Richard M. Jones

Gosport has been associated with the Royal Navy for much of its history. Although the naval presence has been heavily reduced today, a few establishments remain but the town has many reminders of its history as a major naval base on Portsmouth Harbour. The first naval fortifications were built during the reign of King Charles II and further fortifications, training establishments, hospitals, barracks and other buildings were added in subsequent centuries. Many of the buildings have been converted to other uses and the harbour is now a marina.A-Z of Gosport reveals the history behind Gosport, its streets and buildings, businesses, and the people connected with the town. Alongside the famous historical connections, are unusual characters, tucked away places and unique events that are less well-known. Readers will discover tales about the Explosion! Museum, the ‘Gosport Tragedy’ folk song, an enclosed Victorian garden and the scientist who identified a rare genetic disorder among many other fascinating facts in this A-Z tour of Gosport’s history. It is fully illustrated with photography and will appeal to all those with an interest in this town on the Hampshire coast.

On the night of 14–15 April 1912 RMS Titanic sank with the loss of around 1,500 people after hitting an iceberg. The ship was on its maiden voyage across the Atlantic to New York and it was the world’s worst shipping disaster at that time. The dramatic events surrounding the tragedy have captured the world’s imagination ever since and yet the story covers many more ships than just Titanic itself – from sister ships and tenders bringing out the passengers and mail, to passing ships that warned of ice, the rescue ships that raced to the scene when disaster struck and those who arrived later and collected the bodies of those who lost their lives. Controversy surrounded some ships such as Californian immediately after the disaster and ships such as the Carpathia and Mesaba which ended up becoming shipwrecks themselves many years later. All the ships involved had their own fascinating careers, some serving their country as well as their owners, transporting or evacuating troops in wartime, experiencing collisions and being torpedoed by U-boats and all sailed in an era when today’s safety rules and sophisticated chart data fed by a global positioning system did not exist.Richard M. Jones reveals the stories behind the ships involved in the Titanic disaster in this lavishly illustrated book which will appeal to those with an interest in the Titanic as well maritime history.

Railway disasters were a new phenomenon in early Victorian England. One of the first to be investigated by the Railway Inspectorate was at Howden, a month after the Hull & Selby Railway opened, in which five people died in a derailment in 1840. Signalling and safety procedures have developed over the years and the railways have become much safer, but even in recent times accidents have happened. Yorkshire, the largest historic county in England and encompassing densely populated towns and cities, heavily industrialised areas, remote rural areas and coastal settlements, has seen its fair share of railway disasters over the last two centuries, including several at Penistone in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and the worst accident on Britain’s network in the twenty-first century at Great Heck.Author Richard M. Jones reveals the stories behind the railway accidents in Yorkshire from the early days of the railways in the 1840s to the twenty-first century. Illustrated throughout, it will appeal to all those with an interest in railway history as well as those who would like to know more about this part of England.

The North Yorkshire seaside town of Scarborough grew up around its medieval castle, built on a headland. It developed as a spa town in the seventeenth century, becoming one of the country’s first coastal resorts. The railways brought more visitors in the Victorian age, although the town retained its status as a resort for high society well into the twentieth century, with many staying in the famous Grand Hotel, as well as being a centre for the fishing industry.A–Z of Scarborough reveals the history behind this town, its streets and buildings, businesses, and the people connected with it. Alongside the famous historical connections are unusual characters, tucked-away places and unique events that are less well known. Readers will discover tales about the huge castle on the cliffs, the grave of Anne Brontë, the tramway to the seafront, the birthplace of Harland (of Harland & Wolff shipbuilders) and James Moody (Titanic officer), the iconic Grand Hotel and the Holbeck Hall Hotel which slid down a cliff face thirty years ago due to coastal erosion, and the 1914 German bombardment among many other fascinating facts in this A–Z tour of Scarborough’s history. Fully illustrated throughout, this book will appeal to all those with an interest in this town on the Yorkshire coast.