Amberley Publishing strana 17 z 20

The pre-Grouping Companies were fiercely competitive and would defend any incursion by another company penetrating what they considered to be their ‘territories’. Nevertheless, at times they would cooperate. This cooperation resulted in a large number of joint lines. These joint lines ranged from fully independent operations, complete with their own staffs, locomotives and rolling stock, to short lengths of railway used by the joint companies, the cost of maintenance of which was shared.There were more than seventy of these joint lines, and all feature in this series by popular railway author Patrick Bennett. This volume focuses on those found in eastern and southern England.

In the 200 years since it was founded, the RNLI has saved more than 144,000 lives.It all began with a meeting in London in 1824 to act on a proposal by Sir William Hillary: the formation of a National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck. It is his vision that still drives the RNLI today. The vast majority of its crews are volunteers, backed up by large numbers of fundraisers from all walks of life. And the charity today saves lives in more ways, in more places – through lifeguards, water safety and international work. But, since the RNLI’s foundation, it has not always been plain sailing. In April 1852, the Lifeboat Journal observed that ‘lifeboats have been too few in number, of imperfect form and construction, and often unsuited to the nature of the locality where stationed’. This book takes a fresh look at the creation of the Institution and its early founders, and examines how it has responded over 200 years to the inevitable stresses and external pressures. It provides information on many hitherto unsung heroes and heroines and lesser-known rescues, along with the well-known events.The RNLI has overcome many obstacles and is now one of the UK and Ireland’s most respected organisations. How it became so is a story of determination, acumen, skill and bravery. More than 700 names are inscribed on the RNLI Memorial at the RNLI Support Centre in Poole, Dorset. The author and publishers hope that this book is a fitting tribute to such self-sacrifice.

The railway route between Settle and Carlisle in the North West of England is one of the most scenic lines in Britain. Crossing moors and mountainside, through the Yorkshire Dales and the North Pennines, the line is famous for its spectacular views, its tunnels and its viaducts, not least the legendary Ribblehead Viaduct. This remarkable feat of Victorian engineering was under threat of closure by British Rail in the 1980s. Campaigners fought hard to keep it open and today growing numbers of passengers travel the line, closed stations have reopened and the line carries many steam-operated specials and charter trains as well as regular passenger and freight workings from Settle Junction on the Leeds–Morecambe Line to Carlisle near the England–Scotland border.In this book photographer John Bentley captures the variety of workings to be seen on this line and its beautiful scenery over the last decade alongside a selection of images taken when the line’s future was in doubt in the 1980s.

The county of Berkshire is home to a through route from east to west following the River Thames, the ancient Ridgeway, the A4 trunk road, the Kennet and Avon Canal and the Great Western Railway. Within this long, slipper-shaped county there is something for everyone - gems from medieval to modern times. It can be divided into five geographical sections: the Vale of the White Horse, the Chalk Downs, the Kennet Valley, the district east of the River Loddon and the Thames Valley itself. Glorious buildings stand at Bisham and Ufton Court, there is the splendid gatehouse of Donnington Castle and the crowning glory of all, Windsor Castle and St George’s Chapel. There are fine market towns, the White Horse at Uffington, Roman Silchester, the medieval barn at Great Coxwell, grand stately homes and fascinating medieval churches. Other attractions include the Savill Gardens at Windsor, the Museum of Berkshire Aviation, the Stanley Spencer Gallery at Cookham and the Sandham Memorial Chapel, the Thames Valley Police Museum, the Beale Wildlife Park and the Windsor and Eton Brewery.50 Gems of Berkshire explores the many places and their history that make this part of the country so special, including natural features, towns and villages, buildings and places of historical interest. Alongside justly famous attractions, others will be relatively unknown, but all have an interesting story to tell.

Dundee is a modern city with a long history. It became a royal burgh in the late twelfth century, but the town itself long predates this, and human settlement in the area can be traced back many hundreds of years earlier. In its eight centuries of official existence, Dundee has been a medieval burgh subjected to invasion and conflict, a thriving seaport and centre of trade, and a booming industrial town known worldwide for its ‘Jute, Jam and Journalism’. It officially became a city in 1889 and, shortly after this, began to be documented by the medium of the picture postcard.In many ways Dundee can be considered the home of the picture postcard. In the early years of the twentieth century when the craze for them was at its height, Valentines of Dundee was the world’s largest producer of postcards and their closest Scottish rival J. B. White Limited was also a local firm. Many photographs were taken for postcard production in Dundee and these images have become an invaluable historic archive for local historians. Dundee: The Postcard Collection dips into this archive and presents many rare and fascinating images of the city.

