Cassell & Co., Ltd 

Publishers at La Belle Sauvage Yard, Ludgate Hill, Cassell, Petter & Galpin first venture into publishing maps was when they purchased the plates and stock of the Weekly Dispatch Atlas in 1864 and immediately advertised their atlas. These maps were also issued weekly as loose sheets to the readers of Cassell's Illustrated Family Newspaper.[1]

John Cassell (1817-1865) was a supporter of the teetotal movement and is known to have visited the westcountry in 1840/41.[2] He had founded a tea and coffee business before going into publishing but then printed a number of works aimed at the working man such as almanacks, tracts, a temperance monthly and a weekly radical newspaper. He ventured into book publishing in 1850 and in 1851 was advertising guides to the Great Exhibition. Thomas Dixon Galpin (b.1828) and George William Petter ran a printing business with which Cassell worked frequently. In 1855 Cassell ran into financial problems and Petter and Galpin bought his business, retaining the Cassell name and moving into his printing premises. John Cassell died in 1865. Thomas Galpin was related to George Lock of Ward, Lock & Co.[3]

Our Own Country ... Descriptive, Historical, Pictorial was produced originally in 1882. The five maps are set in a page of text in the various volumes. Click here to access.

From 1884 Cassells published The Official Guide to the Great Western Railway. This guide contained a number of maps and plans including Route Maps and Map IV showed parts of south Devon. From 1888 Cassells published The Official Guide to the London & South Western Railway. This guide also contained maps and plans including plans of Exeter and Plymouth. Click here for access.

Cassell’s Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland, published in London, Paris & Melbourne by Cassell & Co., Ltd from 1893 to 1898 (it was ssued in parts) which had sectional maps of the British Isles and two showed most of Devon. Click here to access.

The W & A K Johnston plates were used to prepare maps for two Sidmouth guides by Day Brothers and by Macvean and Williams. Click here.

Cassell 1 - Chanter

John Chanter's second work was published circa 1877 and contained a map of the island of Lundy. There are no signatures or imprints to confirm whether or not the map was drawn by Chanter himself. Much of the material had been contributed to the Devonshire Association as early as 1871 and printed in their Transactions of the same year. This was an updated and expanded edition. The work was published by W Brendon and Son of Plymouth who frequently printed the Devonshire Association Transactions.



In addition to the works quoted above, Cassell´s first map of a Devon area was one that they used to illustrate a book on Lundy by John Roberts Chanter (1816-1895) a local historian. The originator and First Honorary Secretary of the Barnstaple Literary and Scientific Institute (1845–1861) Chanter's first work containing a map was published in 1865; the map being a plan of the town of Barnstaple. Sketches of Some Striking Incidents in the History of Barnstaple was printed and sold by E J Arnold of High Street, Barnstaple and was a summarised history of the chief events of the town. Although not actually covered by the scope of this work both works have been included for those who are interested in his works. The map of Lundy described here is one of very few published before 1900. Click here to access History of Barnstaple. The North Devon Athenaeum has an oil painting of him by an unknown artist. [4]

Size: 365 x 240 mm.                        No scale. 

MAP OF LUNDY ISLAND. The simple sketch map shows the island only with the coastal cliffs well hachured. REFERENCES (Be-De), compass with Magnetic Variation (Aa) but no scale.

1. 1877 Lundy Island: A Monograph, Descriptive and Historical ... By John Roberts Chanter
London. Cassell, Petter, And Galpin. 1877[5].   KB, BL.


[1]  One of Cassell's more successful ventures, this paper began in 1853 and, under different titles, survived until 1932. Full coverage of this work is in The Victorian Maps of Devon entry 136. (Click to access.)
[2]  S Nowell-Smith; 1958; pp. 8, 29, 42, 51ff and D Smith; Cassell and Co; in The IMCoS Journal; Issue 70; 1997.
[3]  Edward Liveing in Adventure in Publishing (Ward Lock & Co. Ltd; 1954; p.29) recounts that Cassell, Petter and Galpin sold quantities of maps from the Dispatch Atlas to Ward and Lock in 1863.
[4] Image n-line at https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/john-roberts-chanter-1816-1895-unknown-artist/OgGew1cNe4ryBA?hl=en 
[5] Preface is dated 1877, Fort Hill, Barnstaple, although no date is on title page.

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