A LOCAL history book with a difference has just been published.

"Changing Lives" tells the stories of men and women who lived in Crediton during the 19th century.

The author, Rob Watson, a resident of Crediton for more than 30 years, has had a lifelong interest in social history.

He has looked at numerous records to piece together the lives of a number of individuals and from that research has ingeniously been able to give them voices so that they can relate incidents from the time and "tell their own" stories.

Rob told us, the title, "Changing Lives", refers to the new opportunities that were available due to the almost universal access to education, the possibility of cheap travel on the railways and the growth of new industries, and to show how changing times led to changing lives.

He explained: "I have used census returns, newspaper reports, birth, marriage and death certificates, and many other sources to find the facts and then used a creative approach to bring those facts to life."

Rob continued: "I have made the narrator of the book, William Hector, (1850 – 1922), because he witnessed many changes in his own family.

"Both his grandfathers were low paid manual workers but he was a successful jeweller and music teacher and one of his sons received a doctorate in music from Oxford University.

"William knew many of the other characters in the book personally and links the tales together.

"There is so much diversity and fascinating details of the era, brought vividly to life – the son of a Camborne miner became general manager of Ernest Jackson and made and sold microscope slides in his spare time, another miner’s son eventually ran The Ship Hotel, along with other tales both tragic and comic.

The book is available at Crediton Community Bookshop and is priced at £4.50.