THE simultaneous release of four publications on community history later this year will please residents of Okehampton, Chagford, North Tawton and Northlew, who are interested in the past.

The books are the latest in a community history series published by Halsgrove and will be released in the autumn.

A portrait of an ancient market town, the Book of Okehampton has been written and produced by Roy and Ursula Radford, of South Zeal, who also penned a South Tawton edition last year.

The 250 historic photographs included in the book, many of them previously unpublished, are a vital record of the town's history and inhabitants and were brought together from across the community.

Okehampton's military history, changes in transport, the opening of Simmons Park and the development of the Victorian arcade are just some of the periods and events featured in the book.

It spans the coaching days through the great changes of the Victorian period up to the two great world conflicts of the last century and the developments of the latter 1900s to the present.

The author of Chagford: A Town Apart is the town's retained fire station commander Iain Rice, who has worked in most areas of the local economy from farming to the fine art trade as well as pursuing a career as a freelance writer and illustrator.

The Book of Chagford grew from a history of Chagford Fire Brigade published to mark the opening of the town's new fire station in 1988.

It is the close proximity of Dartmoor that has determined Chagford's rich history from its original settlement as a fording-place on the River Teign on the route to the high moor, through the centuries as a farming community and a centre of first the Dartmoor tin and subsequently the woollen trades.

North Tawton's publication is a result of several local history exhibitions in the town over the last few years which have created a considerable amount of interest and the group formed to compile this volume consists of town clerk Alison Baker, retired GP and amateur local historian Jean Shields and amateur photographer David Hoare.

The history of North Tawton began before the Romans established a fortification and continued through the heyday of the woollen trade to which the town owes its early prosperity.

The village of Northlew with Ashbury is by Northlew History Group and is a real community effort, revealing the hidden history of this community which centres on one of the largest open squares in Devon.

Readers will be able to share a century of little-known photographs — 400 in total — and discover stories and anecdotes of times past, covering the church, transport, war, the village at work and play, and characters of the past.

Copies of these publications can be ordered in advance by picking up a leaflet in Okehampton Library, the Museum of Dartmoor Life or various outlets in the communities.