England has a long and involved relationship with the sea. It has provided a final line of defence against invasion, the route over which the country's global trade has travelled, the source of a bountiful harvest of fish and seafood that has sustained the population, the essential links in the empire that saw Britain emerge as the world's first 'Great Power', and, more recently, it has fostered the leisure industry. For many, the sea was to provide their final view of their homeland as emigration took them to far-flung corners of the world, while for others, perhaps fleeing religious or political persecution, the sea offered them a route to safety. 0For almost a century the photographers from the Aerofilms company recorded Britain from the air. Alongside the photographs taken of the great castles and abbeys of the country, the views als recorded industrial and commercial activity - including the docks and ports that were an essential part in maintaining Britain's place in the world. 0In this book, Peter Waller has delved through the collection of Aerofilms photographs held by Historic England to explore the country's maritime heritage. Selecting 150 images, the author looks at how the docks and ports have evolved since the years immediately after World War I, how traditional patterns of trade have changed, how the Royal Navy has shrunk and how the leisure industry has come to dominate --

For almost a century, from its inception in the years immediately after World War I, the Aerofilms company recorded the changing face of England from the air. At the start of the era, the railway was still the predominant form of transport, with a network of main, secondary and branch lines that stretched to virtually every corner of the realm. As the 20th century progressed, however, this dominance declined as the private motorcar and the lorry increasingly became the preferred mode of transport. The early railway builders - such as the London & Birmingham - had invested much in creating impressive stations for this new and revolutionary form of transport and, during the 19th century, many of the country's leading architects undertook commissions on behalf of the burgeoning railway industry. After World War II, however, many of these buildings were were swept away. 0The Aerofilms collection provides a unique vantage point to explore the country's railway heritage. It is only from the air that it is possible to appreciate fully how much the railway came to dominate the landscape; even in relatively small country towns, the railway station with its platforms and goods yard was significant. Add to this the construction of tunnels and viaducts, and the railway can be said to have shaped much of the landscape of modern England --

The arrival of aerial photography came at a particularly significant moment in terms of the visual appearance of England. This selection of photographs makes use of the Aerofilms collection, acquired by English Heritage in 2007. When Aerofilms fliers first went up in the skies in 1919, they captured a country that had more or less been preserved in aspic in 1914. What we are looking at in many of the earliest photographs in this book is essentially Edwardian England, with towns and villages generally quite compact, with fields reaching almost up to the High Streets in many cases, and little sign of the sprawl that was to engulf them in the 1920s and 30s. This fantastically illustrated book shows just how radically that position changed over the ensuing half century. We trace the outward expansion of places brought about by the availability of the car: the new suburbs and ribbon development. We see how new arterial roads came into being to meet the needs of motor transport and how the centre of cities start to be rebuilt to accommodate it. We witness the growth of sprawl around road junctions on the edge of built-up areas and the arrival of new types of building there to service both cars and people: the filling station, the roadhouse. We see how the car encouraged more people to go further afield for sport and pleasure: to the seaside, the races or to new forms of attractions such as the amusement park in the country. And we see how public transport changes over the period from trams to buses with the advent of new facilities such as bus stations. The scale of traffic congestion becomes apparent by the late 1930s. In addition, the impact on the landscape of large motor factories and provision for motor sport is made clear.

England's coastal zone contains an important legacy of historic assets, including a complex array of fragile and irreplaceable archaeological remains. This report documents the recorded coastal archaeological resource and identifies future themes for survey and investigation.

As an island nation, Britain is quick to celebrate its maritime history and heritage, but for most of us our relationship with the sea is through the seaside resort. We share more or less fond memories of building sand castles, splashing around in the sea and eating fish and chips, sometimes with a light sprinkle of sand as an accompaniment. However, the vast majority of holidaymakers will never have seen a seaside resort from the air, unless they have gone up in the balloon in the centre of Bournemouth or indulged in a pleasure flight over a resort such as Weston-super-Mare. This collection of aerial photographs, produced by Aerofilms Ltd mostly between 1920 and 1953, tells the story of England's seaside resorts as holiday destinations, but also as working towns, blessed with the sea as their backdrop. It also illustrates the type of entertainments available for holidaymakers and highlights how the seaside holiday at some resorts became big business with industrial-scale facilities and infrastructure.

The Aerofilms company recorded one of the most tumultuous periods of British history. This gloriously illustrated book draws on thousands of aerial photographs to present a vivid picture of a nation in the first half of the twentieth century.

Nowhere in the world is it possible to see such an intact naval dockyard for the building and maintenance of the ships of the sailing navy as at Chatham. This book, edited by Neil Cossons, Jonathan Coad, Andrew Lambert, Paul Hudson and Paul Jardine - all experts in their fields - brings together their combined knowledge to tell the dockyard's history, from Elizabethan origins to fleet base and shipbuilding yard, from sail to steel to submarines. They set out the extraordinary scale of the legacy and the challenges of the future once the yard closed in the 1980s. This is a story of the creation of the Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust and the management of an outstanding historic asset for the benefit of the public. Profusely illustrated, it is the first authoritative account of how Chatham's dockyard was saved for the nation and managed for nearly forty years to exemplary standards.

"Here is no catalogue of ships, reader, nor naval chronicle, but a story of maritime enterprise; of the shipping, seaborne commerce, whaling, and fishing belonging to one American commonwealth," writes S.E. Morison. "I have chosen to catch the story at half flood, when Massachusetts vessels first sought Far-Eastern waters, and to stay with it only so long as wind and sail would serve. For to one who has sailed a clipper ship, even in fancy, all later modes of ocean carriage must seem decadent." This classic work includes the following chapters: I. Coast and Sea II. The Colonial Background (1602-1760) III. Revolution and Reconstruction (1760-1788) IV. Pioneers of the Pacific (1784-1792) V. The Northwest Fur Trade (1788-1812) VI. The Canton Market (1784-1812) VII. The Salem East Indies (1790-1812) VIII. Ships and Seamen (1790-1812) IX. Merchants and Mansions (1782-1812) X. The Sacred Codfish (1784-1812) XI. Newburyport and Nantucket (1790-1812) XII. Federalism and Neutral Trade (1789-1807) XIII. Embargo and War (1807-1815) XIV. The Passing of Salem (1815-1845) XV. The Hub of the Universe (1830-1845) XVI. Ships and Seamen in Southern Seas (1820-1848) XVII. China and the East Indies (1820-1850) XVIII. Mediterranean and Baltic (1820-1850) XIX. Cape Cod and Cape Ann (1820-1860) XX. The Whalers (1815-1860) XXI. Oh! California (1844-1850) XXII. The Clipper Ship (1850-1854) XXIII. Conclusion (1857-1860)