ABM Publishing Limited Social History

Cumbria Within Living Memory
A glimpse of what life was like in Cumbria during the first half of the 20th century. Compiled from personal memories sent in by W.I. members from all over the county. Illustrated.

Cumbria Federation of Women's Institutes

Price: £9.99

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English Churches Explained
The local church is a familiar landmark in every town, city and village. The story of its past is the story of the people for whom, down the centuries, it was the centre of the community. But how many people actually understand the reason for it being built in a particular place, how it was constructed, or why it was decorated in such a style? Discovering the information can sometimes be difficult but this new book places the period styles of church fabric and decoration into an easy to read form that is packed with photographs, pictures and diagrams. Trevor Yorke's simple but graphic approach will be welcomed by all for whom a visit to a church is also a brief journey through time itself.

Trevor Yorke

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Gravestones, Tombs and Memorials
If you explore our churchyards and cemeteries today you will be astonished at how much you can discover, not only about the people who are buried there and their standing in the local community, but also about the history of this area.

Trevor Yorke explains burial practices down the ages and details the development of the churchard and the cemetary. He looks at the period styles of gravestones, tombs and memorials and the shapes and features that help to date them. Using a wide range of photographs and line illustrations, he examines the carvings and symbols that can be found and offers clues to their possible meanings.

Trevor Yorke

Price: £5.99

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Memories of Lincolnshire Farming
The farmers of Lincolnshire are an independent-minded hardworking group. Over the centuries they have altered the county to fit their needs by cutting down forests, draining bogs, taming rivers and pushing back the sea to create a rich and diverse agricultural landscape. Before the memories are lost forever, author Alan Stennett has taken the time to talk to the local people who make their living from the land. He examines the changes that have taken place over the last century and, using first-hand accounts and a fascinating collection of contemporary photographs, he tells the story of farming life in Lincolnshire - the conditions, the work, the people and the humour.

Alan Stennett

Price: £12.99

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Memories of the Cornish Fishing Industry
Around the wild and windswept Cornish coast fishing has been a way of life for centuries. Sons have followed fathers and grandfathers in the family boats, setting out from ports such as Polperro, Mevagissey, Mousehole, Newlyn, St Ives, Port Isaac and Looe to brave the stormy Atlantic Ocean to earn their living. Those who fished these waters faced, and still face, potential danger every time they put to sea. Before the memories are lost forever, author Sheila Bird has taken the time to talk to the fishermen of Cornwall. Using first-hand accounts and a fascinating collection of photographs, she tells their story; the conditions, the work, the people and the humour.

Sheila Bird

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Memories of the Derbyshire Coalfields
In its heyday in the early 1900s, Derbyshire's 176 pits produced over 16m tons of coal a year and, from some mines, iron and clay as well. Markham in the north-east of the county, with ten working faces, as compared with the usual 2 or 3, was the biggest colliery in Europe. For this book, David Bell who lives on the Derbyshire border, has visited and interviewed many local ex-miners in an effort to build up a true picture of what life was like, both at work and at play. The transition for a boy of 15 from school to mine was a great shock although he was probably joining his father and older brothers. Mining was not just a job, but a way of life. The work was hard and the conditions were always dangerous. Comradeship was everything and nowhere was this more tested than during the 1984/5 miners strike, fought in an effort to stave off the threat of mass pit closures. The book includes many old photographs, some borrowed from private collections, maps of pit areas, a chart of each colliery's life span and a list of the numbers each one employed.

David Bell

Price: £7.99

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Memories of the East Anglian Fishing Industry
The East Anglian herring fishing industry can trace its roots back to before the Norman's arrived in 1066. The main ports, and great rivals were Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft. This continued when local entrepreneur Samuel Morton Peto built a new fish market in Lowestoft to connect with main railways in 1882. It was then possible to land fish one morning and have the catch available in the fish market of Manchester or London by the next.

From about the 1860s right up to the 1960s, Scottish fishermen, accompanied by their wives, sisters and girlfriends would come on an annual basis to fish, gut and pack herring during the season - September to November each year. By 1910 Lowestoft harbour was so packed with sailing drifters that it was possible to cross the harbour without getting your feet wet. Sadly all this prosperity was not to last. By the 1990s for a combination of reasons - overfishing, government red tape and the high cost of fuel - East Anglia's fishing industry was all but dead. But the memories live on.

In this book, Ian Robb who lives in Lowestoft and joined the local fishing fleet in 1962, draws together the stories of those who can remember, providing a lasting record for generations to come.

Ian Robb

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Memories of the Lancashire Aircraft Industry
The Blackpool Aviation week in 1909 marked the beginning. Early pioneers performed a number of flying feats which were rewarded with prizes given by the Daily Mail and the then Manchester Guardian. After this Henry Greg Melly set up a flying school on Freshfield beach at Formby and A V Roe founded his AVRO company. Meanwhile, English Electric decided to open up an aircraft building firm based at Samlesbury near Preston. They produced the Hampden and Halifax bombers used during the Second World War. Ron Freethy's well researched book also includes many first-hand accounts provided by local people from their own memories and those of their parents. These bring the story alive and, combined with many photographs, create a lasting record of the county's place in British aviation history.

