The Ordnance Survey – Tourist Maps (combining multiple sheets) 

The Ordnance Survey were still selling their original first generation sheets of Devon as produced by William Mudge in 1809 (see B&B 74) towards the end of the 1800s. They were now cheap to produce being Printed from an Electrotype and sold by a number of mapsellers such as Letts, Son and Steer and in various combinations of sheets, often in slipcases. But steadily, throughout the 1890s, the OS was busy resurveying the county. The individual sheets were obviously being printed but to what extent they were put on sale is still uncertain. However, as well as producing the individual sheets from the revised one inch survey and derivatives, such as combined double and quarter page maps, a few areas were covered especially by the Ordnance Survey and awarded special folding map status in their own covers.

At the same time the OS were selling sheets at 1:500 and Edwin Chapple, Government Agent for Ordnance Survey Maps in Plymouth, was advertising various towns in Devon and Cornwall at this scale, e.g. Plymouth, Devonport and Stonehouse on 79 sheets. The 1:2500 series was also on offer as well as the 6” to a Mile as so-called quarter sheets. These maps were not designed primarily for tourists and have not been covered in this work.

However, Chapple was advertising the 1” to 1 mile scale maps as very useful to tourists, pedestrians, and cyclists just before the turn of the century. As can be seen from the maps listed here the Ordnance Survey were busy revising their maps in the late 1890s; Plymouth was revised 1894, Dartmoor in 1896 and Torquay and North Devon in 1896-7. These areas were treated specially with the production of maps which included multiple sheets (e.g. Dartmoor) or combinations of sheets and part sheets (e.g. Plymouth and North Devon) of the full survey. Chapple was also advertising maps of Bideford, Holsworthy, Tavistock, Exeter[1] and Ivybridge at this scale but these have not yet been identified, but presumably were also available in this format designed for early tourists. More maps are likely to be found.

Chapple was obviously keen to secure all OS business and his flyer (found, for example, in the Plymouth and Dartmoor maps) has: The Government has established these Agents in all the larger towns throughout the Kingdom, with the desire to make the Maps more easily and readily accessible to the public, and it is hoped that every support will be accorded to the Local Agent, who is in a better position than any other person to supply the Maps of the District. The other agents for Devon seem to have been H S Eland at 236 High Street, Exeter and Mr Andrew Iredale in Torquay.

Brevet Colonel D A Johnston was appointed Director General of the Ordnance Survey in 1899 but served only a few years. He was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of Saint Michael and Saint George in King George’s birthday honours list on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday (1906).

Five maps are included here (others may be found later):

OS 1 - Torquay 1 (1899) - see below

OS 2 - Plymouth 1899 (1900)

OS 3 - Dartmoor (1900)

OS 4 - North Devon (1901)

OS 5 - Torquay 2 (1901)


OS 1 –Torquay 1 

Size: 530 x 480 mm. Scale of One Inch to One Statute Mile (8F + 4 = 130 mm) Miles. 

TORQUAY (CaOS). Above the map are: ORDNANCE SURVEY OF ENGLAND (AaOS) and SHEETS 350. / 356. (EaOS) with signature: Revised in 1896-97 and Published at the Ordnance Survey Office, Southampton, 1899 (EeOS).

OS sheets 350 and 356 printed as one sheet to form a map of the area surrounding Tor Bay. Scale of 1 inch to mile. Compass with magnetic deviation in margin (EdOS). Area is from St Marychurch in the north to Start Point and inland as far as Harbertonford and Dartington just west of Totnes (printed red waterproof covers with OS crest and reference to sheet numbers).

1. 1899      Ordnance Survey. Torquay. 
                    Southampton: Ordnance Survey Office. 1899. TQ.

NOTES:

[1] The British Library has a map of Exeter (535 x 738 mm) which they date 1899. As the scale is 1" to a mile it may be one of these. Certainly sheet 93 showing an area from Hatherleigh (NW) to Tor Bay at two miles to an inch was on sale, possibly from 1896 when it was reduced from the 1" map, in a red cover as a folding map.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
  John Bartholomew –  Imperial Map 2 W H Smith was   founded c.1820 by Henry Edward   and his brother William Henry (who actually ran   the company). But it was not until Henry’s son, also William Henry (1825-1891), became a partner in 1846 that the firm became the well-known booksellers and stationers. In 1848 he started a newsagent shop at Euston with a concession from the L&NW Railway. This was soon to be converted into a virtual railway book-stall monopoly. The firm soon became the largest newsagent in the country and expanded further into circulating libraries.   William Henry later entered Parliament and became the First Lord of the Admiralty in 1877 (Gilbert & Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore was supposedly based on him). [1] W H Smith used to have an estate in Rewe in east Devon where he had a stable built opposite St Mary the Virgin church for the use of the parishioners so that they could tie up their horses. [2] At the same time as the maps ...
Read more
Image
 John Bartholomew 8 -  for Charles Pearson   Charles Arthur   Pearson produced a number of Gossipy Guides   at the beginning of the 20th century. Styled along the lines of the Ward and Lock series of guides they were full of photographic material in a handy pocket size. The two guides relating to Devon were the Guide to Ilfracombe and District (cover title; number 4 in the series)   and Guide to South Devon (number 8 in the series).   Both British Library volumes have accession dates of 1901. It is interesting that Pearson took maps from different sources to include in his two Devon guides. The map of South Devon included in the South Devon Guide was a transfer of Bartholomew’s map: however, the map of North Devon is taken from the plates prepared by Ravenstein for George Philip & Son   in 1899. The scale reveals that this is a Philip’s map (see Pearson 1 ) .   Bartholomew Imperial Map 8 (Pearson)   Size: 257 x 385 mm. ...
Read more
Image
 John Bartholomew 3 -  for Houlston & Wright / Houlston & Sons   Houlston and Wright , and later Houlston & Sons , were supplied by John Bartholomew with maps for their series of Tourists’ Maps . The output was impressive with maps covering most of England and Wales’ tourist areas but the maps seem to have been all produced between 1865-1875. Houlston and Wright advertised 27 maps on their map of Plymouth and Dartmoor (3c) but Houlston and Sons were advertising 50 maps only a few years later (on cover to 3d) but not Torquay. Although the British Library holds a copy of Sophie Veitch ‘s A Lonely Life   dated 1870 most of the early Houlston & Sons imprints are dated 1872. In the following year Houlston & Sons published a volume of N T Carrington’s poems (Noel Thomas Carrington   1777-1830) in conjunction with William Wood of Devonport. Dartmoor and The Banks of the Tamar were published as one volume, probably to exploit the fact that th...
Read more