What do you think?
Rate this book
Lancashire: Exploring the Historic County that Made the Modern World
'A fitting tribute to the greatest county in England' DAVID SWIFT, author of Scouse Republic
Cotton, coal and canals.
Trains, technology and television.
Lancashire has shaped the modern world.
Liverpool was once the world's busiest port. Manchester powered the industrial revolution and became a symbol of global free trade. Blackpool invented the working-class seaside resort. All three are situated in the historic county of unique, often misunderstood, sometimes maligned – and at the heart of our national story.
In Lancashire, travel writer Chris Moss returns after an absence of four decades. As he visits familiar and unknown corners of his home county, he reaches beyond the clichés to trace lines from the deep past through to the present day.
Cotton, coal and canals.
Trains, technology and television.
Lancashire has shaped the modern world.
Liverpool was once the world's busiest port. Manchester powered the industrial revolution and became a symbol of global free trade. Blackpool invented the working-class seaside resort. All three are situated in the historic county of unique, often misunderstood, sometimes maligned – and at the heart of our national story.
In Lancashire, travel writer Chris Moss returns after an absence of four decades. As he visits familiar and unknown corners of his home county, he reaches beyond the clichés to trace lines from the deep past through to the present day.
Kindle Edition
Published February 17, 2026
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 28, 2026
Lancashire by Chris Moss is an ode to the county of Lancashire, the county of his birth in 1966. This is the county he left once he had graduated and entered the world of work, ultimately as a travel writer, like so many of those who leave because of education and work, his visits became few and far between.
Moss has moved home to Lancashire and in this book is rediscovering the county, and his love of one of the most populated counties in Britain. Reliving his childhood in St Helens and the areas he visited and the changes that have gone on over the intervening years. This is part history, part travelogue and part love letter to a lost lover.
Moss notes that Lancashire was the first county to industrialise and also the first county to deindustrialise and how both have left scars not only on the landscape but also on the people. Yes, there are honourable mentions for Liverpool and Manchester, but it is the rest of the county he also explores. We get the good the bad and the ugly and then there is Blackpool.
There is plenty of information of forgotten heroes of Lancashire, the county that had the first published working-class woman whose writing outsold HG Wells, but guess who is the forgotten one! Moss does not hide the fact that Lancashire’s industry was built on the back of slavery and how it affected the county.
Chris Moss has written a deeply personal book about the county of his birth and his present, and that is well represented in how he writes about the past and present. This is a wonderful book with plenty of interesting facts throughout.
Moss has moved home to Lancashire and in this book is rediscovering the county, and his love of one of the most populated counties in Britain. Reliving his childhood in St Helens and the areas he visited and the changes that have gone on over the intervening years. This is part history, part travelogue and part love letter to a lost lover.
Moss notes that Lancashire was the first county to industrialise and also the first county to deindustrialise and how both have left scars not only on the landscape but also on the people. Yes, there are honourable mentions for Liverpool and Manchester, but it is the rest of the county he also explores. We get the good the bad and the ugly and then there is Blackpool.
There is plenty of information of forgotten heroes of Lancashire, the county that had the first published working-class woman whose writing outsold HG Wells, but guess who is the forgotten one! Moss does not hide the fact that Lancashire’s industry was built on the back of slavery and how it affected the county.
Chris Moss has written a deeply personal book about the county of his birth and his present, and that is well represented in how he writes about the past and present. This is a wonderful book with plenty of interesting facts throughout.
April 10, 2026
A reasonable compromise.
It vacillated between being a serious history book and a shaky vehicle for the author’s tastes, views and sometimes prejudices.
It vacillated between being a serious history book and a shaky vehicle for the author’s tastes, views and sometimes prejudices.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews