Books in the Through Time series

Guernsey is the most western of the Channel Islands, with a proud maritime history spanning many centuries. Only 25 square miles, the island nevertheless has a great variety of landscapes, from the rugged cliffs in the south to the low-lying dunes in the north. The ten parishes, each with their own unique community spirit, are home to over 60,000 people. This grows greatly during the summer as visitors come to experience the island's quiet country lanes and the bustling streets of St Peter Port. Historically, Guernsey people have made their mark not just on the sea, but in thriving stone industries, agriculture and horticulture, and in recent years, international banking. Guernsey Through Time explores this fascinating little island through the historical photograph collection of the Priaulx Library, many of which have never been published. Locals and visitors alike will discover a unique insight into how Guernsey has changed over time.

Chatham is a town that has been undergoing change for the last five hundred years. It all began with the arrival of the naval dockyard in the sixteenth century. From this, a town was created which began to grow with the rapidity of a Chatham built warship. The site of the former dockyard is still under development and in the town major changes are not only underway but others are in the pipeline and will include the Brook, the waterfront and the area of the railway station. What better time can there be for a book on Chatham that not only looks at the past but also the present? While many of the photographs show the town as it is today - many of those scenes will also be changing in the near future. This book attempts to capture this evolving town, and will be of interest to anyone who knows and loves this area.

The communities that feature in this book lie to the east of Edinburgh and all have fallen prey over the years to its inevitable expansion. Portobello accepted merger with Edinburgh in 1896 when this proudly independent burgh was not only Scotland's premier seaside resort but also boasted a strong local economy based on its thriving pottery, brick and glass manufacturing works. All of these underpinned a wide range of retail and commercial enterprises. Suburban sprawl spread to the west of Portobello in the 1930s when a mix of local authority and private housing was built over the fields of Restalrig, Lochend and Craigentinny. This book chronicles the early changes and also those caused by industrial collapse and urban development from the second half of the twentieth century. Inevitably, some of these changes have produced scars on the landscape but there are many positive images of regeneration.

Coventry remembers the night of the Blitz, when many people lost their lives, lovely old buildings were destroyed, and the magnificent St Michael's, Coventry's cathedral, was burnt to the ground. Jacqueline Cameron shows, through old and new photographs, just how this iconic city has risen from these ashes. This full colour book is a fascinating journey around the area, illustrating the changes that have taken place. Consider the beautiful new cathedral, and the revitalised city and you will realize that Coventry might have suffered badly in the Second World War but its spirit had not been killed, the heart of the city beats as strong as ever. It is hoped that, with Coventry Through Time, the readers can see for themselves just how the planners have given the people of Coventry a city to be proud of.

Ebbw Vale's many losses over the past hundred years are celebrated here - collieries, steelworks, cinemas, churches, chapels, post offices, schools, railways, streets, local shops and especially jobs have all disappeared, only to be replaced, in many instances, by new housing estates, bypasses, town redevelopments, schools, car parks, leisure centres, council offices, light industrial sites and out-of-town stores. This collection aims to provide an unrivalled memento of hard times and good from the decline of iron and steel production in the 1920s to their revival and ultimate nationalisation years later. The 1992 National Garden Festival and the 2010 National Eisteddfod are commemorated, likewise demolitions, druids and the 1957 toast of the town, the Cwm Dyffryn School Choir.

Macclesfield is an ancient Cheshire town that stands beneath the sprawling and beautiful Peak District. It is Cheshire's furthest outpost before taking the road into Derbyshire and many years ago entered the Industrial Revolution in a more genteel manner perhaps, by becoming a silk town. Here all manner of silk items were manufactured such as the narrowest ribbons and the best of silks and satins.It is the perfect place to explore Macclesfield Forest and the Cheshire Peak District but the town itself has plenty to offer including the Heritage Centre with its museums and tea room. Paul Hurley has carefully selected modern and old views to paint a nostalgic historical portrait, so enjoy this pictorial tour of the town and see what is here now and compare it to what was here many years ago.

Brycgstowe, 'the place at the bridge', as the Saxon founders of Bristol once called it, is a city of destiny. Once the second port in the country and one of the wealthiest cities in Britain, it has enjoyed centuries of prosperity based on manufacturing, seafaring and trade. Geographically split between the counties of Gloucestershire and Somerset and approached by sea through the dramatic Avon Gorge, the city received a Royal Charter in 1155.It was an industrial city described in the Georgian period as 'by mud cemented and by smoke obscured'. The Bristol of the past is illustrated here in drawings, paintings and photographs, many previously unpublished, from the superb collection held in the Bristol Central Reference Library's Local Collection. They are contrasted with modern colour images documenting the myriad changes the last century has seen in this pleasant city.

Fleetwood and Thornton Cleveleys are well known for their proximity to the coast. Developed during the Victorian era, Fleetwood retains a lot of this style, with remnants of its once vibrant life as a deep-sea fishing port. As a popular resort, today it acts as a quiet contrast to busier nearby towns, and is home to the Mount, a 7-acre park offering views across Morcambe Bay. Thornton Cleveleys, like Fleetwood, is also a prominent seaside town. The wonderful promenade, the Jubilee Gardens and the relaxing boating lake are just a few of the attractions this picturesque area has to offer, aside from the peaceful estuary and the historic Marsh Mill. Lancashire enthusiast Peter Byrom delves into the history of these areas, through a collection of remarkable old and new photographs.

