The exemption of Chester Abbey: papal Power and local consent by Peter McDonald; A tale of two maps: the town plans of Manchester by William Green and Charles Laurent By Terry Wyke and Brian Robson; Liverpool Corporation and origins of municipal social housing,1842-1890 by Bertie Dockerill: The residential development of Sefton Park, Liverpool c.1872-c.1900 by Josph Sharples; Working-class women shareholders in mid-nineteenth century Lancashire by Peter Hampson; Technological change and the decline of Britain's largest steel company: Barrow Haematite, 1864-1918 by A.J. Arnold; Biographical notes on the dating, numbering and indexing of Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire by C.B.Phillips; Bridging the Mersey again: the new Mersey crossing and its historical dimension by Pat Cox and Alan G. Crosby