IMAGINE, if you can, Cherry Lane in Carrington as a sleepy country road, Partington farmers haymaking in the fields or the local brass band attracting the sort of following usually reserved for today's visiting celebrities.

Did you know St Werburgh's Church in Warburton, a grade one listing building is only one of 27 timber framed churches in the country? The origins of this place of worship date back to 1190 and a quick glance through the list of past rectors, with their odd sounding names, is sure to raise a smile.

For instance, in 1271 a certain Norbertine White Canons was the man in the pulpit and his successor in 1278 was one Robertus de Dentone.

But you have to jump a couple of centuries to 1454 to find my personal favourite, when a Jacobus Gladelyf was ministering to local worshippers.

If you ever have a tipple in the Saracen's Head in Warburton take a look above the doorway and you'll see the crest of a saracen's head that was awarded to prominent local Adam de Dutton after he covered himself in glory during the Crusades of the 13th century. The crest was added to the family coat of arms.

Warburton, Partington and Carrington, by Karen Cliff and Vicki Masterson, is an absorbing read, lifting the lid on the history of three communities with Anglo Saxon roots.

Cliff and Masterson also give you just the right amount of background information and they write in a style that is as accessible as it is informative.

We also see the economic and social impact of the Manchester Ship Canal in the book and how an area that used to be a quiet backwater evolved into an industrialised, suburban commuter belt.

The book also boasts a number of wonderful old school photographs including a wonderful shot of pupils from the old school in Partington taken I the early 1900s. Some of the boys look like they've had their hair cut by a sheep shearer.

Reading books like this may tempt you to look at the past through rose tinted glasses but certainly those leafy lanes without a car to be seen on them do look attractive. Books like this really bring history to life. Rick Bowen

l Warburton, Partington and Carrington by Karen Cliff and Vicki Masterson is published by Karen Cliff and Vicki Masterson priced £10.99.