This photographic portrait of a period at once familiar & remote spans more than 120 years & contains the largest number of pictures most of them previously unpublished ever to appear in a book on the town. It recalls the smaller essentially industrial community whose streets were still pervaded by the whiff of the farmyard & where close on 100 passenger trains called at the station where water was drawn from a well & if few children went to school church attendances were higher. But change has dominated the years since earliest photographs were taken. Textile & hosiery production has almost ceased & mills that once reverberated to the throb of the loom are now silent; the last working malt kiln now houses a nightclub; the horse & the tram have given way to the internal combustion engine & changes the mining industry continue to effect the district. Comprising the work of both professional & gifted amateurs this fascinating selection draws on treasure unearthed in family albums & hidden away in lofts & cupboards as well as in local archive collections. For those who can still remember it offers a trip down memory lane; for others it will be a voyage of discovery & surprise.