James Allen 
The Shining Gateway 

Belfast is the capital city of Northern Ireland and has been a major port and industrial city since the nineteenth century. Shipbuilding has long been an important industry in the city and the …

Lincoln can trace its history back to an Iron Age settlement by the River Witham, subsequently a Roman and Viking town. The Norman castle and medieval cathedral, built on a ridge, still dominate the …

The north-west seaside resort of Southport can trace its origins back to 1792 when William Sutton, a pub landlord from Churchtown, built a bathing house in a sparsely populated area a few miles down …

Variously called the ‘Biarritz of Wales’, the ‘Cambrian Brighton’ and, by Wynford Vaughan Thomas, ‘A town for the unambitious man’, Aberystwyth has been mid-Wales’s premier holiday resort for over …

Aylesbury is Buckinghamshire’s county town and has a rich history. Excavations in the 1980s uncovered an Iron Age hill fort, revealing it was a stronghold of the ancient Britons. In the Middle Ages, …

Rotherham’s history dates back to a Roman fort by the River Don, through its mining and industrial past, particularly its steelworks, to today’s busy town in Yorkshire. In the Middle Ages, much of …

A breathtaking landscape and attractive small towns and villages draw many visitors to the Yorkshire Dales National Park. A huge variety of people, landscapes and wildlife can be found within its …

Southampton has been a major port on the south coast of England since the Norman Conquest, when it was a significant departure route for trade to Normandy, as well as for invading forces. Its …

The wonderful town of Bury St Edmunds is indelibly linked to the first patron saint of England, St Edmund, who was martyred in AD 869 and would eventually be enshrined in his magnificent abbey …

The sixties, seventies and eighties were decades of great change. Many towns and cities were redeveloped with projects that dramatically affected the character of the place. People’s shopping habits …