WARD & LOCK

Ward and Lock started their own firm on Midsummer's Day 1854. The Locks were an influential Dorchester family and George Lock's father had married Eliza Galpin making George Lock (1832-1891) first cousin to Thomas Dixon Galpin, later to make his name with Cassell, Petter and Galpin. Ebenezer Ward (1819-1902) was a manager for the Illustrated London News publishers' book business. The two were introduced by Thomas Galpin and Ward Lock was launched with a £1000 loan from George Lock senior, the articles of partnership being signed June 23rd 1854. After initial friendly[1] relations and support, contact between the two cousins was broken when Galpin and his partner, George William Petter, took over Cassell's to found a rival business partnership. From 1891 until c.1897 James Bowden was a partner and the company traded under the name Ward, Lock and Bowden Ltd.



Ward and Lock guides first appeared in 1886-87 and included a number of small maps of towns or areas. The first two guides known covered North and South Devon and had maps by various printers, but by the time the individual regional guide books appeared most of the maps were being prepared and printed by G Philip and Son. However, Henry Besley had published maps of North Devon and of South Devon and Dartmoor for his Route Book Of Devon 1857/1858. These two maps were first used in both Besley’s Route Book and his North and South handbooks until c.1880, and were subsequently included by Ward and Lock in their Pictorial Guides. These were replaced towards the end of the century by a new map produced by George Philip & Son: this was a section taken from the large map produced by Ernest George Ravenstein, Philip's Topographical Map of England & Wales for George Philip in 1899 (B&B 179). This, in turn, was replaced in the early twentieth century by a map of South Devon engraved by Bartholomew.

The two Ward & Lock guides for North and South Devon seem to have only been issued once but a number of subsequent titles covered parts of Devon; Bideford (from approx. 1894); Dartmoor (1895); Dawlish (1899); Exeter (1895); Exmouth (1899); Ilfracombe (1896); Lynton and Lynmouth (1890); Plymouth (1895); Sidmouth (1899); Teignmouth (1898); and Torquay (1886).[2]

In addition to the maps listed here, there was also a very small Plan of Merivale Antiquities (57 x 79 mm) which can be found embedded in text in the Pictorial and Historical Guide To Dartmoor (1897) published by Ward, Lock & Bowden. Ward & Lock also used a map prepared by Besley (see Besley 5) of Torquay in their New Pictorial and Descriptive Guide To Torquay.

Between 1884 and 1897, Ward & Lock produced 12 separate maps (click title to access page):


NOTES:

[1] Edward Liveing; Adventure in Publishing – The House of Ward Lock 1854-1954; Ward, Lock & Co. Ltd; 1954.
[2] The internet site for Ward & Lock enthusiasts: www.wardlockredguides.co.uk. Some dates have been changed on evidence of volumes inspected.

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 below were on sale a similar
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.                                    English Miles (8
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 there were plans for a memorial
Read more