Search results for ""The History Press Ltd""

Did You Know? In medieval times, Cheshire was a County Palatine with its own independent parliament. The village of Willaston hosts the annual World Worm Charming Championships. With 86,000 ponds, Cheshire claims to be the pond capital of Europe. Cheshire cheese is the oldest named cheese in England. The Little Book of Cheshire is a fast-paced, fact-packed compendium of the sort of frivolous, fantastic or simply strange information no one will want to be without. Here we find out about the most unusual crimes and punishments, eccentric inhabitants, famous sons and daughters and hundreds of other facts, plus some authentically bizarre bits of historical trivia.This is an ideal book to have by your bedside or to while away the hours on a long train journey. And if you like to take part in pub quizzes – or set them – then you will find this book a veritable treasure trove of useful information.

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Pickup an old stamp album and flick through it. You’ll find a host of exotic and unfamiliar names: Cyrenaica, Fernando Poo, Fiume, North Ingria, Obock, Stellaland, Tuva, – distant lands, vanished territories, lost countries. Do they still exist? If not, where were they? What happened to them?From My Old Stamp Album goes in search of the truth about these and many other amazing places. Stuart Laycock and Chris West unearth stories of many kinds. Some take you to long-disappeared empires; others throw light on the modern era’s most pressing wars. You are invited to enjoy them all, in a collection of historical narratives as broad and enticing as that old stamp album that you’ve just discovered in the attic.

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‘The best biography I’ve read recently’ – Colin Bateman, Sunday Independent An excellent examination of Mayne… Ross corrects many of the myths about him that have flourished over the years - History of War magazine ‘This welcome reassessment, officially backed and well-researched, sets the record straight’ – Soldier Magazine‘Paddy’ Mayne was one of the most outstanding special forces leaders of the Second World War. Hamish Ross’s authoritative study follows Mayne from solicitor and rugby international to troop commander in the Commandos and then the SAS, whose leader he later became and whose annals he graced, winning the DSO and three bars, the Croix de Guerre and the Légion d’Honneur.Mayne’s achievements attracted attention, and after his early death legends emerged, based largely on anecdote and assertion. Hamish Ross’s closely researched biography challenges much of the received version, using contemporary sources, the official war diaries, the chronicle of 1 SAS, Mayne’s papers and diaries, and a number of extended interviews with key contemporaries.Ross’s analysis shows Mayne to be a dynamic, yet principled and thoughtful man, committed to the unit’s original concepts. He was far from flawless, but his leadership and tactical brilliance in the field secured the reputation of the SAS, proving he was every bit a rogue hero.

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The twelve British Railways Standard Locomotive Classes were all constructed incorporating Belpaire fireboxes, rocking grates, self-emptying ash pans and self-cleaning smoke boxes to allow easy access for both daily maintenance and running needs. The first to enter service during January 1951 from Crewe Works was Class 7 4-6-2 No. 70000 Britannia, with the last coming out of Swindon Works in March 1960, a Class 9 2-10-0 No. 92220 suitably named Evening Star.Working for British Railways in Derby, Ron Buckley was fortunate to be able to witness and photograph the many Standard locomotives that were constructed in or passed through Derby works for repair and maintenance. British Railway Standard Steam Locomotives is a compilation of some of the best images from this time, as well as from his many travels with enthusiast groups throughout the country.

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Whether it is the seaside postcard bubbly blondes of Barbara Windsor, the hysterically historical leading ladies of Joan Sims, the coquettish authoritarians of Hattie Jacques, or the statuesque confidence of Valerie Leon, the Carry On girls are stoic, sexy and fiercely independent.In this lavish celebration of a pioneering generation of comedy actresses who continue to radiate charm and contemporary relevance, a few home truths are revealed and some myths are debunked; but, above all, some of the best-loved icons of British entertainment are given fitting affection and respect.

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Did You Know? In 1884 the Circle Line opened and was described in The Times as ‘a form of mild torture which no person would undergo if he could conveniently help it.’ According to one psychologist, Tube commuters can experience greater levels of stress than a police officer facing a rioting mob or even a fighter pilot going into a dogfight. Underground trains have only twice been used to transport deceased people in coffins: William Gladstone and Dr Barnardo. Some of the most bizarre items handed in to lost property include 250lb of sultanas, a 14ft canoe, a child’s garden slide, a harpoon gun, a pith helmet, an artificial leg, someone’s brother’s ashes and a sealed box containing three dead bats. WITH well over a billion passengers a year, more than 250 miles of track, literally hundreds of different stations and a history stretching back at least 160 years, the world’s oldest underground railway might seem familiar, but how well do you actually know it?This book offers a feast of Tube-based trivia for travellers and lovers of London alike.

