This is a year-by-year record of the winners in the R&CHS Book Awards, since the scheme began in 2004. Information on how the winners are decided and how to enter books for the awards is on the main About the RCHS Book Awards page.
2025
Winner of the David St John Thomas Prize and Canal & Waterways History Book of the Year
Stephen Hughes: The Swansea Canal and its Early Railways (Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales)
Railway History Book of the Year
Gordon Wood with Neil Parkhouse & Stephen Rowson: Crumlin Viaduct (Lightmoor Press)
Popular Transport History Book of the Year
Victoria Owens: The Life of LTC Rolt (Pen & Sword History)
Special Award
Peter Darley: Chalk Farm Railway Lands (Grosvenor House Publishing)
2024
Winner of the David St John Thomas Prize and Early Railways Book of the Year
David Gwyn: The Coming of the Railway, a new global history 1750 – 1850 (Yale University Press)
Light Railway Book of the Year
Michael Whitehouse: The Tralee and Dingle Railway (Lightmoor Press)
Docks and Shipping Book of the Year
Richard Clammer: T.A. and C.H. Walker: Shipbuilders, Railway and Civil Engineering Contractors: from Sudbrook to South America (Lightmoor Press)
Maritime Transport Book of the Year
Andrew Clark: The Making of MacBrayne: a Scottish transport monopoly spanning three centuries (Stenlake Publishing)
2023
Winner of the David St John Thomas Prize and Canals & Waterways Book of the Year
Brian Goggin: Waterways and Means – Power, Money and Folly in Irish Waterways History (Troubador Matador)
Transport Reference Book of the Year
Joe Brown: Birmingham & West Midlands Railway Atlas (Second Edition) (Crecy Publishing)
Railway History Book of the Year
Peter Steer: Alfred Raworth’s Electric Southern Railway (Pen & Sword)
2022
Winner of the David St John Thomas Prize and Railway History Book of the Year
John Palmer: The Great Central Railway – what really happened (Pen & Sword)
Popular Transport Book of the Year
Christian Wolmar: Cathedrals of Steam – how London’s great stations were built and how they transformed the city (Atlantic Books)
Maritime Transport Book of the Year
Steve Barron: Train Ferries of Europe (Ferry Publications)
2021
Winner of the David St John Thomas Prize and Canal History Book of the Year
Hugh Conway-Jones: James Smart of Chalford – working life on the Cotswold Canals and linked waterways (Black Dwarf Publications)
Railway History Book of the Year
Edward Talbot: The Diary of Thomas Baron 1855-1862 – a London & North Western Railway engineman at work (LNWR Society)
2020
Winner of the David St John Thomas Prize and Railway History Book of the Year
M. A. C. Horne: London’s District Railway – a history of the Metropolitan District Railway, Volumes 1 & 2 (Capital Transport Publishing)
Canal History Book of the Year
Fabian Hiscock: Passing Through – the Grand Junction Canal in West Hertfordshire, 1791 – 1841 (Hertfordshire Publications/University of Hertfordshire Press)
Popular Transport Book of the Year
Chris Booth & Alex Fisher: Tinsley and the Modernisation of Sheffield’s Railways (Platform 5 Publishing)
Special Prize
John Grundy: The story of the rebuilding of the Upper Avon navigation (privately published by David & Alison Higgins)
2019
Winner of the David St John Thomas Prize and Railway History Book of the Year
Bruce Peter: The Changing Face of British Railways (Lily Publications)
Archaeology Book of the Year
Rebecca Haslam & Guy Thompson: An Immense and Exceedingly Commodious Goods Station (Pre-Construct Archaeology)
Popular Transport Book of the Year
Mike G Fell OBE: An Illustrated History of the Port of Hull and its Railways (Irwell Press)
2018
Winner of the David St John Thomas Prize and Railway History Book of the Year
David Hodgkins: George Carr Glyn – Railwayman and Banker (Wolffe Press)
Tramway Book of the Year
Alan W. Brotchie: The Edinburgh Horse Tram – nineteenth to twenty-first century (Stenlake Publishing)
Popular Transport Book of the Year
Mick Hamer: A Most Deliberate Swindle – how Edwardian fraudsters pulled the plug on the electric bus and left our cities gasping for breath (RedDoor Publishing)
2017
Winner of the David St John Thomas Prize and Popular Transport History Book of the Year
Oliver Green: Rails in the Road – A History of Tramways in Britain and Ireland (Pen & Sword Transport)
Railway Book of the Year
David Spaven: Highland Survivor – The story of the Far North Line (Kessock Books)
Canal Book of the Year
Mike Clarke: The Leeds & Liverpool Canal (Milepost Research)
2016
Winner of the David St John Thomas Prize and Railway History Book of the Year
Andrew Dow, The Railway: British track since 1804 (Pen & Sword Books)
