This is the third in the 'Regional Tramways' series that covers the history of tramway operation in the British Isles. Focusing on North-West England, the book provides an overview of the history of tramways in the region from the 1860s, when one of the pioneering horse trams that predated the Tramways Act of 1870 operated in Birkenhead (the first tramway to operate in the British Isles), through to the closures of the last traditional tramways (Stockport and Liverpool) in 1951 and 1957. It also looks at one great survivor the tramway in Blackpool that, fully modernized, continues to operate in the twenty-first century. Concentrating on the systems that survived into 1945 Blackburn, Blackpool, Bolton, Bury, Darwen, Liverpool, Manchester, Oldham, Salford, SHMD and Stockport the book provides a comprehensive narrative, detailing the history of these operations from 1945 onwards, with full fleet lists, maps and details of route openings and closures. The story is supported by almost 200 illustrations, both colour and black and white, many of which have never been published before, that portray the trams that operated in these towns and cities, and the routes on which they operated.
Bringing the story up to date, the book also examines the one second-generation tramway built in the region Manchester Metrolink as well as informing readers where it is still possible to see surviving first-generation trams from the region in preservation.