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The Dams Raid is the RAF’s most famous bombing operation of the Second World War, and Guy Gibson, who was in command, its most famous bomber pilot. Of the six men who made up his crew on the Dams Raid – two Canadians, an Australian and three Englishmen – only one had previously flown with him, but altogether the men had previously amassed more than 180 operations.Drawing on rare and unpublished sources and family archives, this new study is the first to fully detail their stories. It explores the previous connections between the seven men who would eventually fly on just one operation together and examines how their relationships developed in the months they spent in each other’s company.

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‘The relationship between my grandmother and her mother was very important and indeed crucial to her childhood and the very early days of her writing … So, to have more insight into this particular aspect of my grandmother’s early life is very valuable.’ Mathew Prichard, Agatha Christie’s grandsonVirginia Woolf, Agatha Christie and Sylvia Plath are three of our most famous authors. For the first time this book tells in full the story of the remarkable mothers who shaped them.Julia Stephen, Clara Miller and Aurelia Plath were fascinating women in their own rights, and their relationships with their daughters were exceptional; they profoundly influenced the writers’ lives, literature and attitude to feminism. Too often in the past Virginia, Agatha and Sylvia have been defined by their lovers – Mothers of the Mind redresses the balance by charting the complex, often contradictory, bond between mother and daughter. Drawing on previously unpublished sources from archives around the world and accounts from family and friends of the women, this book offers a new perspective on these iconic authors.

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‘A tale of kings and conquests and high-sea adventures … A must-read for those interested in the history of spices.’ – Shrabani Basu, author of Victoria and Abdul and Curry: The Biography of the Nation’s Favourite DishHumans have crossed the oceans and traversed the unknown in search of spice and flavour for thousands of years. Mustard has been found at Neolithic sites in Iran, Germany and Denmark; the Romans’ love affair with black pepper was insatiable; pepper, saffron, cinnamon, ginger, galangal and grains of paradise were ordered in large quantities for Richard III’s coronation feast; and vanilla was credited as helping 342 eighteenth-century men become ‘astonishing lovers’.Although the Romans had imported black pepper, and Eastern spices had trickled through to the West for centuries, it was only after Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape that huge quantities of spices were brought back from India and the Far East, starting vicious trade wars between the Portuguese, Dutch and English as they established their colonial empires. Spices came from the West too: when Columbus reached the Americas in the fifteenth century, he brought back chilies to Europe, and from there they spread rapidly across the globe.The History and Natural History of Spices looks at spices from both a botanical and historical perspective, from their uses and classification to their influence on trade, war and global events. Both comprehensive and entertaining, it is the story of how our passion for spices helped to change the world.

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Founded in 1916 by William E. Boeing, a wealthy timber merchant, the mighty Boeing Company’s long history spans decades of rich achievement and technological development. Beginning with the manufacture of seaplanes, fighters and, from the 1930s onwards, huge bombers, Boeing pioneered innovative transports – gigantic airliners, missiles, rockets and, most recently, vehicles for space exploration and satellites.Constantly evolving, Boeing set out to develop an entirely new jet transport, and in 1954 the innovative 707 appeared. The 727 and 737 airliners quickly followed and in 1969 the revolutionary 747. By 1975 the ‘Jumbo Jet’ was being produced in seven different models and new versions continue to be developed to this day.Boeing in Photographs is a glorious photographic history, detailing the story of the company from its humble side-project beginnings to its ascent into being one of the world’s largest aircraft manufacturers.

