian, a nostalgic Leamingtonian with a hankering for the local pubs of bygone days or someone who will just enjoy checking out the photos over a quiet pint, this is the book for you.

The Peak District National Park is noted for more than just its scenery. It also has a wealth of real ale pubs, many of which lie above 1000 feet (304 metres). It's these pubs that feature in this book. What better way to visit them than on foot? All these pubs welcome walkers, many do food, have accommodation and real ale from local independent breweries. The book describes 30 walks and also has lots of information about the areas through which the various routes pass. The walks vary in length from a mere 21/2 miles to 12A miles, so there's something suitable for everyone here. The walks generally start from the pub and with certain rare exceptions, can be reached by public transport, so you can leave your car at home and savour the liquid products on offer.

Travel back to 1924 Birmingham by exploring the detailed street atlas republished in larger detail and supplemented with nostalgic views and vistas from the 1920's and earlier. This great manufacturing city had grown at an unprecedented rate fuelled by the Industrial Revolution and its rich diversity of trades. Throughout the 20th century its growth would not slow, however many buildings and landmarks would disappear, whether as a result of war time bombing or reckless planning. Numerous farmsteads can be seen in the outlying rural areas at that time, now they are long gone; their names now live on in the many housing estates that would be built in the ensuing decades.

This enchanting collection of stories gathers together folk tales from across England in one special volume. Drawn from The History Press' popular Folk Tales series, herein lies a treasure trove of tales from a wealth of talented storytellers performing in the country today, including prominent figures Taffy Thomas MBE, Hugh Lupton and Helen East. From hidden chapels and murderous vicars to travelling fiddlers and magical shape-shifters, this book celebrates the distinct character of England's different customs, beliefs and dialects, and is a treat for all who enjoy a good yarn.

From its beginnings as an Anglo-Saxon settlement, through its development as an agricultural centre with all its related trades and services, the market town of Otley has seen many changes. The invention of Otley's world-famous Wharfedale printing machine contributed to the development of Otley's printing and engineering industry. The railway arrived in 1865, terraced houses replaced thatched cottages and unpaved thoroughfares gave way to tarmac. Today, such changes continue. The railway and most of the factories have disappeared but Otley has retained its popular market town character. The medieval bridge, the twelfth-century parish church and the medieval Kirkgate street plan still serve the townspeople. The selection of photographs in this book show the present alongside the intriguing past, taking readers on a trip around the historic streets of Otley.

The Little Book of London is a funny, fast-paced, fact-packed compendium of the sort of frivolous, fantastic or simply strange information which no-one will want to be without. London's looniest laws, its most eccentric inhabitants, and the realities of being royal and literally hundreds of wacky facts about the world's greatest city.

Fran Randle, Bill Shankly, Violet Carson, Les Dawson, Gracie Fields, as well as tacklers, overlookers, weavers and other mill workers, were interviewed for this gem of a book. A tackler comes to Oldham, in the pouring rain, and knocks on a door. Landlady opens the door and says, `Yes?' `Can I stay here for t'week?' `Aye,' says the landlady, `you can, but you'll get dam'd wet!' This is a classic example of a tackler's tale a story of gormlessness, delivered with a straight face. All of old Lancashire is covered, including Manchester and Liverpool, and former Daily Express columnist Geoffrey Mather reveals a great talent for amusing observation and wry comment. The result is an un-put-downable, rib-tickling collection of stories, recollections and commentary by the author on what it means to be a Lancastrian, then and now.

This is the story of Thomas McCreary, a slave catcher from Cecil County, Maryland. Reviled by some, proclaimed a hero by others, he first drew public attention in the late 1840s for a career that peaked a few years after passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Living and working as he did at the midpoint between Philadelphia, an important center for assisting fugitive slaves, and Baltimore, a major port in the slave trade, his story illustrates in raw detail the tensions that arose along the border between slavery and freedom just prior to the Civil War. McCreary and his community provide a framework to examine slave catching and kidnapping in the Baltimore-Wilmington-Philadelphia region and how those activities contributed to the nation's political and visceral divide.

