The Dorset Echo’s latest book provides a fascinating insight into the way our local area has changed.

Dorset Then & Now presents vintage pictures of the area alongside new pictures of the same locations.

The ‘old’ pictures in the book range from 1910 to 1993 and range from busy town centres to bygone times to unspoilt village scenes.

The new pictures show how drastically some areas have changed.

The old photos include a packed band stand on Weymouth beach, while horses and carts line the Royal Terrace on the Esplanade.

A steam engine is seen driving down The Straights, Portland and picturesque shop fronts in Fortuneswell from 1903 have disappeared.

The Echo’s team of photographers went to great lengths to replicate the vantage points used by the original photographers as closely as possible, to give the reader the best possible sense of how things had changed.

Unique to this book is the use of ‘blends’ to marry old pictures with new ones, making it dramatically clear how some scenes have changed. The scenes were painstakingly put together by Echo multimedia designer John Nesbitt.

The 160-page book draws on pictures from the Dorset Echo’s own extensive archives and those of other local collections and museums. Like previous books from the Dorset Echo and Daily Echo, it is already proving a bestseller alongside national titles at local bookshops.

  •  Dorset Then & Now is available for £14.95 from Dorset Echo officers in Weymouth, Dorchester and Bridport and from: Farwells, Wareham; Swanage Bookshop; WH Smith, Weymouth and Blandford; Waterstones, Dorchester and Bridport; Dorset County Museum, Dorchester; and Chalbury Wines, Preston.

It can also be ordered for £20.25 including postage from dorsetecho.co.uk/thenandnow, where you can browse a gallery of photos from the book.