After almost two thousand years of eventful but mostly unrecorded lives, a few Cheltenham folk first began to see themselves, and their town, captured by early photographers soon after 1841. Thereafter the medium of photography advanced relentlessly from pewter plates to glass plates, through film and finally into today’s digital world.

David Hanks’ new book gathers together a wonderful collection of some of the earliest images of this stunning Regency town, and compares the scene with modern images. He tells the story of Cheltenham’s history within his informative captions. Featured here are illustrations of the town centre and its more famous buildings, along with once-outlying settlements which have now been absorbed into the town itself. This intriguing photographic collection is a must-have for all Cheltenham residents.