In 1963, the infamous Beeching Report saw the closure of more than 2,500 stations and lifting of 5,000 miles of track. This released a large amount of land which has been put to a quite amazing array of uses. The gentle gradients are perfect as footpaths and cycleways. Stations have become refreshment stops or cycle hire premises on new leisure routes. Yards now serve as recreation sites, grassland, retail parks, or housing developments. And there are the unusual: signal boxes used as greenhouses, hen coops, and art studios; railway sheds housing mechanics; youth groups and dance studios; and, of course, much has simply become overgrown. This delightful book explores the many surprising uses for what was once a part of the busy railway network of the British Isles.

Britain's Lost Lines

Engineering & Transportation

Poulton-Smith, Anthony

Transportation

The History Press

Shropshire Place Names

History

The History Press LTD

WARRIOR PRINCESS! The day Alfred the Great's DEADLY DAUGHTER seized Stafford! * DEATH to the NORMANS! The Battle of Stafford, the ASSASSINATED Earl and the BLOODY HISTORY of Stafford Castle! * The TRUE STORIES of Stafford's WEIRDEST RESIDENTS, including the man who tried Charles I and the poisonous doctor William Palmer! From its earliest beginnings through to the last days of the Second World War, Staffordshire's county town has seen more than its fair share of gore. Its history is filled with blood, disease, pestilence, poison, dismemberment, decapitation, suicides and hauntings. Featuring life - and death - at Stafford Gaol, the sanguineous siege of the castle and many other tragic true tales from history, you'll never see it in the same way again!

Bloody British History: Stafford

Europe

Going Underground: The Potteries

Arts & Photography

Photography & Video

Amberley Publishing

Beneath the surface of the country’s second largest city lies a little-known world that encompasses the history of Birmingham. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Birmingham profited from its position in the heart of the Midlands as the centre of science, technology, industrial development and culture for the area, growing rapidly to become the most important manufacturing city in the country. Although much of the city has changed over the last two centuries, not least through the aerial bombing raids during World War 2 and postwar redevelopment, the industrial heritage of Birmingham remains an important part of the city.Going Underground: Birmingham takes the reader on a tour of subterranean Birmingham. The stories include the bizarre and sometimes nefarious world beneath the surface of the city. We visit the tunnels built for an underground railway only ever used as air raid shelters, catacombs, closed railway tunnels, a former feeder canal used to bring goods from warehouses, a culvert containing Birmingham city's only river, the old passage to New Street station (said to have been cut through the site of a former Jewish cemetery and once used to store bodies awaiting transportation), a tunnel between a former police station and the law courts walked by many from the city's criminal past and hidden passages created during Birmingham's growth period in the Georgian and Victorian ages, and much more. This fascinating portrait of underground Birmingham will interest all those who know the city.

Going Underground: Birmingham

Going Underground: The Black Country

Join author Anthony Poulton-Smith on a ghostly tour of his native Staffordshire. Meet Josiah Wedgwood, Lord Robert Marmion, the Earl of Shrewsbury, the Rugeley Poisoner, the Kidsgrove Boggart, Lady Tempest Vane, the Crafty Cockney, a mermaid, pilots, clergy, airmen, doctors, a monkey man, the Gunpowder Plotters and ladies black, white and grey. Staffordshire's theme parks at Alton Towers and Drayton Manor, historical sites such as Shugborough and the Ancient High House, and castles at Stafford, Tutbury and Tamworth all host visitors of the spectral kind. Other spirits are to be found resident in an assortment of pubs, hotels, churches and abbeys. Why the pitiful sobs and feeling of despair near Hanbury? What would cause a white rabbit to weep? Does a murderer still visit every gatepost and stile containing wood from his gibbet? And why does 'Benjie' unroll the paper in the ladies' toilets? Paranormal Staffordshire contains almost a hundred narratives; they will delight the ghost hunters and the spiritualists, make the sceptical think again, and send chills up and down every spine.

Paranormal Staffordshire

Tamworth Through Time gives a vivid insight into the dramatic developments that have taken place in the town in the recent past. Anthony Poulton-Smith's fascinating new book recalls streets, houses and public buildings, shops, businesses and pubs that have vanished or been altered almost beyond recognition. The reader is taken on a conducted tour through the past and present streets of this ancient town, and is encouraged to compare present day streetscapes with archive photographs and other ilustrations created from the same viewpoint. The resulting contrast offers an illuminating insight into the evolution of the town over the last 200 years. It will be essential reading for anyone who is interested in how the Tamworth of yesterday evolved into the town of today.

Tamworth Through Time

The three towns of Paignton, Brixham and Torquay form the area of the Devon coast known as the English Riviera, due to the sandy beaches, mild climate and host of leisure attractions. However, all three towns have their own, unique heritage. The market town of Paignton is characterised by its Saxon origins. Its ancient church and the traditional town green, along with the beautiful beach, make for the epitome of the English family holiday. Brixham is the home of the famous Brixham Trawlers and the tourist attraction replica of Sir Francis Drake's ship the Golden Hind. Torquay is different again. With its large harbour, thriving nightlife and balmy climate, it is easy to see why it became a fashionable Victorian resort. This collection of delightful photographs explores how the towns of Torbay developed to represent the best of the British seaside tradition.

The English Riviera: Paignton, Brixham & Torquay Through Time

Throughout our islands' history we find tales of thieves, smugglers, thugs and murderers. Books have been written retelling tales of bandits, footpads, highwaymen, et al, attacking the lone traveller, the horseman, the coachman, shipping line, locomotive engineer, lorry or van driver and even pilot. Yet for almost two centuries the majority of goods travelled on Britain's famed canal network. This also attracted felons of all kinds and yet these many tales had been ignored, until now.Within these pages all manner of crimes are covered. From murders to muggings, parental problems to pilfering, arson, assault, smugglers, counterfeiters and even road rage (albeit canal-style). But it is not all morbid and misery, humour also plays a significant part in these tales. Why would a hungry man steal the inedible? Follow the policeman on foot chasing down a thief on board the narrowboat. Discover what really does lie beneath the waters of the canal. Learn canal etiquette, the hardships, the kindness and the cruelty.From an author whose fascination with etymology has produced many books on origins of place names, leading to an interest in the historical modes of travel across our islands, this book is the latest to follow old routes and those found along them.

Crime on the Canals

Pen and Sword History

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Poulton-Smith, Anthony. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Poulton-Smith, Anthony