Simon Crossley – författare

Redcar, Marske & Saltburn Through Time is a wonderful collection of old and new photographs of this historic area of Yorkshire. The older images are printed alongside a contemporary full colour photograph, which illustrates the same scene. The contrasting illustrations show how the area has changed and developed during the last 100 years. The photographs illustrate shops, schools, garages, churches, houses and street scenes, each photograph is captioned and the book has an introduction which gives a brief overview of the history of the area. As you browse through the photographs, you will notice the increase in the number of vehicles on the roads and the number of residents, how shops and other businesses have evolved and the changes and developments in modes of transportation and the architecture of the area.

Bramhall is a thriving, bustling and leafy suburb of Stockport, close to Manchester. It has been voted the least ‘lonely place’ in Britain; according to research from the University of Sheffield, Bramhall came bottom of the loneliness index nationwide. It has a rich history stretching back to the Anglo-Saxon period. This book takes us back to Bramhall’s early days to meet Saxons Brun and Hacun, whose lands were given by Willliam the Conqueror to Hamon de Massey, who eventually became 1st Baron of Dunham Massey.The Edwardian shops and businesses in the village centre have been replaced by trendy boutiques and cool bars, but old Bramhall is still characterised by the grand Bramall Hall, with its beautiful park, as well as the town’s many farms and old pubs. The book also takes in neighbouring Cheadle and Cheadle Hulme, Gatley, Hazel Grove and Manchester International Airport in Ringway, where old and new pictures are juxtaposed to show how things have changed in these communities.

The foundations of York's commercial identity lie in the powerful medieval guilds that controlled and organised business development here until the nineteenth century. Unlike other Yorkshire towns, York, a major ecclesiastical centre and a fashionable 'tourist' city, was largely untouched by the Industrial Revolution; it owes its nineteenth-century growth to its emergence as a railway hub and as a key force in the British confectionery industry.The book will give today's York residents a unique picture of how their city was, as well as those who used to live or work here. Confectionery giants Rowntree's, Terry's and Craven's are depicted and described, as are other lesser known firms like Cooke, Troughton & Simms. These, and the myriad specialist shops that have always crowded the medieval streets, all find a place in the pages of this fascinating and original book.