Bowdon and Dunham Massey

This fascinating book of more than 200 photographs from the last 150 years shows local people, buildings and the environment of Bowdon and the neighbouring estate of Dunham Massey.

Straddling the main road between Chester and Manchester, Bowdon and Dunham Massey lie to the south of the Mersey Valley, which divides the historic County Palatine of Chester from Lancashire. In AD 1000 the two districts formed a manorial estate that has developed during the millennium under a variety of landowners.

The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries saw salt working, advances in agriculture, forestry and improved transport, while the area provided the ideal rural retreat for Victorian industrial and commercial entrepreneurs from further north. Later, during the Second World War, part of the area was used as a US military base and prisoner-of-war camp for German and Italian soldiers, some of whom still revisit the area today.

This splendid collection of images captures the absorbing history of the Bowdon and Dunham Massey area and will inspire a new generation to be interested in their past.