Local history

The historic county of Fife is a natural peninsula on the east coast of Scotland, bordered by the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Tay. Alongside its three largest settlements of Dunfermline, Kirkcaldy and Glenrothes it is also home to the ancient city of St Andrews, with its world-famous golf cou...

In the nineteenth century the 'America Ground' played a key role in the expansion of Hastings. Appearing to belie outside the town boundary, residents and businesses there had no taxes to pay. The freedom from local authority rules created a libertarian atmosphere, and one of the names the Ground...

An affectionate look at some of the city's 'lost cinemas' such as the Astoria, the Granada, the Continentale and the Regency. Alongside evocative archive photographs, the cinemas are recalled in touching and humorous stories of romance, excitement, grandeur and, occasionally, fleas.

A colourful history of one of our most loved and ever-changing public spaces. The modern-day cry is that the high street is dying. But are our present concerns so different from those of the past? Historian Annie Gray takes us down the street and through the ages, from medieval marketplaces to th...

The Sussex seaside town of Eastbourne was developed as a resort from a collection of villages in the nineteenth century by the Duke of Devonshire. The new town grew rapidly and by the end of the nineteenth century Eastbourne was a large borough, attracting new residents and visitors. Eastbourne's...

In 1963, just weeks before the original publication of this book, the last prisoner was escorted off Devil's Island and Alcatraz ceased to be a prison. Author J. Campbell Bruce chronicles in spellbinding detail the Rock's transition from a Spanish fort to the maximum-security penitentiary that ho...

Greece has its sun-soaked Cyclades and Dodecanese; Scotland its Northern Isles and rain-drenched Hebrides and Ireland the Arans and Skelligs. And what has England got? The isles of Canvey, Sheppey, Wight and Dogs, Mersea, Brownsea, Two Tree and Rat. But there are also wilder, rockier places - Lun...

The origin of the names of many English towns, hamlets and villages date as far back as Saxon times, when kings like Alfred the Great established fortified borough towns to defend against the Danes. A number of settlements were established and named by French Normans following the Conquest. Many ...

Sussex may be a narrow county from north to south but it includes a huge wealth of sometimes surprising history. 'The Little History of Sussex' is much the same - it packs a whole lot of history into a relatively small book. It covers the prehistoric to present with a swift, but engaging and live...

From the majestic beauty of the wild Scottish landscape to the hidden traces of its history waiting to be uncovered in every town and village, Andrew McAlindon is enthralled by the country he is lucky enough to call home. As one of Scotland's busiest tour guides in real life and online, Andy trav...