The LMS was a major pioneer in the development of commercial road vehicles. This is an illustrated history of the vehicles operated by the LMS and its predecessors from 1923 to 1947. It also includes LMS horse drawn vehicles and the LMS buses of the period.
Vauxhall Cars 1945-1964 narrates the remarkable story of Vauxhall Motors post-war years. Originally manufacturers of marine engines, the Vauxhall Iron Works were established on the South bank of the River Thames in 1867 and after troubled times at the end of the 19th-century, the firm commenced motor manufacturing in 1903. This was to be the start of the company’s phenomenal success story, which was to expand rapidly two years later when the company moved to a new purpose-built factory at Luton in Bedfordshire. In the two decades after World War II, as Britain began to rebuild itself, Vauxhall made some of their most classic models. By introducing the L-Type, E-Type, PA-Type, and HA Viva through to the FB Victor and PC Cresta, Vauxhall established itself as one of the world’s most respected car manufacturers.
Everybody likes ice-cream, and there can be few names as big as Wall's in the European ice-cream industry. Now, part of the giant Unilever Ice Cream and Frozen Foods division, the Wall's brand is instantly recognised as a market leader. A position it has held since its venture into the frozen confectionary business as a seasonal diversification to its core business, cooked meats, sausages and pies in the early 1920s. In this book, Alan Earnshaw, David Hayward and Chris Stevens chart the company's reasons for diversification, and the way they began distributing their products. The story continues after the war, when to get around rationing and other regulations, Wall's sold their products under the slogan Omore than a treat a food'. In the post-war period, the firm could sell more ice cream than it could produce, and this continued down to the late-1950s, when the Osoft ice-cream' craze swept in from the USA, with Mister Softee and Mr.Whippy vans taking to the streets of Britain. So dangerous was this threat to Wall's and Lyons Maid, the other main producers, that the two new brands were acquired, so Wall's bought out Mr.Whippy. By the mid-1970s the sales of ice-cream products in supermarkets and home freezer-ownership had radically altered the Omobiling' market, and since then there has been a progressive decline in the number of ice-cream vans patrolling our streets.
Holmfirth was, in its genesis, little more than a northern industrial textile town, despite the fact that it nestled in some stunningly beautiful countryside. By the mid-1960s many of the mills had gone out of business and the short branch railway had closed in May 1965. For years the station buildings and many of the mills stood derelict, gaunt decaying reminders of Victorian enterprise that the modern world had sadly passed by. Then in 1971 something rather unusual happened that would change Holmfirth forever, the writer Roy Clarke was commissioned to write a short play about three old men for the BBC's "Comedy Playhouse Series". In June 1972 a BBC film crew arrived in Holmfirth, and on 4th January 1973 the first-ever "Last of the Summer Wine" programme hit the TV screens.
This book is a one-off, never-to-be repeated opportunity to acquire a high-quality representative pictorial record of all the operations of the amazing firm of Pearson's of Liverpool during and just after World War II. Arguably, it is the amazing photographs of wartime Liverpool showing the various locations that had been bombed and cleared that will appeal most. All Liverpudlians and those interested in the city's wartime history will find themselves drawn to keep studying them as they contain so much detail in the backgrounds. Considerable work has been undertaken to establish the various locations for readers' benefits. In addition there are immediate post-war shots showing how the city looked when peace came but when rationing and deprivation was worse than during the conflict.For the military vehicle enthusiast there are stunning photographs of vehicles being assembled when new and after wartime rebuild, for the British, Canadian and US forces, and some for Government-approved essential users. The post-war shots show how many of the same types were then acquired and rebuilt for civilian use. Some of these photographs will be of considerable reference value for modelers.