Owing its name to the famous battle, Waterloo is nearly two centuries old. Growing inland from an attractive seafront, it has retained its character and most of its buildings during that time. It has attracted the attention of photographers who have left an illuminating record of the past comparable with the still recognisable present. In contrast, Litherland was an agricultural community from the Domesday Book until industrialisation. William Gladstone's father built Seaforth House, which gave its name to the area. Others were encouraged to build magnificent residences enjoying views over sandy shores. The houses have disappeared and the Royal Seaforth Container Dock has changed the shoreline almost beyond recognition. This book recreates the old village life and chronicles the changing scenery.

From the late eighteenth century, the Industrial Age transformed Belper from a small village of nail-makers to a busy and successful town. Thanks to the Strutt family, the town was the first in the world to have water-powered cotton mills, and the hundreds of people that flocked to work in those mills were provided with homes, chapels, schools and much more. Since Belper was inscribed on to the UNESCO World Heritage List as part of the Derwent Valley Mills Site in 2001, the drive to save, enhance and restore the historic town has never been greater. By comparing views from years past, this book helps to define what has survived, what has been lost, and what we can do to ensure Belper remains the unique historic community it is today.

The River Forth is one of Scotland's great waterways. It has a majestic history and heritage, part of which is the Forth bridges. Of these, the most iconic is the Forth Rail Bridge, which opened in 1890. But there is also the Kincardine Bridge, opened in 1936 and once the longest swing bridge in Europe, the Forth Road Bridge, opened in 1964, and the new Queensferry Crossing, due to be completed in 2016. In this book, Michael Meighan looks at all these bridges as well as the Clackmannanshire Bridge and the fords, ferries and smaller bridges which preceded these great crossings. The Forth crossings have a special place in the history and culture of Scotland, and in the hearts of all Scots, and Michael Meighan pays tribute to them in a wonderful mix of both old and new images.

Norwich Through Time contains 180 photographs of Norwich, of which 90 are old photographs. Some printed in a sepia tone and some printed in full colour. These photographs are printed alongside a contemporary full colour photograph which illustrates the same scene. The contrasting illustrations show how the area has changed and developed during the last 100 years. The photographs illustrate shops, schools, garages, churches, houses and street scenes, each photograph is captioned and the book has an introduction which gives a brief overview of the history of the town. As you browse through the photographs, you will notice the increase in the number of vehicles on the road, shops that once sold new goods are now estate agents or charity shops. Green fields have been transformed into industrial estates, houses or ring roads.

Brighouse Through Time provides a unique opportunity to look, not only at the present day town centre that many readers will be familiar with, but also how many parts appeared particularly during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The contrasting images of historical sepia images with those full colour images of the twentieth century is an exciting innovation from books of a similar style of the 1970s and 1980s. This book is not meant to be purely historical, but also an insight and an opportunity to see 'snapshots' in time, which for older readers will evoke many memories from their own childhood days. Whereas younger readers have the opportunity of seeing Brighouse's many changes, and how the town centre has evolved over the last century, a process that is forever ongoing.

This fascinating selection of photographs shows how Castle Douglas has changed and developed over the last century.

Peckham & Nunhead Through Time is a unique insight into the illustrious history of this part of London. Reproduced in full colour, this is an exciting examination of Peckham and Nunhead, the famous streets and the famous faces, and what they meant to the people in these communities throughout the 19th and into the 20th Century. Looking beyond the exquisite exterior of these well-kept photos, readers can see the historical context in which they are set, and through the author's factual captions for every picture and carefully-selected choice of images, the reader can achieve a reliable view of this area's history. Readers are invited to follow a timeline of events and watch the changing face of Peckham and Nunhead, as we are guided through the local streets. There is something for everyone here, whether they have lived in the area all their lives, or whether they are just visiting. It also shows how photography has continually evolved to keep up with an ever changing society.

Paddington is part of a hub of underground stations and is home to the world's most famous bear, named after the station. Revel in the selection of images of Paddington Through Time and see how Brunel's masterpiece has stood the test of time. 'I am going to design, in a great hurry, and I believe to build, a station after my own fancy,' stated Isambard Kingdom Brunel in 1851. That station, the second to bear the name 'Paddington', was to be another Brunel masterpiece. His delight at the prospect of building a replacement and permanent station at Paddington is self-evident. The new station was to be built on the plot of land just south of the Bishop's Road Bridge, defined by Eastbourne Terrace and Praed Street on two sides, and by London Street and the canal on the northeast side. Because the new station would be located almost entirely within a cutting, there would be no grand exterior, and instead, Brunel impressed with his immense roof of iron and glass. Paddington is currently in the middle of a huge redevelopment that has seen it retain much of its nineteenth-century design, but updated to suit traffic flows of today. Millions pass through the station weekly, both to the West and Wales and to Heathrow on the Heathrow Express.

By the turn of the twentieth century Small Heath and Sparkbrook, two adjacent inner city districts of Birmingham, had been transformed from a rural environment to an urban one. Two vibrant shopping areas had evolved surrounded by Victorian properties of working class back-to-backs and middle class terrace housing on the Coventry Road, Small Heath and Stratford Road, Sparkbrook. Birmingham City FC dominates the city end of Small Heath whereas Small Heath Park at the other end also attracts visitors to the only major green space in this area. However the most historical and oldest building, The Farm, can still be found in Sparkbrook. Unlike other inner-city areas no large scale redevelopment has taken place in either district leaving a mixture of modern and as-built properties in both areas.