Past Pages
Antique Maps, Prints and Ephemera
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Past Pages Antique Maps, Prints and Ephemera |
| This is a guide for local historians, genealogists and others trying to find maps of specific UK towns, villages or features. There is a general tendency to look at county maps and go no further. First, do the basic research and determine that your town or village existed in the period of history that interests you. Many communities came into being in recent times with the development of industry and transport. Some towns sprang into existence with the coming of the railways - typical is Polegate in East Sussex. This was a complex railway junction, a place where several rail lines merged. It's location was chosen for geographic reasons to suit the route of the lines, but from here developed a small town to serve the rail industry. Similarly Swindon was chosen as a location by the Great Western Rail Co for its train manufacture and maintenance and as such turned a tiny village into a large town. The one small difference is that pre-railway maps show Swindon existed as a very small dot, but Polegate is not to be found. County Maps The most obvious start for this kind of search. The larger, folding maps will usually reveal more detail than smaller maps, but they are less decorative and less attractive. Road Maps These were mostly produced as strip maps - a design to concentrate on the road at the expense of geographical features away from the road. Some maps had 4,5,6,7 or 8 strips per page with the road snaking around each strip in turn. They show many features not normally present on county maps and can be of greater use to a historian than a county map - providing the place of interest was on a major road of the time. The organisation of road maps within travel guides was not helpful by modern standards, and with these maps now released from their original publications the enthusiast needs some patience in finding their town or village. On this web site Road Maps are described with start and stop locations ie London to Dover. It could just as easily be described as Dover to London, so take no notice of the precedence of naming. The reader will need to know if their location was on such a road, and roughly its location on that road. As these maps were bound into volumes, some are double page - there is another map on the reverse. This may not be a continuation of the road on the front, but may be of a road at the other end of the country. Some maps carry two unrelated roads on the same page. Rail Maps Some of these are maps specifically for rail travel or for junction layouts and others are general maps following the routes of rail lines. Town Plans These were produced for several purposes - Popular towns that attracted visitors and tourists - Bath, Oxford, Cambridge, Tunbridge Wells, etc Expanding towns with industry and commerce - Manchester, Birmingham, Sheffield, Newcastle, etc Historic towns - London, Canterbury, St Albans, Durham, Chester, etc Boundary Plans These are located in the Town Plans section and were mostly produced in the 1830s and 1880s to reflect the political and local government boundary changes for specific parts of the country. Only the towns associated with a boundary change were mapped and recorded. A specific town may not feature in these series of maps if it was not subject to a Parliamentary boundary change in the 1830s or 1880s. Some very small towns are included and many large towns are excluded. For those that are covered they can provide a stunning amount of local detail. All towns were accurately surveyed for these maps, unlike for many maps of the period that were just copied from earlier publications. Local and Regional Maps These are areas, such as Romney Marsh or The Lake District that fall outside the 'county', or 'town plan' categories. They may be found in the nearest of most appropriate county section. A map entitled 'The Environs of Cheltenham and Gloucester' may be found in either of the two mentioned towns' plans or in the relevant county depending on the area covered. Similar Named Towns Care should be taken with towns having similar names or names that can lead to regional confusion. Typically - Newcastle, Newport, Hythe, Hayes, Farnborough Remember that maps were produced in the past for specific purposes. It is only with the coming of the modern Ordnance Survey and other similar series that we are so used to maps with everything from road, rail, Post Offices, hills, rivers, electricity supply lines, towns, farms, fields, and just about every feature that can be crammed in. The maps uncovered in searches of 'old maps' or 'antique maps' will have been produced specifically for road, rail, maritime, ecclesiastical, legal, commercial, farming, industrial, political, regional, historical.... the list goes on. If your town or village is not featured on such a map it may be for a very practical reason. |