Walsall: Past and Present (Britain in Old Photographs), David Vodden

 This selection is a mixture of old views from private collections and contemporary shots taken on the eve of the Millennium.  As David Vodden showed in his previous book on Walsall, the town's redevelopment has meant that many attractive and even medieval buildings have been lost in slum clearance and other demolition;  not all their replacements have met with widespread approval.  

Much of the redevelopment of Digbeth, Old Square and the High Street has taken place within the last thirty or forty years, and the author has been lent pictures of these changes which he has matched with his own photos of the present day.

In addition to the town centre, this volume shows the Mellish Road Wesleyan Church, the Chuckery Cricket Ground, Grange Farm, Brookhouse Farm and Park Hall, as well as the housing and school which now stand on these sites.  The changes of a generation or two are startling when old and new views are compared, and perusing them will provide hours of pleasure and interest for the reader.