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In Hitler’s Foreign Executioners, Heinrich Himmler’s secret master plan for Europe is revealed: an SS empire that would have no place for either the Nazi Party or Adolf Hitler. His astonishingly ambitious plan depended on the recruitment of tens of thousands of ‘Germanic’ peoples from every corner of Europe, and even parts of Asia, to build an ‘SS Europa’. This revised and fully updated book, researched in archives all over Europe and using first-hand testimony, exposes Europe’s dirty secret: nearly half a million Europeans and more than a million Soviet citizens enlisted in the armed forces of the Third Reich to fight a deadly crusade against a mythic foe, Jewish Bolshevism.Even today, some apologists claim that these foreign SS volunteers were merely soldiers ‘like any other’ and fought a decent war against Stalin’s Red Army. Historian Christopher Hale demonstrates conclusively that these surprisingly common views are mistaken. By taking part in Himmler’s murderous master plan, these foreign executioners hoped to prove that they were worthy of joining his future ‘SS Europa’. But as the Reich collapsed in 1944, Himmler’s monstrous scheme led to bitter confrontations with Hitler – and to the downfall of the man once known as ‘loyal Heinrich’.

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Samuel Smiles published Lives of the Engineers in 1862. The noted biographer presented his engineers as heroic progress makers who conquered nature and overcame impossible obstacles to drive the Industrial Revolution forward, but included twisted and often fabricated accounts in his work.In Ten Engineers Who Made Britain Great, Anthony Burton seeks to correct this narrative by offering nuanced portraits of some of the best-known engineers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Burton investigates the common themes that run between the stories of John Metcalf, James Brindley, John Smeaton, William Jessop, Thomas Telford, James Watt, Richard Trevithick, George and Robert Stephenson, and Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and also explores how each of these men learned from one another.

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For over seventy-five years, London Airport (Heathrow) has been Britain’s busiest international airport, but for the first thirty years of its life, before the dominance of jetliners, most of its passengers and cargo travelled on propeller-powered aircraft.With over 200 colour images, Classic Heathrow Propliners celebrates the huge variety of visiting propliners that were photographed by the dedicated aviation enthusiasts who spent many hours at the airport during those golden years, when non-travelling visitors were still made welcome by airport authorities.

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Dismissed by planners in the 1950s as fit only for demolition and replacement with tower blocks, Queen’s Park is now one of London’s most vibrant and thriving communities: culturally diverse, with a vigorous campaigning spirit as well as being home to world-renowned actors, writers and musicians.This is its storyFrom ancient Britain to the current day, defiant suffragettes to neo-Nazi arsonists, and First World War fighter aces to the Windrush generation, Queen’s Park: A History is a meticulously researched book that brings the past to life. Uncover mysteries, scandals, horrors and heroes – and discover how a London community ebbed and flowed to take the shape it has today.

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When suffragette Emily Wilding Davison hid overnight in the Houses of Parliament in 1911 to have her name recorded in the census there, she may not have known that there were sixty-seven other women also resident in Parliament that night: housekeepers, kitchen maids, domestic servants, and wives and daughters living in households. This book is their story.Women have touched just about every aspect of life in Parliament. From ‘Jane’, dispenser of beer, pies and chops in Bellamy’s legendary refreshment rooms; to Eliza Arscot, who went from reigning as Principal Housemaid at the House of Lords to Hanwell Asylum; to May Ashworth, Official Typist to Parliament for thirty years through marriage, war and divorce; and Jean Winder, the first female Hansard reporter, who fought for years to be paid the same as her male counterparts; the lives of these women have been largely unacknowledged – until now.Drawing on new research from the Parliamentary Archives, government records and family history sources, historians and parliamentary insiders Mari Takayanagi and Elizabeth Hallam Smith bring these unsung heroes to life. They chart the changing context for working women within and beyond the Palace of Westminster, uncovering women left out of the history books – including Mary Jane Anderson, a previously unknown suffragette.

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Everyone knows the story of the codebreaker and computer science pioneer Alan Turing.Except …When Dermot Turing is asked about his famous uncle, people want to know more than the bullet points of his life. They want to know everything – was Alan Turing actually a codebreaker? What did he make of artificial intelligence? What is the significance of Alan Turing’s trial, his suicide, the Royal Pardon, the £50 note and the film The Imitation Game?In Reflections of Alan Turing, Dermot strips off the layers to uncover the real story. It’s time to discover a fresh legacy of Alan Turing for the twenty-first century.

