Wiltshire is a county of great antiquity. Its prehistoric monuments at Stonehenge, Avebury and Silbury Hill – some of the best in Europe – bear witness to the settlement of early man on its hills and downs. Wiltshire has developed as a largely agricultural landscape of farms and woods, but the great Salisbury Plain at its heart, the training ground of the British Army for generations, has remained a semi-wilderness, precisely because farming has been so restricted there.

Wiltshire’s many attractive market towns and villages, built over the centuries from the profits of farming and its allied trades, especially wool, are dominated on the one hand by industrial and commercial Swindon (historically part of Wiltshire although today its own unitary authority) and on the other hand by historic Salisbury where the cathedral’s spire soars over the city, still medieval at its core.

The county’s historic wealth is also reflected in the many mansions and landscape gardens for which it is famous. Longleat, Lacock Abbey, Bowood, Corsham Court, Wilton and Stourhead are all, for various reasons, among the most celebrated in the land.

Wiltshire lay on the vital trade route between London and Bristol, for centuries the gateway to Atlantic commerce. The Kennet and Avon Canal provided an important waterborne link at the end of the eighteenth century until it was superseded by the Great Western Railway in the nineteenth century.

All of these features become even more dramatic when seen from a “bird’s eye” view. The fascinating aerial photographs in this book by internationally renowned photographer Jason Hawkes are selected to provide the reader with an overview of this great variety of landscapes and settlements, with historic sites included. There can be no better way of appreciating the many glories of Wiltshire than to view the county from above.

Jason Hawkes is one of the country’s best-known photographers specialising in aerial photography. From his base near London he travels worldwide to produce images for books, advertising and design. Since 1991 he has provided photographs for major international companies including Nike, HSBC, Ford, Rolex, Toyota and BP. The images in this book and the sister publications in the series were specially commissioned by Halsgrove.

Imprint: Halsgrove. ISBN 978 0 85704 004 6, hardback, 214x230mm, 144 pages. Published September 2010.