Since deregulation Merseyside has seen its fair share of independent bus operators come and go. In recent years Arriva and Stagecoach have been the dominant operators with the greater market share but look closely and there are plenty of buses running round in different liveries, mainly on tendered work. These independent operators play their own important part within the Merseyside bus network. Simon Ackers presents a profile of the independent operators in recent operation, with a short and insightful introduction to each and a collection of photographs detailing their fleet and range of work. A colourful journey around Merseyside, this book illustrates the variety in an industry all too often dominated by the big groups.

Rural life in England has changed for the better over the past century, thanks in no small part to the 10,000 village and community halls that provide a home for fitness classes, WIs, amateur dramatics, dances, toddler groups, parish councils, polling stations and many other locally based activities. Managed by volunteers, the buildings represent a combination of historic legacy and modern design worth some L12 billion. Here Louise Beaton and David Clark tell the story of how rural communities garnered the confidence and skill to build and run their own halls, how they raised the money and briefed architects and builders, their wartime service, the century of support and advice from charities now forming the ACRE (Action with Communities in Rural England) network of county Rural Community Councils, and of the challenges halls have faced and overcome – from funding to licensing, VAT to the Covid-19 pandemic, and rising energy costs.Carefully researched and featuring a wealth of fascinating images, this book celebrates village halls across the whole of the United Kingdom and the vital role they play in community life.

Why did it take Henry VIII six years of conflict (1527–1533) to end his marriage to Catherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boley? enry VIII and His Rabbis tells the vivid story of this tumultuous period in Tudor history, including the first full examination of the king’s bizarre reliance upon rabbinic interpretations of Jewish law for his final campaign to convince the pope to grant a Catholic annulment.With critical analysis of original documents, contemporary accounts, and historical commentaries, Jerry Rabow makes this engaging history fully accessible for modern readers. The book also furnishes updated online website resources to access copies of relevant historical books and documents.Tudor and Jewish history fans alike will delight in this fascinating intersection of Europe’s Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant worlds of five hundred years ago – a historic moment whose consequences still echo today.

During the 1990s and 2000s the bus and coach scene across the Midlands evolved at a much greater rate than that of the preceding decades. From 1986 the subsidiaries of the National Bus Company were privatised along with several municipally owned companies across the region, the largest of which was the bus operations of West Midlands PTE. Independent companies came to try their hand by setting up new routes or networks and were joined by some established coach operators wishing to exploit new opportunities.This book looks at numerous coaching operations as they criss-cross this centrally located region, with established National Express services being joined by new ventures such as Stagecoach-owned Megabus. The region largely covers the area once served by Midland Red, with many operators, bus types and liveries to be seen, along with changing road layouts, bus stations and transport infrastructure. During this period tram systems returned to both Nottingham and Birmingham with bus services altered and adapted. Through a wealth of fascinating images and informative captions, Matt Cooper documents the transition from the post-privatisation era to the modern day.

From 1100 Lynn’s prominence as an English port town depended on an extensive hinterland embraced by the Great Ouse river system. This privileged geographical position was reinforced by its location on England’s east coast, facing Europe across the North Sea. The Wash haven experienced relative decline after 1750 due to the absence of an expanding industrial hinterland; however, Lynn’s international and coastal trades (grain, coal, timber and wine) remained considerable into the nineteenth century. The coming of the railways in the 1840s robbed the Norfolk town of its geographical advantages. It was rescued by the construction of two enclosed docks linked to the national railway network which sparked an industrial revolution led by engineering factories. The town’s population was growing by 1900, but Lynn’s late Victorian economic growth was not sustained into the 1920s and 1930s. The council sealed an overspill agreement with the Greater London Council in 1962, which heralded a second industrial revolution. Suburban industrial and housing estates were built, though parts of the historic town were also redeveloped. Yet Lynn retains an exceptional historic built environment which connects us with what was for centuries a premier English maritime community.Illustrated throughout, this accessible historical portrait of the transformation that King’s Lynn has undergone through the ages will be of great interest to residents, visitors and all those with links to the town.

In 2025 the Tanfield Railway in County Durham celebrates its 300th anniversary, having been constructed in 1725 as a wagonway to carry coal from the North Durham coalfields to the River Tyne. By the 1960s it was in the hands of British Railways before volunteers took over early the following decade. Since that time the heritage railway has developed as a centre for the preservation of industrial locomotives, which operate over a 3-mile section from East Tanfield to Sunniside. Notable locations along the route include Causey Arch, the first bridge built to carry a railway in 1726, and Marley Hill, the oldest continuously operating engine shed, built in 1854. Although constructed for the transportation of coal, passenger trains now run regularly for visitors on Sundays, between March and October, and in December, the North Pole Express takes eager children to visit Father Christmas. Train enthusiasts are also catered for with demonstration coal trains and an annual gala weekend. All these events are possible due to the efforts of a dedicated group of volunteers of all ages who ensure that traditional skills are passed from one generation to the next.Henry Elliott and Dave Hewitt illustrate Tanfield’s story as a heritage railway with stunning photographs and informative captions.