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Medieval folk had long suspected that the Devil was carrying out his work on earth with the help of his minions. In 1484, Pope Innocent VIII declared this to be true, which resulted in witch-hunts across Europe that lasted for nearly 200 years. In 1645, England – and Essex in particular – was in the grip of witch fever. Between 1560 and 1680, 317 women and 23 men were tried for witchcraft in Essex alone, and over 100 were hanged. Essex Witches includes biographies of many of the local common folk who were tried in the courts for their beliefs and practice in herbal remedies and potions, and for causing the deaths of neighbours and even family members. These unfortunate citizens suffered the harshest penalties for their alleged sorcery and demonic ways, and those punishments are recorded here.

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Southampton is one of the most important maritime centres in the UK – ‘the Gateway to the World’, as it is often described. The docks is the cornerstone of the city, both past and present. Here Andrew Britton explores this rich history. From four-funnelled liners and flying boats to power stations and refineries, this volume depicts all that happened in the docks, the living heartbeat of the city. Rare old photographs, previously unpublished behind-the-scenes shots of the dock at work, of captain’s logbooks and tickets – even some ships’ menus –all evoke the authentic flavour of dock life. Southampton Docks is a real treat for anyone interested in the city and its maritime heritage.

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The 1950s was a time of great change in Britain – especially after the immediate post-war austerity years. In Liverpool, massive slum clearance programmes started to change the face of the city, television began to infiltrate people’s lives, and the consumer society was born, along with the teenager, Teddy Boys and rock ‘n’ roll. In the city centre, war-damaged buildings were being repaired and new developments were springing up. Richly illustrated with 200 archive photographs, Liverpool in the 1950s recalls the unique fashions of the decade, the changing modes of transport, the shops and businesses that were around at this time, as well as the developments that took place in the city during this exciting decade, when anything seemed possible.Accompanied by detailed captions, this book is sure to awaken memories for all who remember Liverpool in the 1950s.

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A Grim Almanac of Shropshire is a day-by-day catalogue of 366 macabre moments from the county’s past. Featured here are such diverse tales as mining disasters, suicides, miscarriages of justice, axe murders, executions and tragic accidents, including the Meadow Pit Mining Tragedy of 1810, when four men suffocated from sulphur fumes after the pit caught fire, and the mysterious disappearance of a Lancaster bomber - and its crew - over Shropshire more than sixty years ago. Generously illustrated, this chronicle is an entertaining and readable record of Shropshire’s grim past. Read on... if you dare!

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During the period 1880–1914, the soldiers of the great empires of Britain, France, Germany, Russia and the United States were bedecked in elaborate helmets, with ornate weapons and finery. Their colourful uniforms represented centuries of regimental history and tradition, and often bore reminders of famous victories and heroic last stands. In Glory of the Empires, Wendell Schollander presents the definitive study of every regimental uniform across the five empires, including those of the colonies of India, the Philippines and North Africa. He explains the history behind sartorial peculiarities – such as why the Russian 15th Hussars wore a mermaid pink uniform, or why the Wiltshire Regiment had dents on their buttons – and reveals the experiences of the men who served. Complemented by over 800 rare, black-and-white and colour illustrations, this book fulfils a need not only as a one-stop reference work but also as a narrative history of the period.

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1217: England has been invaded. Much of the country is in the iron grip of Louis of France and his collaborators, and civil war rages as the forces of the boy king try to fight off the French. Most of this means nothing to Edwin Weaver, son of the bailiff at Conisbrough Castle in Yorkshire, until he is suddenly thrust into the noble world of politics and treachery: he is ordered by his lord the earl to solve a murder which might have repercussions not just for him but for the future of the realm. Edwin is terrified but he must obey; he takes on the challenge and learns more until he uncovers a horrific secret which has been dead and buried for fifteen years, a secret which might kill them all – and realises there are some questions to which he might not wish to know the answers. The first book in C.B. Hanley’s popular Mediaeval Mystery series.

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While the near 1,500 victims of Titanic accounted for a huge loss of life, each of the ships here had a greater number of casualties, in some cases more than five times as many. In total, these 27 merchant ship sinkings resulted in a staggering loss of life at sea – more than 96,000 in total, 3,840 per ship. While the circumstances were different to Titanic, the outcome in each case was no less tragic. Yet, despite the fact that Titanic ranks behind so many other losses, so powerful has her name become that it was the inevitable choice to describe some of these other events, ‘Germany’s Titanic’ and ‘The Titanic of Japan’ being two examples. Ships include the Lancastria, Britain’s worst maritime disaster with 3,000 lost; the Ryusei Maru, a Japanese ‘Hellship’ loaded with 6,000 Allied POWs, torpedoed by a US submarine; and the Wilhelm Gustloff, a German liner packed with 7,800 civilians, sunk by a Russian submarine. There were no survivors and this tragedy was the worst maritime disaster of all time.

