Local History

John Creedon is a renowned storyteller. Following on from the sensational success of An Irish Folklore Treasury, here he seeks to capture the folklore of his own childhood.This Boy's Heart is set in a city-center household bursting with humanity, with a cast of a dozen children and another dozen adults, including beloved aunts, an American writer, an African doctor and a Scottish bookie. The streets outside are teeming with brewery horses, Christian Brothers, beat clubs, dance halls, a Turkish Delight shop - and a pub where a child could sit up on a high stool and smoke his cigarette in peace. Summers are spent farmed out to friends and family in the countryside, with hilarious tales of donkey derbies and cow chases.Set in wildly contrasting worlds - from urban exotica to spacious meadows, from the classroom of fifty boys to the open road - these stories of friendship, fun, family and folklore take you on a heart-warming journey into an Irish childhood.

The captivating story of the people and lost places of Little Somerford in Wiltshire: Who ran the village shop, and where was the forge? What is the history of the oak tree opposite the Somerford Arms? And what can a farm pond reveal about Constable's painting The Hay Wain?

Explore the rich history of Bexhill-on-Sea in this guided tour through its most fascinating historic and modern buildings.

An accessible history of Norwich from its beginnings to the present day highlighting the city's significant events and people.

Fully illustrated description of Preston's well known, and lesser known, places that have been lost over the years.

Major interdisciplinary study of medieval church porches, bringing out their importance and significance.The church porches of medieval England are among the most beautiful and glorious aspects of ecclesiastical architecture; but in comparison with its stained glass, for example, they have been relatively little studied. This book, the first detailed study of them for over a century, gives new insights into this often over-looked element. Focussing on the rich corpus of late-medieval East Anglian porches, it begins with two chapters placing them in a broad cultural outline and their context; it then moves on to consider their commissioning and design, their architecture and ornamentation, their use and their meaning. This book will appeal to all those interested in church fabric and function. Dr HELEN LUNNON, an Honorary Researcher in the School of Art, Media and American Studies at the University of East Anglia, is Head of Learning at Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery.

Secret Christchurch explores the lesser-known history of the town of Christchurch through a fascinating selection of stories, unusual facts and attractive photographs.

A stunning collection of photographs taken through the year in Dorset and the New Forest showing the changing seasons in beautiful landscape.

This book follows the railways that serve the city and surrounding areas.

This book explores the transport systems of Manchester, including the buses and rail network.

"Bourton on the Water: An Illustrated Guide" is written by Paul Snowdon. This beautifully hand drawn guide to this famous Cotswold village brings alive the history of the area dating from before Roman times, explore this village's history page by page. This is no ordinary book; it is a labour of love,

Now in paperback: This San Francisco Chronicle bestseller and California Book Award finalist drills down into Oakland's geological history and its impacts on the city's urban present."This book has turned me into a newcomer to my own city, but has also changed the way I will view any landscape. I can think of few greater gifts than that."—Jenny Odell, author of How to Do Nothing and Saving Time"Spending time with Andrew Alden is like giving yourself x-ray eyes." —Roman Mars, host and creator of 99% InvisibleBeneath Oakland's streets and underfoot of every scurrying creature atop them, rocks roil, shift, crash, and collide in an ever-churning seismological saga. In Deep Oakland, geologist Andrew Alden excavates the ancient story of Oakland's geologic underbelly and reveals how its silt, soil, and subterranean sinews are intimately entwined with its human history—and future. Poised atop a world-famous fault line now slumbering, Alden charts how these quaking rocks gave rise to the hills and the flats; how ice-age sand dunes gave root to the city's eponymous oak forests; how the Jurassic volcanoes of Leona Heights gave way to mining boom times; how Lake Merritt has swelled and disappeared a dozen times over the course of its million-year lifespan; and how each epochal shift has created the terrain cradling Oaklanders today. With Alden as our guide—and with illustrations by Laura Cunningham, author of A State of Change—we see that just as Oakland is a human crossroads, a convergence of cultures from the world over, so too is the bedrock below, carried here from parts still incompletely known.

This book examines how California Indigenous groups forged a new economy based on cattle, opening the door to the assertion and recognition of American Indian sovereignty over ancestral lands by the United States. Shanta reflects on how they survived, kept their cultures alive, and gained recognition of their sovereign status.

A comprehensive history of Philadelphia from the region's original Lenape inhabitants to the myriad of residents in the twenty-first centuryPhiladelphia is famous for its colonial and revolutionary buildings and artifacts, which draw tourists from far and wide to gain a better understanding of the nation's founding. Philadelphians, too, value these same buildings and artifacts for the stories they tell about their city. But Philadelphia existed long before the Liberty Bell was first rung, and its history extends well beyond the American Revolution.In Philadelphia: A Narrative History, Paul Kahan presents a comprehensive portrait of the city, from the region's original Lenape inhabitants to the myriad of residents in the twenty-first century.As any history of Philadelphia should, this book chronicles the people and places that make the city unique: from Independence Hall to Eastern State Penitentiary, Benjamin Franklin and Betsy Ross to Cecil B. Moore and Cherelle Parker. Kahan also shows us how Philadelphia has always been defined by ethnic, religious, and racial diversity-from the seventeenth century, when Dutch, Swedes, and Lenapes lived side by side along the Delaware; to the nineteenth century, when the city was home to a vibrant community of free Black and formerly enslaved people; to the twentieth century, when it attracted immigrants from around the world. This diversity, however, often resulted in conflict, especially over access to public spaces. Those two themes- diversity and conflict- have shaped Philadelphia's development and remain visible in the city's culture, society, and even its geography. Understanding Philadelphia's past, Kahan says, is key to envisioning future possibilities for the City of Brotherly Love.

"Telling a multispecies history of Central Park from the 1850s until the 1970s, Dawn Day Biehler illuminates the vibrant lives of humans and animals in the park, showcasing stories of decorative sheep, nesting swans, capering monkeys, and escaped bison as well as New Yorkers' attempts to reconfigure their relationships to the land and animals and claim spaces for recreation and leisure. Ultimately, Biehler shows how Central Park has always been a place where power and belonging have been contested by animals and humans alike"--