MANY of Wyre Forest's fascinating facets are featured in a new book that aims to capture The Spirit Of Worcestershire in photographs and paintings.

Cash has been raised for a range of charities by a limited edition run of the Arrow Valley book which is now on general sale.

And a mine of information and colourful, evocative images help capture the history and different faces of Wyre Forest and the surrounding area.

The book notes Bewdley as "a model Georgian town" and looks at the family history of the town's Stanley Baldwin, who died in 1947 and was three times Prime Minister between the First and Second World Wars.

Aside from revealing him to be a cousin of Rudyard Kipling, it also shows a plinth without a statue - an incomplete memorial to Baldwin beside the B4196 near his former home of Astley Hall.

Wilden Church, despite its "unremarkable exterior", is revealed as a building of national importance, "as yet unrecognised".

The book describes it as a shrine to both the Pre-Raphaelite and the Arts and Crafts movements, the only church in existence to have all its windows made by Morris and Company.

Stourport is described as the only town in England to have been created by the canal era and "a perfectly preserved Georgian inland port".

The old and new faces of Kidderminster are also featured; Church Street, it's "most elegant thoroughfare", juxtaposed with the modern Swan Centre.

The town's most famous citizen Sir Rowland Hill, inventor of the penny post, is examined, as is Kidderminster's history as a carpet town and the world-wide role of town firm Brintons.

Chaddesley Corbett, Rock's imposing Norman church of St Peter's and St Paul's, Witley Court, Hartlebury Castle and Harvington Hall are also featured, as well as other areas of the county.

The book, by Kathleen and Barry Freeman with artist David Birtwhistle, is priced £12.95 and is available from booksellers and tourist information centres.