Barry M. Marsden

This work draws together a series of pen portraits of some 40 individuals who helped to shape the foundations of English prehistoric study, mainly, but not exclusively, during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. They were a diverse cross-section of contemporary society, and included army officers, reverends, country squires and gentry, suicides, bankrupts, a probable illegitimate royal, a high churchmen, a tradesman and a farmer, plus a scion of the nobility and a superintendant of a 'lunatic asylum' Each individual has been graced with a portrait or a resemblance of some kind. As well as portraits, short biographies of each personality are embellished with appropriate illustrations, including depictions of digs, artefacts, views of archaeological sites and some of their more interesting tombs, together with other images associated with their activities. The work will hopefully stand as an entertaining and instructive 'who's-who' of these early activists, together with an assessment of their importance in the study of the origins of English archaeology.

The History of trams and trolleybuses in Chesterfield from 1878 - 1939.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries barrow digging became a field sport for local squires and parsons. Their desire for decorative relics led them to plunder the graves of their prehistoric ancestors. With a few notable exceptions their methods were lamentable: their workmen recklessly destroyed remains and pottery, and few made accurate records. What was most horrifying was the speed at which they worked — one individual digging over 30 barrows in a day and 9 in the space of two hours! Against this background it is perhaps amazing that any idea of the importance of recording provenance and context developed at all. But, in this fascinating survey of early field archaeology in Britain, Barry Marsden is able to highlight the careers and methods of the more responsible barrow diggers — from the first excavations of William Stukeley in the 1720s to the more orderly and painstaking work of the main nineteenth-century practitioners, concluding with the exemplary operations of Lt. General Pitt Rivers in the 1880s and 1890s. This substantially expanded and re-illustrated edition of a classic work that has been unavailable for many years has individual chapters on Yorkshire, Derbyshire and the Peak district, Wiltshire, Dorset and Cornwall.

A history of Derbyshire Fighter Aces of World War II.

May 1927 saw the abandonment of Chesterfield's trams and replacement with trolleybuses. These only lasted until March 1938, bringing an end to a form of transport never to return to this Derbyshire town. This history of the system includes many previously rare unpublished images of the trolleybuses and a full fleet list of vehicles, with mileages worked.

This is a photographic album covering three long-gone tramway systems, including many previously unpublished images of the towns and their public transport from as long ago as the 1890s. Historical backgrounds are provided, as well as route maps and stock lists of all trams operated.

In the 18th & 19th centuries barrow digging became a field sport for local squires & parsons. Their desire for decorative relics led them to plunder the graves of their prehistoric ancestors. Marsden highlights the careers & methods of the barrow diggers.