These covers show the development from the first official guidebook (St Botolph’s) issued by the Office of Works through to English Heritage. These guides range from small booklets to concertina card guides.
For the development of guides in Scotland see here.
Heritage Futures 
Great to see all these different cover designs, thank you. There are a couple I haven’t seen before. I was lucky enough to buy a copy of the first St Botolphs guide recently, quite a rare treasure I would imagine.
St Botolph’s Priory is the first (equal) of the official guides. Some of the texts have a long life and indeed there are one or two EH guides that use the earlier Ministry contributions.