Lost Dorset: The Towns is a companion to a previous volume on the villages and countryside, published in 2018. But it could easily stand alone, for Dorset’s towns through the period covered by the postcards have their own distinct identity – be they on the coast, inland market towns, or the scattered heathland settlements that have since grown into some of the county’s largest communities. For some, time stood still. Others grew dramatically. Few of the 375 postcards chosen for this book have been published before,  many are extremely rare, but they combine to form a unique portrait of urban Dorset between the invention of the postcard until just after the First World War, a period of extraordinary change.

BEAMINSTER • BLANDFORD FORUM • BRIDPORT • BROADSTONE DORCHESTER • FERNDOWN • GILLINGHAM • LYME REGIS PARKSTONE (BRANKSOME, CANFORD CLIFFS, SANDBANKS) • POOLE PORTLAND • SHAFTESBURY • SHERBORNE • STALBRIDGE STURMINSTER NEWTON • SWANAGE • VERWOOD • WAREHAM WEYMOUTH • WIMBORNE MINSTER