Books on English Towns

Hi,

Does anyone know of any books that have a general run down history on the Cities/ Towns of England such as Canterbury, Colchester, York, Nottingham, Bristol ect (You know the sort of places)? Some pictures or references to buildings would be nice as well.

I'm also looking for a good book on half-timbered buildings of England but have only been able to find ones that just talk about how to build and maintain them rather than just showing them and talking about the towns with them ect.

Lastly, I'm looking for a good book on the history of the counties of England, what their traditions and histories are but in a non dry sort of account.

 If anyone knows of any books on these topics I would love to hear about them.

 Regards,

Jonathan

Hi Jonathan:  I'm clueless as to what to recommend to you, but you can get a lot of info on traditions and histories from the novels that is very insightful, from the people who lived back in the day.  Like the Austen, Bronte, Gaskell stuff.

Hi Jonathan:  Does it have to be books? 

I would say that any information you are looking for is right here on POE.  Have you tried putting say Canterbury in the search box at the top left of this screen?  If you do that you then select "Canterbury Kent" from the list and you can read a history of Canterbury, plus it will show you what attractions are around the area, plus what other towns are nearby to visit.

Then of course you can take the photo tour and you will see the all the photographs submitted by POE members including half timbered houses, Cathedral etc., right there.

You can do this with any City, Town, Village or Attraction that you want information about.

I forgot to add that you can also click on "Counties" under the heading "Explore England" also in the left hand column and read the information on any County you are interested in.  It will also give you an idea of the places to visit in that County, Attractions, Towns, Villages, places of outstanding beauty, etc.

You will find all the information you need - right here on POE.  

Happy hunting :-)

Yeah thanks guys.

I have used this site to look up the towns and find attractions heaps, It really is a great site for that although I haven't looked up the history section. I was just hoping there was a book that just brung it altogether.

With some of the pictures of the half timbered buildings for example they may give you the photo but no age of the building usually (as some of them are fake as well all know) nor any history behind it. I love using Goolgle Earth and street view as a reference.

 While I'm living in York next year I'm planning to maybe get a book going of just the historic houses/ places in the town in sort of a walk tour around the city if I can work with the trust up there who I know do a lot of great work and I also plan to help them out. There are a few walking tour books out there but they are usually too big or have small amount of photos. I think this is something a lot of the historic towns really need. I know I'd want one. (Now nobody steal my idea lol)