Shire Publications

London's many cemeteries, churches and graveyards are the last resting places of a multitude of important people from many different walks of life. Politicians, writers and military heroes rub shoulders with engineers, courtesans, artists and musicians, along with quite a few eccentric characters. Arranged geographically, this comprehensive guide describes famous graves in all the major cemeteries and churc...

Sheep have been farmed in Britain for hundreds of years and more than thirty million sheep now inhabit these islands. The many breeds developed over this time have been carefully matched to their surroundings - from the hardy, seaweed-eating North Ronaldsay to the tough hill-dwelling Swaledale and the docile Dorset Down of the lowlands. Susannah Robin Parkin here explains the main differences between the va...

Written by the acclaimed historical novelist Lee Jackson, this book recreates the sights and sounds of "Dickens' London" and provides a detailed itinerary for those keen to follow in the footsteps of 'The Inimitable Boz'. Each of the eight walks conjures up forgotten scenes of London life - stage-coaches racing through the Borough; herds of cattle driven through suburban streets to reach Smithfield market; ...

From prize-winning historical novelist Louise Allen, this book presents nine walks through both the London Jane Austen knew and the London of her novels! Follow in Jane's footsteps to her publisher's doorstep and the Prince Regent's vanished palace, see where she stayed when she was correcting proofs of Sense and Sensibility and accompany her on a shopping expedition - and afterwards to the theatre. In mode...

Half-timbered houses, cottages and barnes are a familiar feature of the landscape, but only rarely do we have an opportunity to see below the surface and understand how they were planned and constructed. Timber-framed buildings catch the imagination of those who work with them because of their beauty, their strength and the quality of the material of which they were made: English oak. Many thousands of buil...

Tube: Station to Station on the London Underground, written by Oliver Green and published by Shire Publications, provides historical background to London’s present day Underground network and then takes you on seven guided tours to observe the influence of architects such as Charles Holden, designer of many stations built in 1920s and 1930s, or Sir Norman Foster.

Edward VII became king in January 1901 and Britain was a very prosperous country after Victoria's long reign, and now a new era began that would bring enormous changes. After the stuffiness of Victorian life, there was a desire for less clutter in the home, more fresh air and sunshine. The changes begun during the few years before the First World War in 1914 were to leave their mark on the whole century. Th...

From the original horse-drawn caravan to the sophisticated and well-appointed luxury leisure vehicle we know today, this book follows the dynamic evolution of the touring caravan from the 1900s to the present day. Using a selection of images from his archive library, expert Andrew Jenkinson reveals how technical advances as well as interior design revolutionised the touring caravan in the United Kingdom, an...

Sir William Lyons enjoyed a seemingly unstoppable rise to fame and fortune in the motor industry, and the Jaguar brand that he introduced became world-famous. Yet it did not happen overnight. In the 1920s he was in Blackpool, styling motorcycle sidecars, and in the 1930s in Coventry developing the SS motor car, with the stand-alone Jaguar company not appearing until 1945. The company's success was aided by ...

Steam, and then cumbersome motor, tractors existed in small numbers before 1914, after which the need to produce more foods using less horse and man power saw the origins of the machine we know today. Thanks to mass production, Ford brought the price down to suit average farmers, and in the 1920s to 1940s numerous rivals brought in such novelties as diesel engines, pneumatic tyres, hydraulic implement lifts...

The name Lancelot 'Capability' Brown has become synonymous with the eighteenth-century English landscape garden: between 1751 and 1783 his consultancy handled over 170 major commissions. Ruthlessly efficient, he could stake out the 'capabilities' of a particular terrain within an hour on horseback. Rising to the position of Master Gardener to George III, his trademark features included bald lawns, clumped t...

Railway posters have a huge appeal to the modern audience, but just what is it that appeals to us? Enduring images of iconic locomotives, bathing beauties and characters such as Sunny South Sam are testament to the persuasive power of the railway company marketing departments established in the late nineteenth century. Railway posters not only tell us about railway history and technology, architectural and ...

The rollercoaster is usually the main attraction of any amusement or theme park, and this book outlines the history of these fascinating structures. From the first mass-produced rollercoaster, the Switchback Railway, through to the giant wooden coasters of the inter-war period, the author uses historic postcards and photographs to chart their development and that of other amusement rides including revolving...

Nobody built sports cars like British manufacturers in the 1950s and 1960s. There was something very special about the combination of low-slung open two-seater bodywork with a spartan interior, a slick sporting gearchange and a rorty exhaust note. This was wind-in-the-hair motoring, and it was affordable by the average young man - at least, until he got married and had a family. The names of MG and Triumph ...

Britain's rail network is now among the safest in the world, but the journey that brought it to that point has been long and eventful. Early incidents like the felling of William Huskisson MP by Stephenson's Rocket (1830) showed how new ideas could bring new dangers; yet from disaster came new safety measures, and within fifty years better signalling and braking methods had been made mandatory. The twentiet...

The London Underground is a pioneer and an institution. The first underground railway in the world, and incorporating the first ever deep tunnel 'tube' lines too, it is at the heart of London life, with millions of commuters and tourists using it every year and its tentacles extending into the suburbs it helped to create. Its turbulent history reflects the trials and tribulations of London itself: it provid...

Garden Cities: the phrase is redolent of Arts and Crafts values and nineteenth-century utopianism. But despite being the culmination of a range of influential movements, and having global influence themselves, in fact there were only ever two true, self-contained Garden Cities in England - far more numerous were Garden Suburbs and Villages. Crystallised in England by planning visionary Ebenezer Howard and e...

London Transport was created in 1933 to coordinate the shambolic, overlapping transport systems of the capital, and for decades has striven to meet the challenges of organising London travel. Now operating as Transport for London (TfL), it continues this demanding work. In this fully illustrated volume, Michael H. C. Baker presents the complete story of the organisation from its origins, through the upheava...

World War II affected every aspect of life on the British home front. From food rationing to air-raid shelters to war work, those left at home had to make huge changes in their day-to-day lives as Britain mobilised, economised, and saved in the name of Victory.

Interest in old trolleybuses increased as they began to disappear from the urban landscape in the early 1960s, and this interest has been boosted in recent years by the prospect of a new generation of trolleybuses designed in - and for - the twenty-first century. This interest, at once nostalgic and forward-looking, has led to loving restorations of surviving examples, meaning that it is possible in cities ...