These photographs, along with quotations from the period, recall the time at the turn of the century when Yorkshire - along with the rest of the British Empire - was preparing to celebrate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. Poverty was rife, and working and living conditions often harsh, especially in the Yorkshire countryside and in the great manufacturing cities of the West Riding. This book documents the contrasts of the era. The photographs show royalty and the aristocracy, landowners and the growing middle class, the farming population of the towns. They also provide a glimpse of trends in fashion and entertainment, and of changing modes of transports and types of work at the turn of the century. The accompanying text gives an insight into the attitudes, opinions and habits of the people, and brings their ordinary concerns and activities back to life.