Books in the Shire Album S. series

The Ford Cortina was launched in 1962, it was made for twenty years and sold well over four million.

For over a century, no surviving marque so accurately charted the triumphs and tribulations of the British motor-manufacturing industry as Rover. This book traces the history of the company, starting with the cycle-making precursors of the Rover Company Limited.

This book seeks to preserve the memory of the coopers skills, tracing the history of the craft and describing and illustrating how a barrel was made.

Dinky Toys were introduced in 1931 and these diecast metal toys became bestsellers. More than 1000 different subjects were modelled, mostly transport related.

This book provides a glimpse into the complex, multi-layered and evolving institution and offers an introduction to the uniforms, arms and services of the Indian Army at the height of the Raj.

Traces the history of fans from biblical times to the present day.

This book shows the variety of subjects and techniques of embroidered pictures in the Georgian period in Britain (1714-1830).

The artificial grotto has a long and intriguing history in architecture and garden design. This book describes the origins of the grotto in Renaissance Italy, its heyday in eighteenth-century England, its decline in the nineteenth century and its return to favour in the twentieth century.

This book charts the history of architectural ceramics, focusing on practical and decorative applications, on architects, designers and manufacturers, and on styles and techniques of production and decoration.

Surveys the medals awarded to British personnel for military services from the First World War to operations of British forces in the opening years of the twenty-first century. The campaign medals awarded for the military actions have become a popular field for collectors, since the majority of British awards were officially named.

This book surveys the British decorations and medals from the origins in the Crimean War of 1854-6 up to the end of the twentieth century.

Sundials have played an important role in regulating the daily life of mankind throughout Europe and the British Isles. This text describes and illustrates each particular class of sundial likely to be found on buildings, in churchyards, public squares, and remote countryside locations.

The beam engine became the most used form of steam engine in factories, mines and waterworks until well into the second half of the nineteenth century. This book outlines the development of the beam engine and gives some explanation of why it was so successful.

This new Shire Album is primarily an introduction to narrowboats. It is illustrated by modern colour photographs of boats on the inland waterways today and will act as a guide to those who want to search out the heritage of the working canals.

Narrow boat cabins were bright with paint, and the 'roses and castles' decorations of the canal boats are a true English folk art along with the embroidery of the boatwomen.

Almshouses - shelter offered by religious institutions to needy elderly people - come in a variety of architectural styles and often have interesting features, including coats of arms, clock-towers and sundials, many have chapels and gardens.

This book explores beer's six-thousand-year history and explains how different styles emerged through the use of different materials and processing methods. The story is brought up to date with an insider's expose of the modern brewing process and an account of which processing aids are employed and why.

Spectacles have been used since the thirteenth century, at first by the few people who needed to read, such as churchmen and clerks. This book traces the development and use of eyeglasses from the fourteenth century onwards. It is illustrated with many colour photographs.

Tatting is the craft of making lace with a shuttle. Its charm lies in the repetition of simple motifs. This title traces the development of tatting from the eighteenth-century pastime of knotting, through its emergence as a craft in Victorian times, to modern innovations. It is illustrated with examples from museums and private collections.

British ceramics of the 1950s are highly evocative of a decade of optimism and change in British life. The austerity of war was quickly banished by a new breed of young consumer who demanded ceramics which were bright and modern. This book considers how pottery manufacturers met this challenge, producing ware which was also prized for design.

Of the millions of enamel advertising signs produced between 1850 and 1950, only a few thousand survived and the authors describe and illustrate over 100 samples from their own collection.

This book explains why it was important to keep pigeons and describes the wide variety of buildings that were constructed to house them over the years.

This book describes how nineteenth-century decorative encaustic tiles derived from medieval church tiles, how they were made, the designers and manufacturers.