Road Transport Book of the Year
Companion to Road Passenger Transport History (Roads & Road Transport History Association)
Canal Book of the Year
Tom Foxon, Trent & Mersey Canal: trade & transport 1770-1970 (Black Dwarf Lightmoor Publications)
Popular Transport Book of the Year
Shropshire Union Fly-Boats: the Jack Roberts Story (The Canal Bookshop, Audlem Mill)
2015
Winner of the David St John Thomas Prize and Railway History Book of the Year
Philip Grosse, The Railways of Carnforth the Town and its Ironworks (Barrai Books)
Waterways Book of the Year
Richard Clammer, Passenger Steamers of the River Conwy serving the famous Trefriw Spa (The History Press)
2014
Winner of the David St John Thomas Prize and Road Transport History Book of the Year
Kathryn A Morrison and John Minnis: Carscapes: the motor car, architecture and landscape in England (Yale University Press for the The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, in association with English Heritage)
Railway Book of the Year
Michael Messenger, The Bodmin & Wadebridge Railway 1834-1983 (Twelveheads Press)
Popular Transport Book of the Year
Richard Faulkner and Chris Austin, Holding the Line: how Britain’s railways were saved (Oxford Publishing Company)
Special Prize
Michael Quick, The Wrong Sort of Fish Oil: the trials, tribulations (and triumphs) of the early railway passenger (Austin Macauley)
2013
Winner of the David St John Thomas prize and Canal History Book of the Year
Sarah Spooner (editor), Sail and Storm – the Aylsham Navigation (Aylsham Local History Society)
Railway Book of the Year
Cliff Shepherd, Skinningrove Iron and Steel Works – its history, railways and locomotives (Industrial Railway Society)
Popular Transport Book of the Year
David Spaven and Julian Holland, The Times Mapping the Railways (Harper Collins)
2012
Winner of the David St John Thomas Prize and joint winner Railway History Book of the Year
Peter Rigney Trains, Coal and Turf – transport in emergency Ireland (Irish Academic Press)
Railway Book of the Year (joint winner)
Peter Skellon, Bashers, Gadgets and Mourners – the life and times of the LNWR coal tanks (Bahamas Locomotive Society)
Popular Transport Book of the Year
Andy Guy and Jim Rees, Early Railways 1569-1830 (Shire Books)
2011
Winner of the David St John Thomas Prize and Railway History Book of the Year
Peter Braine, The railway Moon – a man and his railway: Sir Richard Moon and the L&NWR (pmb publishing)
Air Transport Book of the Year
Gordon Pirie, Air Empire: British imperial civil aviation, 1919-1939 (Manchester University Press)
2010
Winner of the David St John Thomas Prize and Railway History Book of the Year
Bill Fawcett, A History of the Newcastle & Carlisle Railway 1824 to 1870 (North Eastern Railway Association)
Road Transport Book of the Year
Joan Tucker, Ferries of Gloucestershire (The History Press)
2009
Winner of the David St John Thomas Prize and Canal History Book of the Year
John Blair (Editor), Waterways and Canal-building in Medieval England (Oxford University Press)
Railway Book of the Year
Alan Brotchie & Harry Jack, Early Railways of West Fife: an industrial and social commentary (Stenlake Publishing)
2008
Winner of the David St John Thomas Prize and Railway History Book of the Year
Howard Mallinson, Guildford via Cobham: the origins and impact of a country railway (Howard Mallinson)
Light Railway Book of the Year
Robert Gratton, The Leek & Manifold Valley Light Railway (RCL Publications)
2007
Winner of the David St John Thomas Prize and Road Transport History Book of the Year
Dorian Gerhold, Carriers and Coachmasters: trade and travel before the turnpikes (Phillimore)
Canal Book of the Year
Barrie Trinder, Barges & Bargemen: a social history of the Upper Severn Navigation 1660-1900 (Phillimore)
2006
Winner of the David St John Thomas Prize and Canal Book of the Year
Stephen Rowson & Ian L Wright, The Glamorganshire and Aberdare Canals, Volume 2 (Black Dwarf Publications)
Railway Book of the Year
Colonel M H Cobb, The Railways of Great Britain: a Historical Atlas (Ian Allan)
2005
Winner of the David St John Thomas Prize and Transport Book of the Year
Jamie Quartermain, Barrie Trinder & Rick Turner, Thomas Telford’s Holyhead Road: the A5 in North Wales (Council for British Archaeology)
Railway Book of the Year
Gordon Biddle, Britain’s Historic Railway Buildings: an Oxford Gazetteer of Structures and Sites (Oxford University Press)
2004
Winner of the David St John Thomas Prize and Railway Book of the Year
Bill Fawcett, A History of North Eastern Railway Architecture Volume Two (North Eastern Railway Association)