Wolverhampton: Images of England

The photographs in this fascinating selection, the majority of which are previously unpublished, recall the changes Wolverhampton underwent between the 1860s and 1960s, a century during which the town centre saw the completion of slum clearance programmes, the building of the ring road, and the construction of two major shopping centres. Districts not featured in previous publications - such as Finchfield, Whitmore Reans, Parkfields and Blakenhall - are included in this one. Derived from a variety of sources, notably the studio of Arthur Bennett Clark and a photographic survey carried out by the Wolverhampton Photographic Society in the mid-1950s, the photographs are all from the extensive and excellent collection held by Wolverhampton Archives and Local Studies, the quality of which is due in large part to the efforts and enthusiasm of former Chief Librarian Frank Mason. They bring to vivid life a town our forefathers must have known, and remind those of us who were there of a past which has all but vanished.