ANCIENT moated castles, deserted medieval villages and Second World War runways are just part of the invisible history of Herefordshire.

These features, barely discernible from the ground, are starkly revealed in aerial photographs in a new book Herefordshire Past and Present: An Aerial View.

The book combines pictures of landmarks and scenery with intriguing images of crop and soil marks that highlight sites of past buildings. Others reveal Bronze Age circles, Iron Age farms, medieval mills and ancient transport networks.

The accompanying text provides a commentary and a general history of the county.

Ledbury's timber Market House and Norman Church features and pictures of Bromyard reveal its medieval street patterns. Cropmarks in wheat fields show the location of an RAF runway at Madley, where Rudolf Hess, Hitler's deputy, was flown in 1942 on his way to prison.

The book, by Herefordshire historian Ruth Richardson and aerial archaeologist Chris Musson, also illustrates lines of transport networks from Roman crossings of the Wye, ancient tramroads and canals to railways and modern motorways. It costs £14.95.

Another new book also offers a birds-eye perspective on the county.

Herefordshire Maps, 1577 to 1800, was written by Brian Smith, whose earlier works include a history of Malvern.

The book details every known surviving map of Herefordshire, a county famous as the home of the Mappa Mundi, the largest surviving medieval map in the world.

In his introduction, the author describes maps as "the most delightful of all sources of historical evidence" bringing together the accuracy of the archive with the artistic skill of the mapmaker.

The book, priced £17.50, is a catalogue of maps in public and private collections and explains their contents and historical context.

Both books are published by Logaston Press.