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Witches, martyrs, bodysnatchers, Zulus and rioting peasants! The Black Death in Chelmsford! The horrible true stories of the Moat Farm Murder and the death of Jael Denny! The terrible tragedy of the Great Flood of 1880! The incredible histories of Hylands House and Beaulieu! Nazi bombers over Chelmsford! Chelmsford has one of the darkest histories on record. From the skeletons lying underneath the city – which include a woolly mammoth – to the executions of thieves, witches, martyrs and murderers at Chelmsford’s gaol, this book will change the way you see the town forever. Robert the Bruce was most likely born here; Bloody Mary Tudor lived here; infamous murderers Samuel Dougal and Thomas Drory died here. Including more than sixty rare illustrations, plus an eight-page colour section, read it if you dare!

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Yeomen of England were called to bring their own horses to form England’s first Home Guard when a dictator assembled his army across the Channel in 1794. They went on to become one of the most famous mounted regiments of the British Army. During the First World War they served on the frontline in the battles of Ypres, Neuve Chapelle and Artois. In the Second World War they found fame as one of the great tank regiments to be found on the frontline during the Normandy Landings, Battle of the Bulge and the Rhine Crossings. This book weaves together military history and personal anecdotes to follow the regiment from its horsed days, parading under the Earl Spencer who promoted Nelson to fleet command, through moments of repressing civil rioters, on to the bloodiest of cavalry charges in World War 1 and exceptional achievement with tanks in World War 2, only eventually to suffer what Napoleon, Kruger, the Kaiser and Hitler could not do – be wiped out by government cuts in the 1960s. Ken Tout, who proudly served with the regiment during the Normandy landings pays tribute to a much-loved part of the British Army.

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Of the 10,000 men who landed at Arnhem, over nine days 1,400 were killed and more than 6,000 – about a third of them wounded – were captured. It was a bloody disaster. The remarkable Louis Hagen, an ‘enemy alien’ who had escaped to England having been imprisoned and tortured in a Nazi concentration camp as a boy just a few years earlier, was one of the minority who made it back. What makes this book so unforgettable is not only the breathtaking drama of the story itself, it is the unmistakable talent of the writer. The narrative was first published anonymously in 1945.45 years later at a dinner party in Germany, Louis Hagen met Major Winrich Behr, Adjutant to Field Marshal Model at Arnhem. Louis added his side of the story to add even more insight to the original work.

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This revised edition is an accumulation of two decades of research and fieldwork by the authors, and presents a comprehensive account of the little known prehistoric rock art within the North York Moors area. It covers Northern England’s last major area of rock art and describes the geographical and moorland setting of sites including those associated with other archaeological monuments. Its main focus remains the rock art on Fylingdales Moor near Ravenscar where, following a devastating moorland fire in 2003, over 200 sites were recorded including the stunning ‘Linear Marked Stone’. Included is a new section on recording techniques using laser, photogrammetry and other methods, an updated gazetteer of recently discovered rock art sites in the North York Moors area, and appendices providing details of recent major discoveries within the area. The book offers a rational, clearcut and invaluable source of information to all those with an interest in or intention to study rock art. Paul Brown, independent archaeologist, has discovered many of the finest examples of prehistoric rock art in the UK, and has researched the rock art of regions such as Cumbria, Durham, Northumberland and Scotland.

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Essex has certainly had its fair share of bad guys during its history. From highwaymen to smugglers, thieves to murderers, it can boast some of the country’s most notorious figures. The legendary Dick Turpin was Essex born and bred, wreaking havoc in Epping Forest. At the other end of the county, in Manningtree, the ruthless Matthew Hopkins scoured the area in search of ‘witches’ — putting to death anyone who had as much as a wart on the end of their nose. Visitors to the region have also left their mark through their acts of villainy. Even royalty — including Richard II and Henry VIII — have carried out dastardly deeds within the county’s borders, from murder to adultery. Drawing on a wide variety of historical sources, Essex Villains is a veritable who's who of the county's most notorious villains.

