Bakers, butchers, grocers and department stores are just a few retailers celebrated in a new book out on Monday.

Shops Remembered in Deal and Walmer is by a former Mercury journalist Judith Davies, writing under her maiden name Gaunt.

Most of the pictures in the book are published for the first time and have been loaned by people in the Deal area. They include a selection taken by the late Basil Kidd.

Judith was an East Kent Mercury reporter in the 1970s and now compiles the newspaper’s On File column.

Researching the old copies first gave Judith the idea of writing a book on the town’s shops and shopkeepers.

"I kept coming across evocative accounts of horse drawn milk carts and delivery vehicles running amok down the High Street and shedding their loads or colliding with shop fronts.

"And there were references to early closing being 8pm and struggles over the centuries whether from war, recession or threat of redevelopment often due to road widening.

"I realised many of the stores had disappeared and decided I had to record their history before they were completely forgotten."

"The book has been a painstaking task but one I’ve thoroughly enjoyed and I’m so grateful to all those people who lent photographs or provided information to bring the book alive."

* For more details, including book signings, see this week's East Kent Mercury.