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A collection of ghost stories, this work includes chapters that deal with a specific Midlands region, containing eye witness accounts of unexplained phenomena. Areas covered include: Birmingham, Coventry, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Staffordshire, Shropshire, the Cotswolds, and the Black Country.

This first and ground-breaking biography of Arthur Jefferson, the father of Stan Laurel (the mastermind behind the legendary comedy partnership of Laurel and Hardy), reveals that he was a major influence on his son, a fine comic actor himself, a successful playwright, and an excellent example of the provincial theatrical lessees who provided Victorians and Edwardians with their main source of entertainment. It describes the ups and downs of his life, family and career and how, in middle age, he had to confront the challenge to the world of intimate, local, live theatre from the emerging global, silent and then sound cinema industry. Ironically, it was the success of films like those of Laurel and Hardy which all but destroyed the provincial theatrical world that Arthur loved.

In Down to Earth, Nancy Cooper gives us a glimpse into the real life of a seventeen year old young woman who is recruited into the Women's Land Army in 1943. It is a big change from her life at Old Hill in the Black Country, and a welcome escape from the secretarial training that she was desperate to avoid. She soon found herself living alone, far from home and working on several farms. She managed to milk 30 cows, working alone, as she did her part in providing the country with enough food in the shortages both during and after WWII. At one farm she cared for a yard full of pigs, who cunningly tried to outwit her attempts to share their food out. Dealing with unfairly jealous wives, strange billeting arrangements with a nocturnal visitor and rats everywhere were also ways in which Nancy's resourcefulness was tested. There is now a memorial to honour the work of the Women's Land Army at the National Arboretum in Staffordshire. If you go to see it you will notice that the rats have got in on this as well!

U.S. Army Hospital Center 804' tells the story of five U.S. Army hospitals located on the Shropshire/Flintshire border during World War II: Llanerch Panna, Penley, Iscoyd Park, Oteley Deer Park and Halston Hall. They were built by British contractors during 1942-44 and used by American hospital units until the end of the war in Europe. When the American units left the area some of the hospital sites were used by displaced Poles. For a few months at the end of 1944/beginning of 1945 the hospital at Iscoyd Park treated German Prisoners of War. The headquarters of the 5 hospitals - Hospital Center 804 was first located in Gwemheylod (Flintshire) and later moved to Whitchurch (Shropshire). U.S. ARMY HOSPITAL CENTER 804 An AawMolltis U& Military Hospitals in lb. This book looks at the day to day activities at the hospitals using archive material and accounts and previously unpublished photos from those who were there at the time and their relatives. It also looks in depth at the stories of some of the patient-soldiers who passed through the hospitals. It touches on the impact the occupants of the camps and other U.S. camps in the area, had on the surrounding towns, with particular regard to Wrexham in Flintshire.

Not Great Hopes is a personal account of episodes from the author's childhood and a vivid evocation of life during the 1950s and 1960s. The chapters range from everyday life in the Birmingham suburb of Northfield, to school life, sport, television, holidays, a first experience of foreign travel, extended family and the account of a bitter family breakdown. They include details of a childhood that is in many ways dramatically different from the childhood of today, though many themes will resonate across the generations. The book also gives an account of the author's relationship with and impression of a city, Birmingham, in a period of tumultuous demographic and architectural change. It ranges in emotional tone from the light and humorous to the poignant and tragic. Older readers will find much to recognise; younger readers, much to surprise them.

My incredible journey by Rear Admiral Peter Dingemans CB DSO begins with a series of reminiscences from training days and his early career in the Royal Navy. He culminates a first-hand account of HMS Intrepid's important contribution to the Falklands campaign.

Alex loves cricket! When Chance to Shine coaches come into school, Alex hopes his friends will discover a love of cricket too. Things don't work out quite how Alex had planned; but with the help of his teacher, Alex is determined not to give up.

This book, compiled by a former employee, is a look back at the history of Fort Dunlop through the recollections and memories of many other members of its workforce. What emerges is a very family orientated company which played a huge part in the lives of many people who worked there or lived nearby.

Sit back and read about the wandering ghosts of Callow End, enchanted Tardebigge, the white witch of Kidderminster, Malvern's Saint Werstan and the witch of Eldersfield and draw vour own conclusions...

