History (Amberley Publishing)

CASTLETON today is a busy tourist village at the west end of the Hope Valley in the Peak District. It lies in the valley bottom below the dramatic Peveril Castle surrounded by green hills and the Iron Age hill fort Mam Tor. An early pre-Norman Saxon settlement probably clustered about the entrance to Peak Cavern where there was shelter and clean water. Many talked about the seven wonders of the area such as the Peak Cavern or the 'Devils Arse'. The Norman castle from which the village takes its name is a defensive structure standing on a crag above the valley which overshadows the village. Castleton was an important town with a large market in Norman times but today, as a village, it has a population of only about 600.

DERBY'S history dates back over 2,000 years to when the Celtic Brigantine tribe inhabited the area on the banks of the River Derwent. Then the Romans took control, subjugating the Celtic sites before building a more permanent fort which they called Derventio. Later, the Angles and the Danes settled here, giving it the name Deoraby. Over the centuries, and with a slight name change, Derby grew as an important administrative and trading centre. Its strategic position on the banks of the River Derwent was ideal for the early experimentation of water power and industrialisation. The building of England's first Silk Mill on the banks of the River Derwent at Derby in 1717 was a breakthrough. Its success led the way for the Industrial Revolution, creating a model followed by others throughout the world. Royal Crown Derby is the world's oldest fine china brand manufactured exclusively in Derby since 1748. The town was the power centre of the nineteenth-century railway boom, and in 1904 the first car was produced at the newly formed Derby works of Rolls-Royce. The face of Derby has changed considerably. It's still a major commercial centre at the forefront of technical research and industrial development, but it's also a vibrant new city with a varied and exciting history.

Until Bexleyheath was enclosed in the nineteenth century, it was a wild area,the haunt of footpads and highwaymen. The development of textile printing by Charles Swaisland in Crayford drew workers to the area. Enclosure brought permanent homes, and more prosperous residents moved in, some creating landmarks like Red House, home to artist William Morris. The inexorable growth of London made Bexleyheath a desirable place for commuters to live, and eventually London swamped the district entirely and Bexley became a London Borough. John Mercer traces the rags-to-riches story of Bexleyheath from its emergence in the early nineteenth century to the present day. Through a focus on the specific events, locations and inhabitants that have been integral to the town's development, he creates a detailed picture of the growth of the area and its rise to municipal importance as one of thirty-five major centres in Greater London.

There is a lot of controversy over the history of Stilton cheese: its origins, who first made it, and who now has the rights to the name and recipe. Trevor Hickman has delved into the National Archives to explore the story of this famous cheese. In this new book on the subject, he sets down the facts of the cheese's origin, development and history to the present day. He explains how Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire became the centre for Stilton cheese production and emphasises its importance as a leading area of speciality food production.

Located on the banks of the River Clyde, Glasgow was once the second city of the Empire, producing ships, locomotives, cars and heavy engineering for the world. Its docks would see huge numbers of exports. But Glasgow is much more than this; it is a religious centre, with one of Scotland's earliest churches, a centre for the Virginia tobacco trade, a home of designers and architects, inventors and entrepreneurs, artists and industrialists. It is that variety of talent, and the melting pot of immigrants and other Scots, sucked into the city at its peak that saw the phenomenal growth in wealth and culture that has left the city with a legacy of fine Victorian architecture, and it is its decline that has seen a legacy of remote council estates. However, Glasgow has risen again, and is truly a vibrant city, thanks to its self-promotion from Dr Michael Kelly's 'Glasgow's Miles Better' campaign to its use in gritty film and TV productions, as well as its ability to look at the past and preserve the best of the old, while producing some of the most startling modern architecture outside of London. Michael Meighan tells the story of Glasgow, from its drumlin days in the Ice Age to the growth of the Church, its industries, its people and the phenomenal expansion of the Victorian era and the legacy it has left us.