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The Wars of the Roses (1455-85) saw the end of Plantagenet rule in England and Wales, and the accession of the Tudor dynasty to the throne. It is sometimes seen as the end of the Middle Ages in England, and the start of the modern era, and it paved the way for the reigns of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. A surprising number of historic sites from this turbulent period survive: battlefields, castles, churches, monasteries. Peter Bramley's beautifully illustrated field guide and companion to the Wars of the Roses gives full details of both the events and the personalities associated with each of these sites, together with the historical background and the reasons for the struggle between the houses of York and Lancaster. Arranged by region, it covers the whole of England and Wales, and provides invaluable information for anyone visiting or planning to visit any of the sites connected with the conflict, as well as anyone interested in the history of this period in general.

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Judicial hanging is regarded by many as being the quintessentially British execution. However, many other methods of capital punishment have been used in this country; ranging from burning, beheading and shooting to crushing and boiling to death. Execution: A History of Capital Punishment in Britain explores these types of execution in detail. Readers may be surprised to learn that a means of mechanical decapitation, the Halifax Gibbet, was being used in England five hundred years before the guillotine was invented. Boiling to death was a prescribed means of execution in this country during the Tudor period. From the public death by starvation of those gibbeted alive, to the burning of women for petit treason, this book examines some of the most gruesome passages of British history. This carefully researched, well-illustrated and enthralling text will appeal to those interested in the history of British executions.

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Commander Edward John Smith's career had been a remarkable example of how a man from a humble background could get far in the world. Born to a working-class family in the landlocked Staffordshire Potteries, he went to sea at the age of 17 and rose rapidly through the ranks of the merchant navy, serving first in sailing vessels and later in the new steamships of the White Star Line. By 1912, he as White Star's senior commander and regarded by many in the shipping world as the 'millionaire's captain'. In 1912, Smith was given command of the new RMS Titanic for her maiden voyage, but what should have been among the crowning moments of his long career at sea turned rapidly into a nightmare following Titanic's collision with an iceberg. In a matter of hours the supposedly unsinkable ship sank, taking over 1,500 people with her, including Captain Smith.

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On 22 June 1941 Hitler unleashed his forces on the Soviet Union. Spearheaded by four powerful Panzer groups and protected by an impenetrable curtain of air support, the seemingly invincible Wehrmacht advanced from the Soviet Union’s western borders to the immediate outskirts of Leningrad, Moscow and Rostov in the shockingly brief period of less than six months. The sudden, deep, relentless German advance virtually destroyed the entire peacetime Red Army and captured almost 40 percent of European Russia before expiring inexplicably at the gates of Moscow and Leningrad. An invasion designed to achieve victory in three to six weeks failed and, four years later, resulted in unprecedented and total German defeat. David Glantz challenges the time-honoured explanation that poor weather, bad terrain and Hitler’s faulty strategic judgement produced German defeat, and reveals how the Red Army thwarted the German Army’s dramatic and apparently inexorable invasion before it achieved its ambitious goals.

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Taking you through the year day by day, The Cardiff Book of Days contains a quirky, eccentric, amusing or important event or fact from different periods of history, many of which had a major impact on the religious and political history of Britain as a whole. Ideal for dipping into, this addictive little book will keep you entertained and informed. Featuring hundreds of snippets of information gleaned from the vaults of Cardiff’s archives, it will delight residents and visitors alike.

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In the early twentieth century many housewives had no choice but to make every penny count. Stringent meal-planning, thrifty shopping and careful cooking were second nature in families where money was tight, and vigilant use and re-use of every resource from coal to hot-water bottles ensured that nothing was wasted. Cookery books of the period offered cheap recipes, menu plans and meals made by means of little or no fuel in hay boxes and jam jars. This book surveys the range of thrifty-living advice offered to housewives in the years before the Second World War, from strict budgeting to penny capitalism. Containing hundreds of ideas, from making a cradle from a beer barrel to a tea cosy from a trilby, it is an informative history resulting from extensive research into the literature of the day. As well as demonstrating that the practice of thrift was entrenched in the national consciousness before the war years, it also offers practical advice that can still be followed in today’s households.