Although the impact of the Great War on Brighton was profound, the seaside town was spared any direct attack by the enemy. The fear of spies and sabotage, however, was widespread at first and aliens were an issue which had to be swiftly resolved under new legislation. Allies, of course, were warmly welcomed, and accommodation was swiftly found for those fleeing the catastrophic events in Belgium.Between 1914 and 1918, Brighton made major contributions to the war effort in many ways: by responding readily to the call to arms, by caring for great numbers of wounded (the story of the exotic Royal Pavilion being used as a hospital for Indian casualties is widely known locally) and by simply being itself - an open and welcoming resort that offered sanctuary, respite and entertainment to besieged Londoners and to other visitors, from every stratum of society. The book looks at the fascinating wartime roles of Brighton's women, who quietly played a vital part in transport services, industrial output and food production. Non-combatant menfolk also kept the wheels turning under very trying circumstances. When the meat shortage became acute, the mayor himself took direct action, requisitioning ninety sheep at Brighton Station for the town which were destined for butchers' shops in London.The names of no fewer than 2,597 men and three women who made the supreme sacrifice were inscribed on the town's memorial, which was unveiled at the Old Steine on 7 October 1922 by Earl Beatty. At the ceremony, the earl acknowledged that 'it was by duty and self-sacrifice that the war was won.' It remained, he said, for those who had survived the conflict to ensure that the great sacrifices of the past, both by the dead and the living, should not have been made in vain. We remember them in this book.

In this revealing memoir of childhood, the author shows not only what affected his family, but also reveals a large slice of social history concerning the lives of all ordinary working-class people struggling to live in the slums of the East End of London in those pre-Welfare State days. He writes with sympathy, and sometimes anger, of the overcrowded houses with families of anything up to eight children, as his own had, living in just two or three rooms with outside W.C. and water tap; of the reliance on charity and the soup kitchen for food; of trying to eke out what little income they had by buying stale bread and cracked eggs or other cheap food from the many itinerant street sellers. Yet this is also a chronicle of what was a turbulent time in British history, and especially in the East End, with its then still large Jewish and Irish populations. So here too is an eyewitness account of the Depression, and of the provocative marches by Sir Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists through the area, culminating in the Battle of Cable Street that saw the marchers turned back by the efforts of Jewish, Irish, communist and socialist protestors. Above all, however, Norman Jacobs writes with affection of the area and its extraordinary mix of peoples, as well as the now-vanished aspects of everyday life, such as the music hall, the two-valve radio, and the first Cup Final to be played at Wembley.

This colorful history will appeal to borth the interested reader and transportation historian. Brian Cudahy's skillful narrative is combined with a wealth of period photographs. The first comprehensive history of public transportation in North America to be published in more than 60 years, the book traces the grwoth of urban mass transit from the horse-drawn street cars of the 1830's through the development of cable cars, electric street cars, subways, and buses, to the new light rail systems that are playing a key role in today's urban transit renaissance. The book is not bound to any geographical region and examines transit rail systems throughout the United States and Canada.

This scrupulously revised edition offers a comprehensive introduction to the beauty and wonder of the Catskill mountain region. Combining a wealth of information with abundant illustrations, the book falls into four main sections. The first section deals principally with the geography of the area. Part Two focuses on the region's history, with subsections on Railroad Fever, The Romantic Era, War and Revolution, and Famous Hotels. Part Three- devoted to the Catskill's legends, literature, and art-features descriptive passages from the work of such famous writers as James Fenimore Cooper and Washington Irving. The final section is an extensive gazetteer that provides succint descriptions of the mountains, ranges, rivers, brooks, kills, creeks, and other geographical features of the region.

The importance of the attractive town of Hexham began when St Wifrid built his great monastery there in the 7th Century, of which only the unique crypt remains beneath the Priory church. It was bounded by a wall that separated it from the Market Place and the civil administration, which includes the Moothall and Old Gaol. These areas still form the nucleus of the town, which lay in the turbulent Border country between England and Scotland. The vital industry of tanning and glove-making has now gone, but there are smaller industries in its place. The town is a focus of music, the arts and sport. The Queen's Hall houses library, cafe, galleries and theatre. It is linked by roads and by the early Carlisle-Newcastle railway which bring in tourists and local people for many activities such as the Hexham Gathering and the Abbey Arts Festival. Much has changed, but the historic centre remains intact. The author has lived here for over 30 years and is an Honorary Steward and Bailiff of the town.

