MEMORIES of the Vale of Evesham as it was in the 1950s and 1960s are brought back to life in pictures in a new book Worcestershire Living Memories.

As the title implies, the book is about the whole of Worcestershire, particularly the valleys of the Rivers Severn and Avon. One section is devoted to South-Eastern Worcestershire and the Avon Valley and there are some superb pictures - all in black and white - of the towns and villages.

All the pictures come from The Francis Frith Collection at Salisbury, Wiltshire, and the evocative images are accompanied by snippets of local history and folklore. The introduction sets the scene ready for the author, Dorothy Nicolle, to conduct a geographical tour of the area.

The Frith photos centre on scenes rather than individuals or groups of people and consequently feature a wide selection of street scenes, public buildings and churches from a bygone era.

"It shows the streets and the people as they used to look and you will be amazed by the changes that have occurred," Mrs Nicolle said.

"The Frith images evoke memories of the places we grew up, went to school, worked, married, studied, got our first job - in fact where we have lived our lives."

The original Frith collection started in 1860, sold in 1939 and closed in 1970. The stock of 365,000 pictures of some 7,000 British cities, towns and villages, was rejected by various national libraries and museums but saved for the nation by Rothmans who in turn sold it to John Buck in 1977, since when he has used the archive as the basis of a publishing business.

Francis Frith's Worcestershire Living Memories by Dorothy Nicolle is published by the Frith Book Company Ltd. at £14.99 in hardback.