IT IS steeped in history but continually being marked by the march of time.

To the visitor, the priory town of Christchurch may look like a pleasant town bearing the charm of the past but, as author and historian Sue Newman points out, “progress exacts a very heavy price”.

Her latest book, Christchurch Through Time (Amberley Publishing, £12.99) is a remarkable collection of 180 photos that show how the town has changed in the 20th and 21st century.

Every image from the past is placed alongside a view taken from much the same spot today. And the camera’s journey round the borough and through the decades presents a startling record of what has been transformed or lost.

Sue Newman, who has written previously about the town’s commons and has a book soon to be published about The Christchurch Fusee Chain Gang, takes a strong line on the nature of the altering townscape.

“Change in the 20th and 21st centuries has not always been kind on the aesthetic level,” she writes. “Buildings and streetscapes which were much loved ‘then’, so often leave us with merely waves of nostagia and a longing to bring these planning-department-free erections back to grace our streets.”

But she then reminds us that we unwittingly brought about the change through our demand for fast travel, cheap food and intensively-built housing and other facilities.

Each pair of images is presented alongside an enlightening caption and commentary giving guidance to all that has changed.

It should be remembered, too, that in 1891 the population was just 3,994. By 2001, it had soared to 44,865.

  • Following the Snapshots of the Past booklet of photos of old Poole, we are soon to publish one for Christchurch. Watch this space.