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Ironopolis – Correctly defining the ‘original Black Country’
Nick Moss

Nick Moss started to seriously research the history of Wolverhampton within a Black Country context around 2015, saving various articles for personal interest only. In studying local books about the Black Country, he was surprised to find a considerable disconnect between the views expressed by highly-respected local bodies such as the Black Country Society or some 20th Century authors, and those views expressed prominently in local newspaper archives or in books written during the critical 1800s-period - when the ‘original Black Country’ evolved both in name and as a physical entity.
Increasingly, he found strong evidence that fundamentally contradicts the now-widely accepted definition of the Black Country based solely on the existence of the thick coal seam. And Wolverhampton, once widely considered its original ‘Capital’ or ‘Metropolis’ has increasingly seen itself removed from Black Country history in recent years, and this work attempts to correct what he perceives as an anti-Wolverhampton stance and a misrepresentation of local history.
Published: September 2018
Extent: 474 pages
Paperback: £17.70
ISBN: 9-781912-419395
Available from Amazon
Nick analyses the different Black Country definitions, and clarifies the original, widely-accepted one which he proposes should still apply. Additionally, he hopes that anyone with an interest in Wolverhampton, will find it to be a detailed and enjoyable read, that in turn provides definitive but controversial and to some, surprising conclusions, that may cause considerable waves in some circles, and perhaps even kick-start a reappraisal of elements of Black Country history.
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The Great War’s Sporting Casualties
James Holder

The Great War claimed the lives of many professional and amateur sportsmen, including over three hundred who had represented their countries in one sport or another.
The Great War’s Sporting Casualties contains details of the sporting achievements and, where known, the circumstances of the deaths of those international sportsmen who were killed in the War or died as a result of injuries sustained in the War. It also contains details of nine other sportsmen who were killed in the War but who, although they did not represent their countries, did achieve something exceptional either in sport or in war.
Included amongst those listed are twenty-two Olympic gold medallists, twelve who captained their country at rugby, two who won the Tour de France and one who was a four-times Wimbledon champion. Also included are the three international sportsmen who won the Victoria Cross, one of whom was the only person to win two Victoria Crosses for deeds during the War and the fifteen who won the Military Cross.
Published: September 2018
Hardback: 502 pages
Price: £25.00
ISBN: 9-781912-419418

£25.00 (+ £3 postage)
Number of copies:


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James Holder was born in Somerset and, after reading law at Cambridge University, practised as a solicitor; he now works as a consultant. He is passionate about sport and has always taken an interest in family history much of which involves relations who were fortunate enough to survive the Great War. He and his wife have four children and one grandchild and live in Oxfordshire.
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Tales From The Archive – Reading University Wives’ and Women’s Club – 1948–2018
Margaret Houlbrooke

Reading University Wives’ and Women’s Club
1948–2018
The journey travelled by the University of Reading Women’s Club has mirrored the individual paths taken by very many women between the late 1940s and today.
This book brings to life the archives of seventy years and through them it is possible to note the changes in women’s lives and attitudes.
Tales from the Archive is invaluable for the social historian as well as a memento for all Club members old and new.
Published: Sept 2018
Paperback: 160 pages
Price: £10.00
ISBN: 9-781912-419487

£10.00 (+ £2 postage)
Number of copies:
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All Quiet in the Western Suburbs – WW1 in Chiswick and nearby districts
John Grigg

Millions of letters were written home by soldiers and sailors in the First World War and the men from Chiswick, West London, were every bit as prolific as their companions from elsewhere. Most of the letters in this book were sent to the Rev. Oldfield in Chiswick and he sent them on to the Chiswick Times, but there are others are to relatives, friends and employers and the Chiswick Working Men’s Club, and there are interviews and reports from journalists in the Chiswick Times and the Acton Gazette.
This is a unique record of the experiences of servicemen from the district who served all over the world. They describe the horrors of the war, writing of ‘Jack Johnsons’ ‘Rum Jars’ and ‘Coal Boxes’ (all nicknames for enemy shells and bombs) although often with feigned indifference, but many do not touch on the horrors at all - perhaps to protect relatives and friends from anxiety. The war was not confined to the European Western Front and this book includes letters and reports from other parts of the world: India, Africa, Egypt, Palestine, Greece, Mesopotamia (present day Iraq), and the Dardanelles. There are even letters from Russia where British forces were engaged against the Bolsheviks after 1918.
Published: June 2018
Extent: 460 pages
Paperback: £14.99
ISBN: 9-781912-419319
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John Howard Grigg was born in Feltham, Middlesex in 1935. He has lived in West London all his life apart from two years in Nottingham with relatives during the Second World War, and two years National Service with the RAF. He retired from the Midland Bank in 1987 and has always denied he was ever a bank manager. He served as a local councillor in Hounslow from time to time between 1958 and 1990. He is an amateur local historian specializing in local social and political history.
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My Scottish Common People – The history of a Scottish family
George Smith

