This is the story of a major business enterprise. It describes the transformation of a small partnership, formed in 1759, into an international group, the scale of whose diverse activities has demanded the creation of a multi-divisional structure, supported by many specialist departments. Probably the most longeval of Britain's current manufacturing companies, GKN's history may be interpreted as a unique and revealing insight into Britain's industrial experience over past centuries.

This practical but inspiring book considers what local history is, why researching it is valuable and rewarding, and how we should go about it. Issues addressed include: getting oral and documentary evidence; keeping records; the nature of data, information and knowledge; and their use to create the different products of local history research. Michael Williams is both a professional scientist and a local historian of long standing, and he uses both sides of his experience in a text that is at once rigorous about the historical process, and also a fascinating - and often moving - account of his adventures into the past of his own family and community. He demonstrates local history methodology through his research into ancestry, migration, work, war and religion in the towns and villages of England and Wales. It is richly illustrated throughout.

Although a great deal has been published on the economic, social and engineering history of nineteenth-century railways, the work of historical geographers has been much less conspicuous. This overview by David Turnock goes a long way towards restoring the balance. It details every important aspect of the railway’s influence on spatial distribution of economic and social change, providing a full account of the nineteenth-century geography of the British Isles seen in the context of the railway. The book reviews and explains the shape of the developing railway network, beginning with the pre-steam railways and connections between existing road and water communications and the new rail lines. The author also discusses the impact of the railways on the patterns of industrial, urban and rural change throughout the century. Throughout, the historical geography of Ireland is treated in equal detail to that of Great Britain.

This is the first in a new series on the South Wales Valleys by John Hodge, author of the South Wales Main Line series and North and West series, each of four volumes. The South Wales Valleys were famous for coal mining, iron and steel, tinplate works and the railways that served both industries, between them accounting for a very high percentage of employment in the area. This book relates the history of the early years of each industry and follows this through the railway steam and diesel age to the present day. The book traces the original Newport stations of Courtybella and Dock Street for the Valleys services and how this changed to High Street from 1880. Individual sections are presented on each main railway activity, accounts of each location along the route with sections on the railway layout, collieries and other industrial concerns, all illustrated by an abundant supply of photographs of the railway steam and diesel era, with accounts of the many collieries from the early years of the nineteenth century, to the end of coal mining in the Western Valley in 1989.A detailed, widely illustrated series on the valleys such as this, is long overdue and this first book in the series. The book is divided into two parts, the first covering the area as far as Aberbeeg and the second continuing to the heads of the Valley at Ebbw Vale and Brynmawr, as well as an account of the Halls Road line.