Historian publishes book showing Alveston during last 100 years

Rosemary King, 75, has recently had her book, Alveston Through Time, go on sale in the local area.

It includes almost 200 photographs of Alveston during the last 100 years depicting the changing landscape of the village.

Much of its past was reliant on quarrying and images in the book include how the old Greenhill Quarry used to look and a more up-to-date photograph of Willoughby Close, which now stands where the quarry once was.

There are also photographs of the old Alveston National School at Rudgeway and how the original Jubilee Hall looked before it was extended.

Alveston Through Time took a year to compile but is the product of many years of research and hard work by Mrs King, who was a founder member of the Alveston Local History Group and the Thornbury Museum Research Group.

"In 1994 the parish council decided to celebrate 100 years since parish councils were created from the old vestry committees.

"My husband John was on the council and because of my interest in history I was asked to put together an exhibition on the village illustrating how it had changed," said Mrs King.

The grandmother had also been an active member of the local WI, which had an old book written by its members in 1957 with photographs in.

"The WI had got the book published in 1959 and I had always been fascinated by it but unfortunately there were some photographs they had not been able to afford to include in the printing, so those photos are in my book," she said.

As a gesture of appreciation for its help Mrs King has donated copies of her book to the Alveston WI group for them to sell for funds.

Mrs King said she is now considering writing a more detailed book on Alveston and its history.

She said: "This book is just photographs which I think makes it more appealing to people because they can just pick it up, but there are lots of fascinating stories about the families that have lived here and about the village which would be nice to get down on paper."