This book covers the ever-changing bus scene in Norfolk, Suffolk and northern Essex since 2016. Operators featured include First Essex, First Eastern Counties, Arriva Colchester, Ipswich Buses and the Go Ahead Group, as well as independents such as Sanders and Panther. A wide variety of locations are explored, such as Ipswich, Norwich, Dereham, Great Yarmouth, Colchester, Harwich, Clacton and Braintree. Major operators in these areas have surprisingly varied fleets displaying a range of liveries, adding extra interest.Through a vibrant selection of images and informative captions, David Moth looks at the area’s contemporary bus fleets and how they have evolved in recent years.

In the summer of 1845, Frederick Douglass, the young runaway slave catapulted to fame by his incendiary autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, arrived in Liverpool for the start of a near-two-year tour of Britain and Ireland he always called one of the most transformative periods of his life. Laurence Fenton draws on a wide array of sources from both sides of the Atlantic and combines a unique insight into the early years of one of the great figures of the nineteenth-century world with rich profiles of the enormous personalities at the heart of the transatlantic anti-slavery movement. This vivid portrait of life in Victorian Britain is the first to fully explore the ‘liberating sojourn’ that ended with Douglass gaining his freedom – paid for by British supporters – before returning to America as a celebrity and icon of international standing. It also follows his later life, through the American Civil War and afterwards.Douglass has been described as ‘the most influential African American of the nineteenth century’. He spoke and wrote on behalf of a variety of reform causes: women’s rights, temperance, peace, land reform, free public education and the abolition of capital punishment. But he devoted most of his time, immense talent and boundless energy to ending slavery. On 14 April 1876, Douglass would deliver the keynote speech at the unveiling of the Emancipation Memorial in Washington’s Lincoln Park.

The Wirral peninsula encompasses a fascinating diversity of places. Bounded by the River Dee to the west and the Mersey Estuary to the east, this unique area includes urban and industrial centres such as Birkenhead and Wallasey, built around the docks, the towns of Hoylake, West Kirby and Heswall, the faded seaside resort of New Brighton, rural hinterland and the unique Port Sunlight model village.In Wirral Pubs, author Les Jones takes the reader on a fascinating journey through the area’s watering holes, many of which have retained features and traditions of previous ages. Brimming with quirky tales and fascinating facts, this carefully crafted guide initiates readers into the fascinating history of the Wirral’s pubs.

The seaside piers of England and Wales were built in an age when the population started to flock to the coast for entertainment and holidays. These iconic structures stretching into the sea first became popular in the Victorian era, and as the crowds flocked to them, they offered a world of fun and pleasure as well as the opportunity to promenade out into the sea and wind, above the waves. Alongside the ubiquitous café, the entertainment varied from bandstands and swimming pools to casinos and music halls. Although sadly only about half of the original piers remain today, they still offer an escape from everyday life, whether amusement arcades or theatres, train rides or fairgrounds, from Llandudno to Cromer, Saltburn to Ryde.In Piers of England and Wales, photographer Steve Edmunds presents an alternative view of these fascinating structures. Featuring every surviving pier around the coast, this book will appeal to all those who love the coast and this unique part of British culture.

London theatres have hosted thousands of performances of plays and musicals, from ancient Greek tragedies to modern artistic dance. In this book author David C. Ramzan takes a look at the history of theatres located throughout the city. London’s first flourishing of its theatres took place during the Elizabethan and Jacobean period, when Shakespeare, Marlowe, Johnson and a host of other playwrights entertained audiences with a never-ending cavalcade of players and touring companies. Little is left of those days, apart from the reconstructed Globe Theatre on the South Bank, after many of the Tudor and Jacobean playhouses had been pulled down or had fallen into ruin under parliamentary rule after the English Civil War. London’s theatreland truly evolved during the early eighteenth century into today’s live entertainment industry, many performances taking place from a variety of historical buildings.London’s Theatrical Heritage takes a nostalgic look back at the capital’s theatreland and present-day locations, from the smallest of intimate venues to the largest of the West End’s playhouses. The story of theatre in London will delight and enthral anyone interested in the stage, plays and players, and the theatres where they perform. This book is accompanied by contemporary photographs, archive images, illustrations and theatre ephemera.