This is Anne Bradford's ninth collection of true ghost stories from the Worcestershire area, she has been collecting eye-witness accounts of strange events since 1992, when she was inspired by a Victorian collection of ghost stories in the archives of her local library.

Worcestershire the Haunted County is Anne Bradford's eighth collection of true ghost stories and strange happenings from across the county, recounted by those who experienced them.

In 1813 George Walton joined the Rifle Brigade at a recruiting party outside St Philip's Church in Birmingham and subsequently kept a journal of his daily life throughout the years of his army service until 1839 when he retired.

David-paints a picture of his enduring love of railways and his early days of volunteering on the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway. He then slips back into his clericals to describe the last few weeks of his full-time ministry as a Priest in the Church of England.

A remarkable and true story of a woman who escaped Nazi occupied Austria in her twenties. She met the author when she was nearly eighty years old. Josephine Telford was an elderly lady who talked about her past, gave clues, but hid nearly as much as she told. In her lifetime a person's race and faith had resulted in persecution and death.

January 1944. At a railway station in the Midlands, a young man is awaiting the return of his heroic older brother Geoff, an RAF airman who is due home on leave. He is curious to see if Geoff has been changed, as he too will soon be departing for war. Together they go to a dance where the younger brother meets and falls in love with Irene.

The author recalls memories of so many unusual happenings, including pre-war holidays in Weymouth when a child and life both at home and school during the war. Friends and relatives are brought to life in reminiscences that are filled with both warmth and poignancy up to the death of her father and the day she started work at the age of fourteen.

This book is the result of many years' research into the building of-the Union Workhouse and the treatment of paupers there. It is a valuable addition to our understanding of how the authorities dealt with the most needy in Victorian society.

The village of Studley in Warwickshire has a rich history. This pictorial account attempts to capture a snapshot of village life throughout the decades. Topics covered include pubs, both past and present, the ever changing face of the Alcester Road, local shops, businesses and organisations together with many other facets of village life.

Birmingham in the Thirties continues to search, mainly in private collections, for items from that decade. Buildings have gone, behaviour, attitude and dress have changed and we have found ourselves much older. The result is a book of 400+ quite rare items of Birmingham in the Thirties.

This is a pictorial insight into traditional life in the shadow of the Western Himalayas. Having visited Pakistan two years ago, I did notice a great change and difference, but the countryside still seems more or less unaffected. However, one thing has definitely changed as most of the people walk around with mobile phones nowadays.

No satisfactory explanation was given for the burial of a large Saxon gold hoard found in Staffordshire. Speculation on who buried the treasure has led to ideas based on battles, warriors and plundering kings. The Christian pieces are explained in new ways and the gold is discussed from the point of view of a Churl, Monk, Bishop, Warrior and King.

This book looks at the lives of those who came from Bridgtown, Cannoek, Chadsmoor, Hednesford, Wimblebury, Heath Hayes and Norton Canes and who gave their lives during the carnage of the Great War. It focuses on men whose names appear on the War Memorials in these towns and villages in South Staffordshire and is intended as a tribute to these men.

No.13 Herbert Road is an engaging autobiographical account of a young boy growing up in the back streets of Small Heath in Birmingham during the 1940s. Through fond recollections and amusing anecdotes, the reader is transported back to the often hard times experienced by many of the working classes in post-war Britain.

Gaining a grammar school place, thanks to the 1944 Education Act, Shirley was able to fulfill her ambition to become a teacher. Her close circle of friends in Coseley, together with the Winchurch family and the amazing support of her eventual in-laws, enabled Shirley to balance her difficult life.

During the Second World War Birmingham suffered 365 air raid alerts and 77 actual air raids. These raids took place between the 8th August 1940 and the 23rd April 1943. There were over 9,000 casualties of whom 2,241 were killed. This book contains the first hand accounts of some of those who survived.

For over forty years the author worked the Bromsgrove line, well known for the steep Lickey incline. From engine cleaner to fireman and driver, the author carefully records his career in a series of diaries which capture the daily routine and events of a railwayman's life as steam hauled trains gave way to diesels.

All ordinary people have family stories that should be told before they are lost. This one explores family background, survival through difficulties, and recalls a childhood in the Wolverhampton of the 1950s, journeying to North Wales and Malvern.

The Unremembered Inn traces the social history of a building situated in the High Street of the riverside town of Upton-upon-Severn. It follows the lives of the people associated with the property from the early sixteenth century to the start of the twentieth century.