title: A Guide to Historic Plymouth (History & Guide)
author: James Baker
description: James Baker, who holds degrees from Boston University and the University of Rhode Island, has spent years documenting Plymouths colonial culture & society. Currently he serves as the curator at the Alden House Historic Site, where he has developed several exhibits on Mayflower passengers. Prior to that he worked as the director of research, senior historian, and webmaster at Plimoth Plantation. An avid book collector and web-site designer, Baker has written several Plymouth-related books and essays, including Plymouth Labor and Leisure, Plimoth Plantation, and Plimoth Plantation: Fifty Years of Living History.
zlib_text: A Guildhall Square in the early 1900s, before it was destroyed during the Second World War.
  
  To Ian
  A ‘Desert Rat’ who survived the horrors of war,
  never to speak of them.
  
  G
  NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  ATHERING THESE STORIES has been a marvellous
  adventure. Plymouth has had more than its fair share of ‘horrible
  history’ and it was a difficult task selecting just which ghastly and
  incredible stories to choose. Sadly, this also meant leaving out some of my
  favourites – there was certainly enough for a second volume (hint to my
  editor there!). So this is by no means a complete history of Plymouth, and I
  recommend looking through the bibliography for some further terrific
  stories. All mistakes in re-telling these grisly tales are, of course,
  completely my own.
  I include some individuals born in Plymouth who had grisly adventures
  elsewhere and I have used the modern Plymouth boundaries to define the
  area, incorporating the old towns of East Stonehouse, Dock (now known as
  Devonport), Stoke D