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The town of Boston lies alongside the peaceful River Witham and has the appearance of a tranquil place where nothing much has ever happened. This first impression is misleading. In terms of murder and mayhem, Boston has tales to rival anywhere else in Lincolnshire. And what of the numerous little villages that cluster around the town? As Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote, ‘there is more evil in the country than you ever find in the towns’. Stabbings, shootings, poisonings, stranglings and suicides have all made it into the pages of the area’s history. Young and old, husbands and wives, parents and children, and even complete strangers fell victim to murderous attacks. The motives for such atrocious crimes ranged from overwhelming jealousy and blinding rage to calculated greed and petty disputes.These fourteen tales of true murder from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, compiled by renowned local author Douglas Wynn, will fascinate anyone wanting to know more about Boston’s dark history.

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Many people have written biographies of Charles Darwin, but the story of his family and roots in Shrewsbury is little known. This book, containing original research, fills that gap. The key player is Charles' father, Dr Robert Darwin, a larger-than-life character whose financial acumen enabled Charles to spend his whole life on research unencumbered by money worries. Through Susannah, Charles' mother, we are introduced to the Wedgwood family, whose history was so closely interwoven with the Darwins. The stories of Charles' five siblings are detailed, and there is a wealth of local material, such as information on Shrewsbury School and its illustrious headmaster, Samuel Butler. The book is fully illustrated with contemporary and modern pictures, and will be of interest to anyone wanting to discover more about the development of Shrewsbury's most famous son.

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The divisions of the Waffen-SS were among the elite of Hitler’s armies in the Second World War. But alongside the Germans in the Waffen-SS fought an astonishingly high number of volunteers from other countries. By the end of the Second World War these foreign volunteers comprised half of all Hitler’s Waffen-SS, and filled the ranks of over twenty-four of the nominal thirty-eight Waffen-SS divisions. So during the most brutal war that mankind has ever known, hundreds of thousands of men flocked to fight for a country that was not theirs, and for a cause that was one of the most monstrous and barbaric in history. Who were these men, and why did they fight? Hitler’s Gauls is an in-depth examination of one of these legions of foreign volunteers, the Charlemagne division, who were recruited entirely from conquered France. The men in Charlemagne, often motivated by an extreme anti-communist zeal, fought hard on the Eastern Front including battles of near annihilation in the snows of Pomerania and the final stand in the ruins of Berlin. This definitive history, illustrated with rare photographs, explores the background, training, key figures and full combat record of one of Hitler’s lesser known foreign units of the Second World War.

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In 1843 Brunel's ironship Great Britain was launched, becoming the forerunner of the great steel-hulled ships of today. Yet she was tiny compared with the transatlantic liners of the early 1900s as ship-owners vied for the top spot in terms of speed, elegance and size. Liners such as Mauritania and Titanic were later followed by two giant Queens and France's liner Normandie. If the innovative engineers of the Victorian age guided the shipping industry from sail to steam, wood to iron and later to steel, then the twentieth-century invention of the computer took ship construction to entirely new concepts. Massive passenger vessels, equipped with remarkable facilities, efficient machinery and capable of meeting the highest standard of safety, can now be built from keel to funnel in no more than two years.Construction techniques have changed beyond recognition, as have methods of ship design and, indeed, the very roles that these floating resorts are asked to play. Today Royal Caribbean's sister ships Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas are the first passenger ships in history to exceed 200,000 gros tons and are promoted as offering a third more space than any other cruise vessel afloat and measuring seventy times the size of the first Victorian passenger-carrying ironship. For the foreseeable future, at least, these two giant floating cities will hold the accolade of being the biggest passenger ships of all time.

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A collection of memories and archive photographs that will delight brass-band fans everywhere.

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According to the ancient Greek geographer Ptolemy, the Parisi tribe occupied the area of the present-day East Riding of Yorkshire during the Roman period. Over the last few decades our understanding of this region and its inhabitants has been transformed through the work of research projects, archaeological investigation, and even chance finds. Discoveries including the Hasholme logboat, chariot burials, hoards of Iron Age gold coins and Roman settlements and villas have all helped to develop our knowledge of this area and provide a fascinating insight into the lives of a local tribe and the impact of Rome on their development. Peter Halkon tells this captivating story of the history of the archaeology of the Parisi, from the initial investigations in the sixteenth century right through to modern-day investigations.

