Fred Dibnah's Age Of Steam
Fred Dibnah's Age Of Steam

Author: David Hall

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2013-03-31

Total Pages: 311

ISBN-13: 1448141400

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Britains favourite steeplejack and industrial enthusiastic, the late Fred Dibnah, takes us back to the 18th century when the invention of the steam engine gave an enormous impetus to the development of machinery of all types. He reveals how the steam engine provided the first practical means of generating power from heat to augment the old sources of power (from muscle, wind and water) and provided the main source of power for the Industrial Revolution. In Fred Dibnahs Age of Steam Fred shares his passion for steam and meets some of the characters who devote their lives to finding, preserving and restoring steam locomotives, traction engines and stationary engines, mill workings and pumps. Combined with this will be the stories of central figures of the time, including James Watts - inventor of the steam engine - and Richard Trevithick who played a key role in the expansion of industrial Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Somerset
Somerset

Author: Mick Davis

Publisher: Pen and Sword History

Published: 2020-03-30

Total Pages: 188

ISBN-13: 1526706180

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An informative springboard from which to dive deep into the rich and illustrious heritage of the county steeped in the legend of King Arthur. Every inch of legendary Somerset is imbued with history, from the towns of Dunster and Taunton in the west, to those of Shepton Mallet and Frome in the east; while also contained within its county boundaries are the cities of Bath and Wells and the mystical and magical Isle of Avalon: Glastonbury. The county, located in southwest England and part of the Ancient Kingdom of Wessex, has played a significant role in many of the nation’s most formative events. These include the Roman occupation, Alfred the Great’s rise to power, the English Civil War and the Monmouth Rebellion. And all this epoch-making activity has been played out against a landscape of dramatic and breathtaking beauty, from vast tracts of land such as Exmoor, hill ranges such as Mendip and Blackdown and an abundance of incredible rivers, lakes and streams; many situated within the famous Somerset Levels. Wordsworth, Coleridge and Austen, among many others, have immortalized the county in literature, while everyone from the Celts, Cavaliers and Saxons, to the Roundheads, Romans and rebels have fought over its sought-after resources. The authors, both living in Somerset, guide you on a fascinating and illuminating trip into the past of this most historical and legendary of counties, which boasts among its attractions the last battle fought upon English soil, the scene of the Bloody Assizes and the final resting place of King Arthur.

The Historic Landscape of the Quantock Hills
The Historic Landscape of the Quantock Hills

Author: Hazel Riley

Publisher: Historic England Publishing

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 204

ISBN-13:

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The Quantock Hills, famous for their associations with Coleridge and Wordsworth in the 19th century, have been the canvas on which are sketched the shadowy images of people who lived on the land from prehistoric times to the present. There are Bronze Age cairns and burial mounds, Iron Age hillforts, Roman settlements, medieval manors and post-medieval estates, right through to stark monuments of the Second World War and the Cold War. This book presents and interprets the Quantocks landscape after a dedicated programme of archaeological fieldwork, air photograph transcription and architectural investigation by English Heritage. It describes the results in a readable book including full colour illustrations and line drawings throughout, plus a series of lively reconstruction paintings by the artist Jane Brayne.

The Railway Experience
The Railway Experience

Author: Paul Atterbury

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2017-02-23

Total Pages: 114

ISBN-13: 1784421901

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Britain is a country in love with its railway past. Nowhere else do the workhorses of the age of steam exert such a pull; in no other country is the nostalgia for the days when the railways extended to every corner of the kingdom so strong. However, the history of station buildings and signal boxes, steam and diesel engines, goods and postal services, main lines and branch lines is only part of the story told here. As a cherished part of Britain's heritage, it is the impact of the railways on a human level that has truly captured our imagination. In more than 50 photographs, many of which are previously unpublished, Paul Atterbury reveals the people who ran, maintained and used them – the people for whom the railways were a way of life.

The Textile Industry of South-West England
The Textile Industry of South-West England

Author: Marilyn Palmer

Publisher: Tempus Publishing, Limited

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 188

ISBN-13:

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The authors describe the mills seen in Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Somerset, Dorset and Devon - the legacy of the cloth industry, for which this area was well known from the Middle Ages onwards.

Locomotives of the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway
Locomotives of the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway

Author: Tim Hillier-Graves

Publisher: Pen and Sword Transport

Published: 2021-11-30

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 9781526748355

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Although closed to traffic in 1966, with most of its infrastructure swiftly destroyed by British Railways, this unique railway line still lives in the minds of many, some too young to remember it in its heyday. For more then a hundred years it courted disaster and could on a number of occasions have succumbed to overpowering financial pressures, but it survived with the help of partnerships with larger, more secure companies, namely the Midland Railway and the London & South Western Railway. Later on, after the grouping in 1923, the line came under the control of the L M S and the Southern Railway. It was unfortunate that the line suffered in later years, from inter regional rivalry between the Western and Southern Regions of British Railways, which led to its eventual closure. The variety of companies involved in its running meant that during its lifetime the small pool of locomotives needed to service the line was supplemented by the best each partner could offer. So from the beginning to the end there were a myriad number of types of locomotive running over the Mendips providing a lively variety of motive power. This heavily illustrated book traces this unique and fascinating history and brings to life this singular, much missed and loved railway.