Suffolk is a county renowned for the beauty of its many parish churches, but for the average visitor the physical language in which they speak, that of stained glass, engraved fonts, and hammer-beamed roofs, is bewildering. Now available in an updated, single volume, the Guide to Suffolk Churches provides a way into this fascinating world, its architecture and history. From bells to pulpits to centuries-old graffiti found in window sills, each church unfolds from sealed tome to open book in Mortlock's hands. Accompanying the entries there is an extensive glossary/index and two useful appendices. From carvings of woodwoses to weeping chancels, the meaning of idiosyncracies and uniformities alike across the county are laid out in clear, engaging prose. New photographs, line drawings, and a detailed map ensure that neither the greatest of artefacts nor the smallest of churches can be accidentally overlooked.Written in a voice as knowledgeable as it is enthusiastic about Suffolk and its churches, the guide is incomparable in both the thoroughness and charm with which it unlocks more than one thousand years of history across the county's hundreds of churches. There is no visit to any parish church in Suffolk, no matter how well informed the visitor, that would not be more enjoyable and informative for having Mortlock along. About the author: D.P. Mortlock is Librarian to Viscount Coke at Holkham and was, for 20 years, County Librarian of Norfolk. He is a Fellow of the Library Association and served as an officer in the Indian Army from 1945-7. His recent books include a new edition of 'The Guide to Norfolk Churches', also published by The Lutterworth Press, 'Aristocratic Splendour: Money and the World of Thomas Coke, Earl of Leicester' (Sutton Publishing), and 'Holkham Library: A History and Description' (Roxburghe Club).

Since the middle ages, Orkney has proved remarkable for the volume and the quality of its literary output. From the skalds and sagamen of the Viking age, through to the colourful folklorists, polemicists and translators of the Victorian era, and the internationally acclaimed poets and novelists of the twentieth century, Orkney has continually and self-consciously developed a unique literary culture of its own. This clearly defined artistic territory resembles a sub-nation at times, and is characterised not by insularity, but by what might be termed a positive 'insularism' - defining, reinventing and presenting itself to the world. The History of Orkney Literature is the first full survey of literary writing from and about the Orkney Islands. The book presents readings of uncomplicatedly Orcadian writers such as Walter Traill Dennison, Edwin Muir, Eric Linklater, Robert Rendall and George Mackay Brown. It also considers major texts written by 'outside' authors which are nevertheless demonstrably Orcadian in terms of their setting, style and influence. The History of Orkney Literature charts the development of this distinctly Orcadian strand within Scottish Literature, and shows how the archipelago, rather than the nation, can indeed be the defining locus of a compact and vibrant literary tradition.

Mary Dodge Woodward, a fifty-six-year-old widow, moved from Wisconsin with her two grown sons and a daughter to a 1,500-acre bonanza wheat farm in Dakota Territory's Red River valley in 1882. For five years she recorded the yearly farm cycle of plowing and harvesting as well as the frustrations of gardening and raising chickens, the phenomenon of mirages on the plains, the awesome blizzard of 1888, her reliance on her family, and her close relationship with her daughter. She noted "blots, mistakes, joys, and sorrows" in her "olf friend." This Borealis edition brings back to print a valuable record of a frontier woman's life.

A prolific writer of prose, poetry, and regional history, Carl Carmer first gained national attention with Stars Fell n Alabama, a book about Alabama folkways. But it is his writings about upstate New York, where he was born and lived for much of his life, that firmly established him as a folk historian and master storyteller. The Hudson, originally published in 1939, is the most popular of these writings. Best of the Rivers of America series, The Hudson is less a formal historical account of the discovery and development of the river that a personal, anecdotal view of it. Included are tales of white-sailed sloops and steamboats racing from Albany to New York; of old whalers and trader sea dogs of the Catskill shore; of showboats playing anti-rent meoldramas to incite farmers against their landlords; of great disasters and heroic deeds; of the efforts of the Hudson River School to capture "sublimity" on canvas; of the quarrelsome, rough-and-tumble life of the Dutch along the river's banks, and many more. This commemorative fiftieth anniversary edition features 16 new drawings by Hudson River artist Edward J. McLaughlin, a foreward by New York historian Louis C. Jones, and an afterword by Roger Panetta, professor of history at the College of New Rochelle.