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The centuries after the end of Roman control of Britain in AD 410 are some of the most vital in Britain's history - yet some of the least understood. "Warlords" brings to life a world of ambition, brutality and violence in a politically fragmented land, and provides a compelling new history of an age that would transform Britain. By comparing the archaeology against the available historical sources for the period, "Warlords" presents a coherent picture of the political and military machinations of the fifth and sixth centuries that laid the foundations of English and Welsh history. Included are the warring personalities of the local leaders and a look at the enigma of King Arthur. Some warlords sought power within the old Roman framework; some used an alternative British approach; and, others exploited the emerging Anglo-Saxon system - but for all warlords, the struggle was for power.

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This is the definitive account of 10,000 years of North American Indian history. It has been described by American History Illustrated, America's leading popular history magazine, as ‘An eloquent and exhaustive chronicle of the history of North America’s peoples’.

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The battle of Loos was one of the most hard-fought battles that the British Expeditionary Force waged during the First World War. This work presents an interpretation of Loos, placing it not only within its political and strategic context, but also discussing command and control and the tactical realities of war on the Western Front during 1915.

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Illustrated with over 200 old photographs, postcards and promotional advertisements, this absorbing collection offers the reader an insight into the life of many Herefordshire pubs past and present, and highlights some of the changes and events that have taken place during the last century. The selection relates the history of Herefordshire's many pubs, from the days when they were filled with agricultural workers and gentlemen drinkers (and the occasional dentist or doctor plying his trade) to the pool tables and cigarette machines of today's establishments. The book provides a fascinating and comprehensive history of brewing in the county, and is a must-read for anyone interested in the history of Herefordshire or pubs in general.

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Friday nights were bath nights. Immediately after tea we were given a good scrub with the brushes the girls used on the floor. No fancy smelling soaps, just carbolic and should this get into your eyes it really was painful. Then we were given a flannel nightshirt each. Some only just covered our knees because they had already been cut down to repair other nightshirts.Then we were lined up in front of the Matron who gave us a dose of brimstone and treacle then off to bed. Such was the fear and dread of 'ending one's days in the workhouse' that even in recent years older people could recall the feelings of horror that such a threat conjured up.That a system introduced to help the poor and a destitute could become such a reviled and feared institution is a mystery to most of us today but a study of it can repay with a better understanding of a broader social, political, economic and eve architectural history of Britain. Increasingly today little remains of these great and gloomy edifices, although some found new uses and survive. People are often surprised to discover that a former workhouse building still exists in the locality.This book takes a look at both surviving and lost examples of workhouse buildings in the North of England, covering the old counties of Cumberland, Northumberland, Durham, Westmorland, Lancashire and Yorkshire. Family, local and social historians will all find it a source of useful reference and for the general reader it will provide an interesting account of an institution that few were sorry to see the end of.

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In the early 1950s it seemed as if Greek shipping companies were springing up everywhere. For a country almost unknown as a passenger ship-owning state, the likes of the Greek Line, Chandris and Epirotiki burst onto the scene, often using second hand tonnage and ships acquired from the Western European fleets that were being updated. The lines soon took advantage of the mass emigration from Europe to Australia and New Zealand as well as cruising, which was then in its infancy. Although many of the Greek lines such as Royal Olympic Cruises are now gone, the likes of Chandris still survives today as Celebrity Cruises. Bill Miller, the noted maritime historian, brings together a collection of images of his favourite Greek liners and tells of the history of the Greek fleets that made the world of cruising so exciting in the last half century.

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Describing the different garments worn by women and men, this book looks at the aspects of cloth production - raw materials, production tools and techniques for woven and non-woven textiles, decorative textiles and embroidery. It also shows how much can be reconstructed from the discoveries of archaeological excavation.

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From the waterways to the motor car, London's transport has undergone a huge evolution. This collection of archive images examines the vehicles that helped change the face of transport in London in the Victorian and Edwardian eras. From the horse cabs in 1823 to the last tram ride to London's streets in 1952, this book includes such inventions as George Shillibeer's horse omnibus, the history of the hackney coach service, and the effects of petrol and electricity on the industry.Accompanied by informative commentary, the book contains over 200 photographs to chart this very important aspect of London life. Samantha Ratcliffe is a curator at London's Transport Museum. This selection of photographs and ephemera has been chosen from the archives of the museum, providing an important record of the days of horse-drawn transport in London.

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