Search results for ""Author Martin Baggoley""

This fascinating book of over 200 old photographs depicts scenes, people and events from everyday life in and around Darwen, from a period of more than one hundred years. Many of the photographs, most of which come from the Darwen Library, have not been published before.In this book we see some of the town’s well-known features such as The Circus, through a period of change, plus former landmarks, like the gasholders in Vale Street and the pier at the top of Bury Street, that were both prominent features in the town. We also see images of the numerous mills that were once in business in the Darwen district including Woodfold, Belgrave and Barley Bank. The people feature just as prominently as the townscape, and we see a community enjoying many social events such as football matches, agricultural shows, drama productions, street parties and carnivals. We also see some of Darwen’s well-known individuals including Alderman Alex Carus JP, the town’s first Catholic mayor, Joseph Pomfret, Darwen’s Chief Librarian and George Nuttall, the town’s bellman for more than twenty-five years.The book depicts the town of Darwen at work, at school and at play. It will appeal to all who know and love this Lancashire town and to those who would enjoy a trip into its recent past, an age now vanished for ever.

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Derbyshire Murders brings together fifteen of the county's most extraordinary and shocking cases. The crimes covered made not just local but in some cases national headlines. For this fascinating, illustrated collection, Martin Baggoley has returned to original sources - including police interviews, trial transcripts and contemporary newspaper reports - to rebuild each story from scratch. Cases include a murder and robbery committed in 1842 in Stanley, and the murder of a police constable in Derby in 1879. Although the killer was sentenced to death, he was reprieved after it was revealed how the jury had reached their decision: they drew lots and tossed a coin. Also included are cases from Belper, Chesterfield, Bonsall, Glossop and Ilkeston. This unique re-examination of the darker side of Derbyshire's past is sure to appeal to all those interested in the shady side of the county's history.

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Drawing on a wide selection of sources and illustrated with more than sixty photographs, this collection of grisly tales explores the darker side of the Lake District's past. It features the tale of the 'Keswick Imposter', who seduced and bigamously married a young lady of Buttermere before being hanged at Castile for fraud, a story which was the inspiration for Melvyn Bragg's The Maid of Buttermere. Also included is the account of an eighteenth-century gang who repeatedly tried to kidnap a wealthy (but alcoholic) landowner and marry him to a prostitute in order to lay their hands on his fortune. With murders, hangings, kidnap and violence, Murder & Crime in the Lake District is sure to captivate and horrify anyone interested in the criminal history of the area.

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True crime writer Martin Baggoley has selected a fascinating collection of tales of murder and manslaughter from across Lancashire spanning the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The crimes are as diverse as the locations in which they were committed, and include mass murder and suicide in Salford, infanticide in Manchester, robbery and murder in Oldham, a vicious assault over a wager in Liverpool, rape and murder in Darwen and Bolton and a sweetheart shot to death in Southport. The perpetrators faced public execution outside the walls of Lancashire Castle or hanging within the walls of the gaols of Manchester and Liverpool; others faced imprisonment, and some were never caught. Contemporary illustrations complement the text to provide a shocking and compelling account of the Red Rose county's dark side.

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This chilling collection of murderous tales brings together forty-seven cases spanning two centuries, all of which were committed in Scotland. Among the shocking crimes featured here is the case of an Edinburgh baby farmer hanged in 1889; the controversial killing of a wealthy Glasgow spinster in 1908; the shooting of a Detective Inspector during a failed attempt to rescue a convict from a prison van in Glasgow in 1921; and the summary execution of a German POW at the hands of his fellow Nazi prisoners in Comrie, Perthshire in 1944. This well-illustrated and enthralling book will appeal to everyone interested in true crime and the shadier side of Scotland’s past.

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