A fascinating exploration of the local history of the castles and fortifications of the West Country.

Explore Wiltshire's military heritage, from Roman times to the present day, in this illustrated guide.

This beautifully photographed selection of fifty of Wiltshire’s most precious assets shows what makes it such a popular destination.

This beautifully photographed selection of fifty of Jersey’s most precious assets shows what makes it such a popular destination.

Highly illustrated look at the military heritage of the Channel Islands from Viking invaders to the present day.

Wales, a small country, is littered with the relics of war Iron Age forts, Roman ruins, medieval castles and the coastal forts of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Long regarded as disturbing remnants of the Atlantic slave trade, the European forts and castles of West Africa have attained iconic positions as universally significant historical monuments and world heritage tourist destinations. This volume of original contributions by leading Africanists presents extensive new historical views of the forts in Ghana and Benin, providing both impetus and a scholarly basis for further research and fresh debate about their historical and geographical contexts; their role in the slave trade; the economic and political connections, centred on the forts, between the Europeans and local African polities; and their place in variously focused heritage studies and endeavours. Contributors are Hermann W. von Hesse, Daniel Hopkins, Jon Olav Hove, Ole Justesen, Ineke van Kessel, Robin Law, John Kwadwo Osei-Tutu, Jarle Simensen, Selena Axelrod Winsnes†, Larry Yarak.

In the last years of his reign Henry VIII needed a radically modern system of defence to protect England and its new Church. Anticipating a foreign onslaught from Catholic Europe after his split from Rome, Henry energetically began construction of more than 20 stone forts to protect England's major ports and estuaries. Aided by excellent illustrations, Peter Harrington explores the departure from artillery-vulnerable medieval castle designs, to the low, sturdy stone fortresses inspired by European ideas. He explains the scientific care taken to select sites for these castles, and the transition from medieval to modern in this last surge of English castle construction.

A reissue of the classic guide to the origins, purpose and identity of the great castles of England and Wales, built after the arrival of the Normans. Castle studies have been shaped and defined over the past half-century by the work of R. Allen Brown. His classic English Castles, renamed here to acknowledge its definitive approach to the subject, has never been superseded by other more recent studies, and is still the foundation study of the English, and Welsh, castles built between the Norman Conquest and the mid 1500s. As the subject evolved, so too did this book, and for the most recent edition a considerable amount of French comparative material was added, though it remains essentially a study of English castles. For Allen Brown, castles were fortified residences (or residential fortresses), and developed, from European precursors, to support political and social realities as the Norman and Angevin kings secured their realm. Once these political ends had been largely met, the castle and castle-building entered a period of decline, and domesticand military interests went in opposite directions. This book, with numerous photographs and plans, remains the outstanding guide to the origins, purpose and identity of the great castles of England and Wales. R. ALLEN BROWN was also the author of The Normans, The Norman Conquest of England and The Normans and the Norman Conquest and founder of the annual Battle Conference on Anglo-Norman Studies.

Many writers have written about the delights of the former kingdom of the South Saxons, its Downs, villages, countryside, people and their ways but Visitors' Historic Britain - West Sussex_ is the first book to take readers on a tour of discovery of each of the county's historic eras in turn.Starting with prehistoric Sussex, we explore West Sussex from west to east, investigating both little-known and well-visited sites that tell the story of our ancestors' past. We encounter wild warriors, formidable founders of the county, indefatigable industrialists, excitable eccentrics and the lives of Sussex inhabitants and invaders.Sussex is a country celebrated by writers, painters, royalty, artists and the millions who have enjoyed its changing coastline and verdant villages. Visitors' Historic Britain provides a unique series of journeys for those who are inquisitive about this quirky and history-changing part of the Southeast.