Located in the heart of the Home Counties, Hertford has retained its identity as the administrative capital of 'The Shire of Hertford' for 1,000 years and yet has managed to remain a small, almost 'self-sufficient' town.
While the roots of our history in the places mentioned here lie mainly in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, we feel more content with our recent tangible past, especially through the magic of photographs, where we can identify old streets, houses, workplaces, schoolrooms, faces of old friends, our parents, grandparents and scenes that have been hidden away in the dark corners of our minds.
Nearly doubling its population over the last twenty-five years, and with more growth still expected, Didcot has both a bright future and an interesting past.
This book, a collection of photographs of rural dwellings that have long since vanished, and those that still stand but have changed beyond all recognition, records the changes inflicted upon the Lancashire townships of Maghull and Lydiate by the turnpike, the canal, the railways and the more modern demands of nearby Liverpool.
Anyone reading this book who is old enough to remember some of the old scenes and buildings of the area may find that they are surprised at how much Havering has changed in the not too distant past.
The history of Glasgow extends back into the mists of legend, even beyond the sixth century AD when the city's patron saint, St Mungo, entered its story.
The designated 'new town' of Telford in Shropshire received its name in 1968; in fact, it is not a new town but rather a conurbation of townships and villages whose story goes back 3,000 years.
In 1698 Celia Fiennes an intrepid traveler and relative of the Boscawen family rode into Truro on horseback and immediately loved it although she described it in her diary as 'a ruinated and disregarded place, formerly a great tradeing town'.
Liverpool was a small port on the River Mersey in the medieval period, but started to grow rapidly in the eighteenth century, benefitting from the expanding transatlantic trade.
Walworth, in the London borough of Southwark, was mentioned in the Domesday Book and, over the centuries, this former rural, agricultural area has been engulfed by the expansion and urban sprawl of the capital city.
For more than 4,000 years, Droitwich based its existence on the unique, natural subterranean resource of Droitwich brine, one of the purest and most concentrated, naturally occurring solutions of salt in the world.
Dinas Powys and the area around it have been continuously inhabited since prehistoric times, and we can still see the remains of a Romano-British homestead, a hill fort and a Norman castle.
Thanks to its world-renowned music festivals and the connections of its leading family, the Lyttons, to the heart of Britain's political and literary life, Knebworth is the most famous village in Hertfordshire.
Warrington is a new town with a long history but throughout it has remained an important commercial centre and a vital nodal point on the national communications network.
With emerging archaeological evidence pointing to its origins being as far back as the 'lost' centuries after the Roman era, Hitchin has a long and fascinating history.
Kent has one of the longest coastlines in Britain and was at the forefront of the growth of the British seaside industry from the eighteenth century onwards when sea bathing became fashionable.
