The area of gentle rolling downland known as Salisbury Plain is divided by a number of river valleys radiating out from Salisbury like the spokes of a wheel. From the earliest times, human settlements have punctuated these valleys, as if in retreat from the sometimes bleak and unwelcoming landscape which characterises the undulating plateau of the Plain. With the advent of photography in the second half of the last century, it became possible to record for posterity something of the activities of the ordinary people who made up these village communities, and we are now able to look back on the lives, loves and labours of those who populated the valleys of the Nadder, Wylye, Till, Avon and Bourne.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries daily existence rarely took the people who fill these pages more than a few miles from their homes. These photographs, many never published before, open a window on a way of life that has gone for ever, transformed as much by the social and cultural upheavals that have marked the last century as by the intrusions of the military. Sturdy and independent communities have been swept away by the motor car and the activities of the War Department.

As well as chronicling this change, the book highlights the part played by the Plain in the early development of aviation, devoting a section to the lives – and often deaths – of the brave pioneer airmen whose efforts assisted the growth of the new aerial technology. It provides an intimate and often moving look back at a past that will provoke the curiosity of all those who think they know the area and fascinate anyone with an interest in the social history of Wiltshire.