My Scottish Common People is the account of a family history which could stand for a history of the Scottish working class over the last four hundred years. George Smith has tracked eight paternal and maternal lines of forebears, common people who lived in Angus, Inverness-shire, Perthshire, Fifeshire, Orkney and Dundee. They include jute mechanics, seamstresses, handloom weavers, smallholders, farm hands, and fishing families, and finally the not-so-common author’s father, a shipyard joiner who became a trade union leader, TUC president and knight of the realm who will be familiar to many in the Labour Movement.
This book tells of the life events of ordinary people and their pursuit of livelihoods. Included are: members of a congregation that quit the Church of Scotland over a point of principle in 1733, a thirteen-year-old fisherman who joined the naval militia during the Napoleonic war, a politically active shoe clicker who supported a Proletarian Sunday School, a stone mason who helped to build Stevenson lighthouses, an Orkney ploughman and family who migrated to Dundee for a better life, a poor agricultural labourer given free oatmeal and cash from the the Church of Scotland, a widowed mother who survived as a seamstress. All are representative, including, and perhaps especially, a handloom weaver, later soldier, who was in a mutiny in 1794.
Published: May 2018
Extent: 234 pages
Paperback: £9.00
ISBN: 9-781912-419234
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George Smith was born in Dundee and moved to England as a child. He has since visited Scotland many times. He was educated at Nottingham University, Garnett College, the London School of Economics and the Institute of Education, London University which awarded him a doctorate. For most of his working life he was a lecturer in social studies and contributed to academic publications. He was a magistrate for nine years. In retirement he has furthered his long-held interest in family history through research and published articles. A volunteer, he is an adviser for Citizens Advice. He lives in Worcestershire.
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A Purely Agricultural Parish
David Pracy

This book paints a vivid picture of a west Essex country village in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In 1900 and again in 1912, Nazeing Parish Council described it as ‘a purely agricultural parish’, and the book asks how true this statement was. Almost half of Nazeing people were born in the village, and almost half of those who worked had jobs related to the land. Yet in 1908 a new housing development and the building of an important new road began the changes that were to transform Nazeing in the twentieth century. A wide range of sources includes censuses, the Lloyd George land survey of 1909-12, trade directories, newspapers, and reminiscences of older people who were children in Nazeing before the Great War. There are short biographies of the thirty-three men who died in that war and the names of the 155 who served. Over a hundred buildings are described, most of them accompanied by photographs, and there is an unusual and refreshing emphasis on ‘ordinary’ working families. The book will interest anyone who lives or has family roots in Nazeing, and also the general reader and the specialist historian. Nazeing History Workshop was founded in 1993 to discover, record and share the long and rich history of this west Essex village. David Pracy is a retired librarian who has an MA in Local and Regional Studies from the University of Essex. Jacky Cooper is a retired therapist whose family roots in Nazeing go back 200 years. The cover images were painted by Kate Henty, who lived in Nazeing from 1872 to 1886.
Published: May 2018
Extent: 392 pages
Paperback: £10.00
ISBN: 9-781911-175889
Available from Amazon
Nazeing History Workshop was founded in 1993 to discover, record and share the long and rich history of this west Essex village. David Pracy is a retired librarian who has an MA in Local and Regional Studies from the University of Essex. Jacky Cooper is a retired therapist whose family roots in Nazeing go back 200 years. The cover images were painted by Kate Henty, who lived in Nazeing from 1872 to 1886.
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The 1926 General Strike in the Black Country
David Taylor

9781911175995 In May 1926 Britain experienced a General Strike that lasted nine days. Why it occurred and what happened have been the subject of very polarised accounts, reflecting the different interpretations of the different groups of people involved as well as the differing viewpoints of the observers. Trade unionists, miners, the T.U.C., the Conservative government, Marxists and Communists, moderates, economists and, of course, historians of all shades of opinion, have all highlighted different aspects of this conflict. Wolverhampton and the Black Country have been little involved in this debate, mainly because the most dramatic events took place elsewhere. However, all the issues of the General Strike were reflected in Wolverhampton and the Black Country and in such a way as to allow all the different opinions of the protagonists to be more clearly discerned.
Published: Dec 2017
Extent: 140 pages
Paperback: £6.50
ISBN: 9-781911-175995
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The general strike is variably interpretable, because it really did mean different things to different people and this book explores these different points of view within the context of Wolverhampton and the Black Country.
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The Impact Of World War One on the Smestow Vale Villages
David Taylor

9781911175742 Perhaps the most popular strand of the local history of War World One concerns those who died in the war, looking at their lives and war experience, particularly the action in which they died or the unit they served in. Another strand considers the Home Front, particularly in the towns and cities or in locations where a notable activity took place, such as Zeppelin Raids or explosives manufacture. However, there is a third strand, equally important but little investigated, and that is the impact of the war on rural communities. This booklet looks at one such community, on the edge of the Black Country but clearly rural in character, the villages of South Staffordshire centred on what is now known as Smestow Vale.
Published: Aug 2017
Extent: 64 pages
Paperback: £5.00
ISBN: 9-781911-175742
£5.00 (+ £2 postage)
Number of copies:
These villages have their own tale to tell of what happened between 1914 and 1918. There were the absences and deaths of many young, and not so young, men. But also there were air raid precautions, lack of public transport, increasing food production for local towns and themselves, new housing requirements and many other irritations and difficulties caused by the war. Followed by the celebrations at the Armistice and the signing of the Peace Treaties, and then the commemorations for those who would never return. The Impact of World War One on the Smestow Vale Villages looks at these villages to find out what we can discern after 100 years of what life was like in the countryside during The Great War.
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