An important contribution to the social, cultural and economic history of seaside resorts. From the 1820s the Essex seaside towns of Walton, and later Clacton and Frinton, were promoted as high-class residential and holiday resorts. After a slow start, hampered by poor communications and low demand, growth was stimulated by steam-ship companies which landed visitors on newly built piers in Walton and Clacton and by the railways that reached Walton in 1867, Clacton in 1882 and Frinton in 1888. The contemporary emphasis upon the health advantagesof the seaside also led to the establishment of many convalescent homes. However, working-class excursionists newly attracted to Clacton, and to a lesser extent Walton, then irrevocably changed the social tone of the resorts. By the 1920s and 1930s Clacton was a commercialized holiday destination and the funfair-style facilities of its pier rivalled those of any other resort. Nearby Jaywick was established as a cheap and cheerful chalet development. While Walton remained popular with families, Frinton continued as a "select" resort, with building development and commerce strictly controlled. The town remains famous for its wide unspoilt greensward facing the sea and its resistance to any threats to its exclusive character. Camping, caravanning and holiday camps replaced the traditional seaside holiday after 1945, but from the later 1960s the increase in overseas holidays led to a steep decline ofthe seaside resorts. The economy has, however, since diversified with large dormitory-style housing developments, light industry and new shopping centres, and the coast becoming increasingly popular for retirement homes. Thisvolume presents an authoritative account of the growth and development of these towns on the so-called "Sunshine Coast".

Dr Thomas Plume, born in Maldon in Essex in 1630, is remembered today for the many bequests he left which established important scientific, religious and cultural charities. Still operational today are the Plumian Professorship of Astronomy at Cambridge University, the Plume Library at Maldon and the Plume Trust for poor clergy in the Diocese of Rochester. This volume provides the first comprehensive account of the life, work and philanthropy of Plume. Educated at Chelmsford Grammar School and Christ's College, Cambridge, Plume was vicar of Greenwich from 1658 and archdeacon of Rochester from 1679, holding both posts until his death in 1704. At Greenwich he was noted favourably for his preaching by Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn on more than one occasion. He died a wealthy man and his will contained 79 bequests. Plume's famous library at Maldon still houses some 8000 books and pamphlets as well as his pictures and manuscripts. The book collection, forming one of the largest private libraries of the period, is an important resource for understanding the Enlightenment, whilst the manuscript collection reveals Plume's intellectual roots in the religious, philosophical and political debates of the mid-seventeenth century. The landmark building itself, a partly converted and rebuilt medieval church, is an important example of a late-seventeenth-century purpose-built library. As vicar of Greenwich, archdeacon of Rochester and prebendary of Rochester cathedral, Plume had equally strong links with Kent, owning an estate at Stone Castle, Dartford. In Cambridge the chair he endowed for 'a learned and studious Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Phylosophy' has been held by many notable scientists including Fred Hoyle and Martin Rees. In contextualising Plume's bequests within the intellectual world of the late seventeenth century, the book reveals the connections between his philanthropy and his family background and education, his wealth, career and patrons, his churchmanship and his character. Having lived in a significant period of religious tumult and intellectual debate, Plume's legacy is both to have influenced the accretion of knowledge for over three hundred years and also to have illuminated his own times.

The wars of the fourteenth-century English kings with France and Scotland resulted in a dramatic increase in the number of men involved in warfare on land and sea. This book draws upon new research to identify and analyze these soldiers at all social levels in the specific context of the county of Essex.

There are also 1.4 Billion people obese people in the world that comprises of 35 percent of adults who are 20 years old and above that are overweight while 11 percent from this are already obese. Moreso 65 percent of the total population in the world resides in countries where obesity and overweight cases kills more people compare to those causes of death because of underweight due to undernourishment. What's more alarming is that there are about 40 million children all over the world whose ages are under five years old that are already overweight, this figure came in 2011 and it causes an alarm to several parents who might be raising a child that is prone to several kinds of diseases and that their children may be vulnerable because of overweight or obesity. The good news is that obesity is generally preventable. It only takes will, determination, and of course the help of the modern science to conquer the problem.

We know the political narrative: Iran is dangerous, full of terrorists and weapons of mass destruction. It's one of the countries included in the controversial travel ban. But Christopher Thornton has a different story to tell: A story of good food, liberal-minded people, beautiful architecture, and a country with a history spanning over 7,000 years that's been colored by the many cultures that span Central Asia and Europe. Iran is a fascinating place, and Descendants of Cyrus introduces you to the culture, the history, and the ordinary Iranians living lives far different from what we're shown on television. Writing about his own travels, Thornton takes the reader through the cities of Iran where he encounters robust, barely hidden black markets filled with American movies and music; sees the women of Shiraz explore modern fashion and beauty products with no fear of reprisal from a weakened regime; and meets the students populating the university town of Hamadan, where a generation of activists is finding its voice. He takes in the past and present culture of each stop, using historical context to inform his many conversations with citizens of all walks of life. Unexpected pluralism comes to light, embodying surprising religious and ethnic diversity, intellectual curiosity, a thirst for Western culture, and the desire to live a modern, secular life. This divide between a people and its government is not without side effects; Thornton reveals the social alienation felt by many of Iran's youth, and how perhaps their most unifying ambition is to create a life elsewhere, and has led to open speculation and uncertainty by Iranians about how their lives might be different once the clerical, authoritarian leadership has far less sway over them. A firsthand look at one of the least accessible and yet most politically significant countries on earth, Descendants of Cyrus taps into the hidden pulse of a culture and a generation that promises to reshape Iran in a way few Westerners could have anticipated.

`Set to become an indispensible series for anyone who wishes to keep abreast of recent work in the field.' WELSH HISTORY REVIEWImportant papers playing a key role in re-awakening scholarly interest in a comparatively neglected period of English history. The thirteen papers in this volume represent a significant step forward in knowledge and understanding of a number of aspects of 13th-century England -in particular its economy, coinage, religious life and belief, manorial farming, language attitudes and norms, cartography and geographic perception, domestic architecture, foreign relations, and internal politics. CONTRIBUTORS: J.L. BOLTON, R.J. EAGLEN, CHRISTOPHER THORNTON, MIRI RUBIN, MARGARET HOWELL, R.A. LODGE, PHILIP DIXON, P.D.A. HARVEY, JEFFREY DENTON, CHRISTOPHER HOLDSWORTH, NICHOLAS C. VINCENT, S.D. CHURCH, ROBIN FRAME.

The Winchester pipe rolls - the estate accounts of the bishops of Winchester - constitute one of the most remarkable documentary survivals from medieval England, and are without parallel anywhere in the world, supplying detailed evidence for agriculture, prices, wages, the land market and peasant society in an exceptionally well-preserved sequence from 1209 onwards. They have attracted the attention of historians of medieval economy and society for over acentury, first in deposit in the Public Record Office, more recently in Hampshire Record Office. The essays collected here celebrate their survival and demonstrate their quality, putting them into perspective as a documentary source, and assessing how far their evidence is representative of England as a whole. The volume also demonstrates some of the new ways in which they are being put to use to enhance knowledge of medieval England, with a numberof the articles concerned with recent research projects. The book is completed with a handlist of these records up to 1455, the year in which the bishopric administration started to keep its accounts in registers rather than rolls. Contributors: RICHARD H. BRITNELL, BRUCE M. S. CAMPBELL, JOHN LANGDON, JOHN MULLAN, MARK PAGE, K. J. STOCKS, CHRISTOPHER THORNTON, NICHOLAS C. VINCENT. The late RICHARD BRITNELL was Professor of History at the University of Durham.