Ron Freethy

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Memories of the Lancashire Cotton Mills
Lancashire was once the Cotton Capital of the world. Raw cotton came in to Liverpool docks and was sold on the Exchange. In the beginning, it was then transported to cottages all over the county where whole families, including the children, would clean, card, spin and weave it. The finished cloth was then sold on the Manchester Exchange. With the coming of the Industrial Revolution new machines saw the work transferred from home to factory. It was said that Lancashire could produce enough cotton before breakfast to supply the UK market, with the remainder of the day's supply going overseas. Read the first hand accounts from local people, and look at the remarkable collection of contemporary photographs.

Ron Freethy

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Memories of the Lancashire Fishing Industry
Over the last 70 years or so, Lancashire's fishing industry has gone from boom in the 1940s to bust in the 1970s, and more recently to quotas and a more modest success. Author Ron Freethy describes shrimp and salmon netting based on Glasson Dock near Lancaster, cockle picking in Morecombe Bay; the Mersey fishing fleet, who used to catch the largest number of whitebait in Europe; and Fleetwood at one time home to many deep-sea trawlers and the third most important fishing port in Britain.

This book is a proud record of Lancashire's fishing heritage for those who were part of it and those too young to remember.

Ron Freethy

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Memories of the Leicestershire Coalfields
A way of life ended in Leicestershire when Bagworth Colliery, one of the oldest and longest running traditional deep mines in the country, closed in 1991. The mines may have gone but many of the men who earned their living deep underground still remain. The author, David Bell has met and talked to some of those ex-miners about what it was like to be part of such a close-knit group. Courageous and resourceful, miners had a unique brand of humour and a deep sense of community born from risking life and limb. Comradeship was everything and this was tested to the limit in 1984-85 when only a handful of Leicestershire miners, known as the "Dirty Thirty", supported the call to strike. In this book the miners describe their early experiences of working in the local pits and their day-to-day life, with the ever-present threat of injury, death or disaster. It is a tribute to their traditions and way of life.

David Bell

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Memories of the Lincolnshire Fishing Industry
During the 20th century Lincolnshire's ports provided one fifth of all the fish eaten in Britain. In the 1970s this changed as a result of the cod war with Iceland over a dispute about fishing rights in home waters. New technology such as satellite navigation, sonar and mechanical winches also played its part. The fleet got smaller and changed direction. Of the smaller local ports. Cleethorpes, concentrated on Oyster beds,Freiston Shore on shrimps, soles and sprats and Boston on cockles from The wash. A new type of fishing vessel was developed and named after football clubs, this joined the Cat Class of boats launched in 1957 and named by local Grimsby school children.

The book concludes with details of the National Fishing Heritage Centre opened in 1991, a look at local fishing families or dynasties, a list of common fishing terms and some fishing superstitions. The story of Lincolnshire's Fishing industry is told with the help of memories and anecdotes from those who were once involved and from a collection of contemporary photographs. Bernard Bale who lives in Lincolnshire has talked to many local people and have records of the conditions, the work, the people and the humour of this local industry which forms such a large part of the county's identity.

Bernard Bale

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Memories of the Nottinghamshire Coalfields
For this book, David Bell has met and talked to many ex-miners about what it was like to be part of the mining community. They describe their early experiences of working in the local pits and the harsh and dangerous conditions they had to face together. For most a way of life, which had come down from father to son to grandson, vanished in the 1980s. The 1984-85 miner's strike, when 27,000 Nottinghamshire men voted to work on while 7,000 came out, split families and caused rifts that are still keenly felt today. This book includes many old photographs, a map of the county's coalfields and a chart of the local pits also showing how many each one employed.

David Bell

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Memories of the Northumberland Coalfields
The mines have gone but many of the men who earned thier living deep underground still remain. The author, Neil Taylor, has met and talked to some of thos ex-miners and their families about what it was like to be part of such a close-knit group. Courageous and resourceful, miners had a unique brand of humour and a deep sense of community born from risking life and limb. Comradeship was everything and this was tested to the limit during the strike of 1984-85.

Neil Taylor

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Memories of the Staffordshire Coalfields
Staffordshire has been described as one vast coalfield. All but the north-eastern corner has coal beneath the surface. There were three main coalfields; North Staffordshire, Cannock Chase and the Black Country.

In 1958 there were 25 working collieries in North Staffordshire. Cannock Chase, which in 1925 had 28, was left with 16 pits and the Black Country had 4. In the Cannock Chase area the coal was very deep and difficult to reach while in the Black Country coalfield, it was the exact opposite. All the coal was near the surface - never more than 40 feet below the ground.

The stories of life in the pits are told with the help of first-hand accounts and fall into chapter headings such as Missing Fingers, Fatalities and some Lucky Escapes and Pit Humour.

David Bell

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