While the roots of our history in the places mentioned here lie mainly in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, we feel more content with our recent tangible past, especially through the magic of photographs, where we can identify old streets, houses, workplaces, schoolrooms, faces of old friends, our parents, grandparents and scenes that have been hidden away in the dark corners of our minds. We hope that somewhere within these pages there is something of a surprise for everyone, for no book is complete without this element. Most of the things we knew not so long ago have now disappeared - pit blanks, slag heaps, chimney stacks, crowds going to and from work, a time when horses and carts and bicycles ruled the highways. Times may have been hard for so little gain, and pleasures were simple - a visit to the cinema, a weekend dance, the tinkling of a pub piano, the beauty of a perambulating church anniversary - this is what these pages are all about

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