England has a long and involved relationship with the sea. It has provided a final line of defence against invasion, the route over which the country's global trade has travelled, the source of a bountiful harvest of fish and seafood that has sustained the population, the essential links in the empire that saw Britain emerge as the world's first 'Great Power', and, more recently, it has fostered the leisure industry. For many, the sea was to provide their final view of their homeland as emigration took them to far-flung corners of the world, while for others, perhaps fleeing religious or political persecution, the sea offered them a route to safety. For almost a century the photographers from the Aerofilms company recorded Britain from the air. Alongside the photographs taken of the great castles and abbeys of the country, the views also recorded industrial and commercial activity - including the docks and ports that were an essential part in maintaining Britain's place in the world. In this book, Peter Waller has delved through the collection of Aerofilms photographs held by Historic England to explore the country's maritime heritage. Selecting 150 images, the author looks at how the docks and ports have evolved since the years immediately after World War I, how traditional patterns of trade have changed, how the Royal Navy has shrunk and how the leisure industry has come to dominate.

Although there had been experiments with the use of a new form of transport - the trackless tram' (better known as the trolleybus) - during the first decade of the 20th century, it was in June 1911 that Bradford and Leeds became the country's pioneering operators of trolleybuses. There had been earlier experimental users - in places like Hove and London - and as the tide turned against the tram in many towns and cities, the trolleybus became a popular alternative with the trolleybus comping to dominate the provision of local public transport in places like Derby and Ipswich. This volume - one of four that examines the history of all trolleybus operators in the British Isles - focuses on the systems that operated in Wales, the Midlands and East Anglia.

For almost a century, from its inception in the years immediately after World War I, the Aerofilms company recorded the changing face of England from the air. At the start of the era, the railway was still the predominant form of transport, with a network of main, secondary and branch lines that stretched to virtually every corner of the realm. As the 20th century progressed, however, this dominance declined as the private motorcar and the lorry increasingly became the preferred mode of transport. The early railway builders - such as the London & Birmingham - had invested much in creating impressive stations for this new and revolutionary form of transport and, during the 19th century, many of the country's leading architects undertook commissions on behalf of the burgeoning railway industry. After World War II, however, many of these buildings were were swept away. The Aerofilms collection provides a unique vantage point to explore the country's railway heritage. It is only from the air that it is possible to appreciate fully how much the railway came to dominate the landscape; even in relatively small country towns, the railway station with its platforms and goods yard was significant. Add to this the construction of tunnels and viaducts, and the railway can be said to have shaped much of the landscape of modern England. Drawing upon some 150 images from the collection, Peter Waller explores various aspects of England's unique railway heritage: from the major stations in cities like Birmingham to the humble goods yard and signal box.

The final volume in the Regional Tramways' series focuses on the history of tram operation in the London area. Starting the story with the pioneering horse tramways operated by George Francis Train in the 1860s, the book narrates how the various horse, steam, cable and electric tramways evolved in the period leading up to the creation of the London Passenger Transport Board in 1933\. The primary focus of the book is the period immediately after World War 2 when, following the retention of the tramways for longer than anticipated, the process of conversion - codenamed Operation Tramaway' - saw almost 1,000 trams eliminated from the streets of London in less than two years. Also covered in the book are the two second-generation tramways - the Docklands Light Railway and Croydon Tramlink - which now serve parts of the Greater London area. The book concludes with an overview of those London trams that survive into preservation.

Although there had been experiments with the use of a new form of transport - the trackless tram' (better known as the trolleybus) - during the first decade of the 20th century, it was in June 1911 that Bradford and Leeds became the country's pioneering operators of trolleybuses. Some of the earliest operators were in Lancashire, northern England and Scotland; indeed Scotland can lay claim to having both the first system in Britain to close - Dundee in 1914 - and the last to open - Glasgow in 1949. This volume - one of four that examines the history of all trolleybus operators in the British Isles - focuses on Lancashire, Northern England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

In the early 1930s the tramcar in Blackpool was at a crossroads; the system needed investment in both new track and new trams whilst there was a serious threat that the 'town' routes - as elsewhere in Britain as operators faced the same challenges - might have been converted to bus operation. The appointment of Walter Luff as the new general manager was, however, to prove a turning point. Working closely with English Electric, based in nearby Preston, Luff developed a series of streamlined trams - both single-deck and double-deck - that were to revolutionise the town's tramway. By the end of 1930s, the corporation had acquired more than 100 new trams - the majority built by English Electric but with 20 coming from Brush - that ensured the survival not only of the key route along the Promenade to Fleetwood but also of the bulk of the 'town' routes. Over the next 70 years these trams were to form the cornerstone of the Blackpool system. Almost from the start, when a number were modified to cater for the changed requirements during the Second World War, many of the trams were rebuilt - into the power cars that worked with the trailers, for example, or the one-man operated cars of the early 1970s - that extended their lives and saw them outlast more modern designs. It was only with the modernisation of the Blackpool system in the first decade of the 20th century that, finally, they became largely obsolete but still, as part of the heritage fleet, they remain very much part of the contemporary Blackpool scene. This book examines the history of Blackpool's streamlined trams of the 1930s from development through to preservation.

Probably the single most numerous of tramcar constructed for operation on Britain's first generation electric tramways, the London County Council's 'E/1' class had an operational history that stretched for almost 50 years. The first were produced towards the end of the first decade of the 20th century and the last were withdrawn with the conclusion of 'Operation Tramaway' - the final conversion of the once great London tramway system - in July 1952. Over the years, more than 1,000 were built for operation by the LCC with similar cars being constructed for a number of the council operated systems in the capital prior to the creation of the LPTB in July 1933\. The last batch - effectively rebuilds of single-deck cars that had once operated through the Kingsway Subway prior to its modernisation - not completed until the early 1930s. During the 1920s the LCC cars had undergone a Pullmanisation programme and, during the following decade, a number underwent the LPTB's Rehabilitation scheme. Moreover, with the removal of the restriction on the use of enclosed lower-deck vestibules, many others were converted to fully-enclosed during that decade. Although withdrawals commenced in the 1930s, as the tram system north of the river was converted to trolleybus operation, and others were lost as a result of enemy action during the war, a sizeable number survived to the system's final days. This book examines the history of this important class from development through to preservation.