YESTERDAY'S TOWN: WELLINGTON. A DIARY OF A WEST COUNTRY TOWN IN THE 19th CENTURY. by Allen, Gillian - 1987

Buckingham: Barracuda, 1987. 124 pp, small 4to (10 7/16" H). Number 368 of a limited edition. Profusely illustrated with b&w photographs, reproductions. "(I)t is the detail of the 19th century record which attracts us most; the people who lived in specific houses like the Millers, Langleys and Merediths; the controversy about the three posts outside the White Hart Inn; the shops that changed from bank to fishmonger, from watchmaker to cobbler, from Bell Inn to basketmaker; the man who dug a canal in his garden to employ poor people; the ten-year-old who died when her pinny caught fire; the horse that took nine men to the gallows. Here too is the fire brigade whose captain refused entry to his own team as his cottage blazed away; the riots when a cemetery was proposed; the earliest chapels built and closed; Ann Pain, who stole a bullock's heart on St. Valentine's Day; Mr Marks, who lost 50 Pounds at Wellington Fair; elderly Maria Strippling, sentenced to seven days' labour for pinching threepennorth of hay; and the 4,703 tramps who came to Wellington in 1865. Transport changed the town, when the turnpikes, canal, railway and finally motorcar came. The first car owner was heavily fined; the first acceptable motor hit the Town Hall. Taverns prospered, and there were 75 at one time or another. Thirteen survive. The greatest change of all came with the Great War - 'our old world has gone forever' said the local 'rag'. That world is recreated (here) - in a fluent, fascinating and fact-packed narrative and some 200 pictures, many of them rare, and most unique to this book." Book is slightly cocked. Dust jacket has very light wrinkling at top edge, a few small faint indentations on panels, minor rubbing.. Limited Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good/Very Good.