Yorkshire CD books
Old and rare Yorkshire books as pdf file downloads
"Spen Valley, past and present"
by Frank Peel
download version
produced by Yorkshire CD books ©
We have now cleared all of our CDroms and so we now do downloads only.
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For
sample pages, please see the links to the Acrobat (pdf) files given below.
The data in this downloadable pdf is computer searchable.
The Spen Valley, past and present
contains a history of the Spen Valley including considerable information
about the more prominent families (Liversedges, Rayners, Nevilles, Pygots,
Careys and Greens). Starting with a short history of Yorkshire it progresses
through the Roman period, the Domesday book, Poll Tax etc. For the later periods
there are descriptions of the political movements, commerce, and the numerous
churches (both the Established Church and non-conformists).
The following are available to help you ascertain the contents of the book:
The above Acrobat file was extracted from the main pdf file and shows the quality of the images. You will need at least version 5 of Acrobat to open this file. If you do not have an up to date version please go to the Adobe web-site to obtain a free version of Acrobat Reader.
A review of the CDrom by Steven Bruce:
I feel particularly privileged in being asked to write this short review of
SPEN VALLEY PAST AND PRESENT by Frank Peel; I have a relationship to the author
through marriage, his daughter Eleanor married Josiah Bruce a brother of my
Gt. Grandfather.
From a topographical point of view, until this volume, there had been little
published for the specific area of the Spen valley, Sheard's Batley, Craddock's
Birstall and Smith's Morley all delve into the history of those particular
areas with only passing references to the valley of the Spen. It wasn't
until the publication of this volume by Frank Peel in 1893 that aspects of the
area known as the Spen valley were for posterity recorded in print.
This volume suffers a little less from the problem, which unfortunately blights
many topographical volumes of the Victorian age; a distinct lack of an adequate
index and in extreme cases a complete lack of an index at all. However, like
many of his CD publications, Colin Hinson has produced this CD to be fully machine-searchable,
therefore the lack of a comprehensive index in the original volume is rendered
somewhat academic as literally any word within the volume can be located with
ease. The inclusion of this extremely important search facility demonstrates
once again why Colin Hinson is at the forefront of this crusade to provide to
the general public, topographical and historical works of rarity.
Steven Bruce
Yorkshire Family History
www.yorkshirefamilyhistory.org
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