Rossiter Books - Book Shop, Ross On Wye, Herefordshire

	A Guide to Slow Travel in the Marches by Les Lumsdon (Paperback £10) A Guide to Slow Travel in the Marches takes the 'Slow Food' concept and applies it to travel, encouraging the reader to savour the unique local features of an area, rather than simply ticking tourist destinations off a checklist. The book covers the area known as the Marches, covering both sides of the England/Wales border, extending to the Brecon Beacons in the West, and Ledbury in the East. This book is ideal for those wishing to take in the individual qualities of each small town and area, and gain a deeper understanding of this fascinating part of the UK.
	The Wye Tour and its Artists by Julian Mitchell (Paperback £12.99) Published to accompany a new exhibition at Chepstow Museum and Art Gallery The Reverend John Egerton, rector of Ross-on-Wye in the 1740s and '50s, was a rich young man with a well-connected wife, much given to entertaining. He had a pleasure boat built so their guests could enjoy a day on the river, visiting Goodrich Castle and Symonds Yat and venturing as far, perhaps, as Monmouth. From such small private beginnings developed the popular two-day commercial Wye Tour from Ross to Chepstow, with a stop-over in Monmouth, and a long pause at Tintern Abbey. The Tour was part of a general increase in travel among the British middle classes, especially among those in search of the picturesque. The high priest of picturesque theory was another clergyman, the Reverend William Gilpin, who took the Tour in 1770, and published his Observations on the River Wye in 1783. A schoolmaster, he laid down rules as to which views were and were not 'correctly' picturesque, but the concept was open to many interpretations, and debate about the picturesqueness or otherwise of ivy and beggars raged for half a century. When the Napoleonic wars of the 1790s made travel on the continent both difficult and dangerous, the Tour became very popular, and remained so well into the age of the first steam packets from Bristol and then the railway. A version of it was still available into the early twentieth century, the argument about the picturesque still unresolved.
	Roses round the door? Rural images, realities & responses: Herefordshire, 1830s-1930s by Tim Ward Paperback £12.95 Tim Ward's collection of postcards, built up over many years, includes many images of Herefordshire's past rural life: harvesting and hop-picking, cidermaking and cattle breeding, blacksmiths, beekeepers and basketmakers. Behind these photographs, carefully posed as most of them had to be for the slow business of early photography, were the working lives of men and women and many of those lives were a hard struggle, however picturesque the scenes seem to be. Life was far from a 'roses round the door' country idyll. This book is made up of a combination of those images, including some of the evocative work of Alfred Watkins, and an attempt to tell the story behind the pictures uncovered by Tim Ward's painstaking research. For, dispossessed by the Enclosure Acts that took common land from rural people and forced them into miserable working and living conditions, Herefordshire's agricultural labourers, like those in other parts of Britain, eventually found a voice, with the formation, from 1871, of a succession of farmworkers' unions. Tim Ward charts the history of the unions, the strong characters who founded them, including Thomas Strange, William Gibson Ward, Joseph Arch and Sidney Box, and what became of their attempts to bring about change for those whose cause they championed. The story unfolds against a backdrop of a fast-changing world, including a number of factors that would change rural life for ever, mechanization, opportunities to leave the land and find a new life in the industrialized cities, or even abroad, and the onset of the First World War.
	Wye Valley : 40 Hill and Riverside Walks by Ben Giles Paperback £6.99 From the broad riverside meadows of the Herefordshire plain and the soaring limestone cliffs of the lower gorge near Chepstow to the industrial heritage of the Forest of Dean in the east and the far-reaching views of the Trellech plateau in the west, Ben Giles' 40 circular routes offer a refreshing introduction to the picturesque landscape of the Wye Valley, one of the most varied places in Britain to explore on foot.
	THE ROSS, MONMOUTH AND PONTYPOOL ROAD LINE by Stanley C Jenkins Paperback £11.95 The turbulent history of the South Wales borderlands produced a romantic and picturesque landscape of castles and villages. In Victorian times, this attractive, Anglo-Celtic district contained a network of local branch lines, which opened-up the area to tourists and visitors from England and elsewhere. The cross-country branch lines from Ross-on-Wye to Monmouth via Symond's Yat, and from Monmouth to Little Mill (near Pontypool) via Raglan and Usk were interesting and classic Great Western rural lines.
	Portrait of the Wye Valley by Van Greaves Hardback £14.95 The River Wye is one of Britain's most scenic rivers. From its source, in the wild uplands of Plynlimon, to its mouth at Chepstow, the river and its environs lock into photogenic landscapes. These landscapes are rich sources of wildlife and plant species and the river supports Atlantic Salmon. The lower 52 miles (83km) are designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. A long distance walk, 'TheWyeValley Walk' covers the entire length of the river (136m/218km) but does not always hug it. There are numerous forays into surrounding hills, both in Wales and inside England, and indeed these are featured in this book. In fact the only flat lands of any note around the Wye are from Hereford down to Ross on Wye. A plethora of ancient and historical settlements, castles and churches, blend in with open and wooded landscapes. They all unite to provide a feast for the eyes, recorded in sweeping images by the discerning photography of the renowned Van Greaves.
	Orchard: A year in the life of a Herefordshire cider orchard photographs by Gareth Rees-Roberts Hardback £20 & Paperback £15 A visual contemplation of a year in the life of a mature sixty-acre cider orchard. The photographs allow you to meander through the trees on paths made by sheep, to stand and feel the warming rays of the morning sun, to wander along the garlanded spring avenues, to shelter from the summer rain under dark green boughs, to observe the activity of spiders revealed by the autumn dew shining in their webs, to imagine the flavour of cider made from the varieties of ripening apples, and to consider the moods of the year and the passing of time.
	The Green Lanes of Herefordshire by Heather Hurley Paperback £11.95 An exploration of the long forgotten green lanes of Herefordshire. Following a detailed historical introduction the author focuses on the history and development of ten named green lanes from around the county, each thoroughly researched from sources dating from medieval to present day. Each chapter includes a circular walking route incorporating present day lanes and paths to enable these lanes to be appreciated, explored and viewed.