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OVERVIEW OF ROYAL ENGLISH ATLAS SERIES OF MAPS GO TO THE ROYAL ENGLISH ATLAS MAPS PAGE

Royal English Atlas Series A small fragment of the map of York

THE ROYAL ENGLISH ATLAS SERIES Eighteenth century county maps of England and Wales by Emanuel Bowen and Thomas Kitchin A COLLECTION OF OLD ENGLISH COUNTY MAPS Explore the historical past of your county or local area within England and Wales with these copies of antique maps of three centuries ago. Whether you are a history scholar, researching your family history and tracing your genealogy, interested in particular historical sites, fascinated by English place names, or simply love old maps - this series represents an important milestone as a forerunner to modern day cartography. They are part of English history of the 18th century. Now you can buy a copy of your own Old English county map - and those of your ancestors - on CD - simply go back to the 'Royal English Atlas Maps' page and select the one that you would like. AN IMPORTANT HISTORICAL MAP SERIES! Anyone fascinated by the development of the towns and villages of our English counties over the centuries will be intrigued by the richness of historical information held within these Old English county maps - whose source dates back to 1749. Although key towns and villages of England and Wales remain fairly constant within maps over the the years, their historical importance often changes due to economic progress, political or social reasons, and development of commercial features such as transport systems. Historical maps of England over the years remain as the testimony of commercial and population changes, and serve as important time capsules which capture and record history in the making. From the earlier series by Speed and Morden - to the development of the Victorian Ordnance Survey in the mid-1800s - right up to the modern Landranger and beyond - English maps reveal as much about social, economic and political change as modern history books. A FASCINATING INSIGHT INTO OUR PAST! The Royal English Atlas - a mammoth publishing event spanning 12 years by a team of cartographers headed by Emanuel Bowen and Thomas Kitchin - is one such collection. This Atlas of Old English county maps that not only records for all time where we lived but with intelligent reading provides fascinating insight into how we lived, worked and travelled. EACH COUNTY MAP CAN BE VIEWED AT LARGE SCALE Most PCs are equipped with a photo viewer to enable you to view in JPEG format. Each CD we supply can be opened by this software on the most home computers. The beauty of this is that each county map can be enlarged to a massive scale to allow you to identify otherwise obscure map references and features. This is especially useful so that you can also read the valuable notes on towns and villages, the Earls, Dukes and seats of nobility of bygone years. In addition, we also supply a viewer and instructions with the CD in the event that your computer does not have its own viewer software! If you wish to research your county's past or your family history - or just love to pore over old county maps - the facility to enlarge and print off sections in large scale will prove invaluable.

REA Series Part of the Wiltshire image

THE ROYAL ENGLISH ATLAS Eighteenth century county maps of England and Walesby Emanuel Bowen and Thomas Kitchin COUNTY MAPS AS A RECORD OF THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLAND & WALES Early county maps appeared as a convenient and workable format for recording the geographic characteristics of England and Wales. The county map itself became the most appropriate size in publishing terms, and in terms of its capability for recording all the required detail. Towns, villages, principal roads - plus churches, industrial features, boundaries - as well as notes and descriptions - could all be displayed on a typical sheet size. The publication of the Victorian Ordnance Survey series, in the mid-1800s, rather superceded the concept of the county map, and standardised the adherence to a uniform scale over a total series (unlike the Royal Atlas where counties of varying size were scaled down to fit the Royal paper size). THE LARGE ENGLISH ATLAS AS THE BASIS FOR THE ROYAL ENGLISH ATLAS By the mid 18th century, the earlier map series dating back to the reign of Charles II were understandably out-dated. There was therefore a call for the generation of a new national atlas. But how to fund it? The bookseller, John Hinton, initially commissioned map engravers Emanuel Bowen - "Geographer to the King" - and Thomas Kitchin - whose skills included book plates and experience with marine charts (useful for coastal counties). They began the project in 1749 on a programme planned to release one county per month. In May of that year the county of Surrey was first published - price one shilling. (One shilling would have been the equivalent to 5p in modern currency - less than 10 cents US - but still a fair sum to part with on what was for most a non-essential!) After three years, however, only 27 counties had been covered and Hinton rather lost interest - passing existing plates and stock onto the Fleet Street engraver and printer, John Tinney. He in turn later engaged the assistance of Robert Sayer, Thomas and John Bowles in funding Bowen and Kitchin to continue with the project. As key figures in the business of map-making at that time, they were able to bring the series to completion in 1760. The story of The Large English Atlas (so-called because it was printed on the large Imperial size paper sheet) illustrates the typical circumstances which surrounded the publication of a comprehensive series of maps. The main difficulty was funding. Invariably it involved the publication of individual maps/counties in instalments, which only later could be bound or compiled into a complete atlas. It would also appear that recouping the investment took place over a matter of years. This particular atlas continued to be published and catalogued until that of R.H. Laurie in 1824 - some 60 years later. THE ROYAL ENGLISH ATLAS IS CONCEIVED One of the main features of this project involved the physical reduction in size from the large Imperial sheet down to the Royal sheet size. Naturally this presented the engravers with the need to edit the content of each county map, whilst retaining the most important characteristics. This meant that the originals had to be compressed down by between 25% and 33% - or from 23" x 17.5" to 18.5" x 12". This scaling down process varied because the smaller sheet size dictated the final scale of measurement. Therefore the larger of the counties had to be compressed more in order to fit. Space was then at a premium which did lead to compromise. THE SOURCE OF INFORMATION FOR THE ATLASES It should be stressed that The Royal English Atlas was not the product of any new field surveys. Rather it was assembled from previous map sources and authorities on many of the characteristics. (See the title page of R.Martin's 1828 edition for an example of the features covered). On some counties, however, the accuracy of the detail compared favourably even with the earliest 1 in to 1 mile Ordnance Surveys. The authority most appropriate to the individual county concerned was invariably used. Bowen and Kitchin - who by this time were joined by Thomas - the son of Emanuel Bowen - and John Gibson - even consulted the work of Speed and Morden from the earlier century. Material from Collin's Great Britain's Coasting Pilot was also used, as were the road books from Ogilby's 1675 survey. THE ROYAL ENGLISH ATLAS IS PUBLISHED - circa 1763 There was one map of the whole of England & Wales, North and South Wales, three of the Yorkshire Ridings - with the remaining maps making up a complete set of 44 sheets. As each sheet was published between 1762 and 1763, they were on sale for one shilling and sixpence (around 7.5 pence in today's currency - or just under 15 cents US). The original ownership of the map series was a complex arrangement involving the allocation of shares related to the investment level and sharing of risk. THE ROYAL ENGLISH ATLAS IS SOLD - AS OLD COPPER - circa 1825 The plates of The Royal English Atlas were reported as sold as old copper for 11d (just under 5 pence) per pound weight in 1825. The Large English Atlas was also disposed of in a similar way for a shilling a pound at the same time. Remaining stock of the maps was then bought up by a bookseller, R.Martin, who re-named it as The English Atlas around 1828. THE LEGACY OF THE ROYAL ENGLISH ATLAS As important sources of historical reference their value remains undulled - albeit to be used with some reservations. The editing process alone could claim to introduce anomalies in detail, information and in such technicalities such as spelling. Given that much of the information was lifted was earlier sources allows for the omissions, abbreviations and alterations to be arbitrary. A consistent picture can therefore only be achieved through consulting additional contemporary sources - but that's half the fun, isn't it? The style of these works - with their elaborate cartouches - drawings and illustrations which typified the characteristics of each county - leisure, landscape and commercial activity - are constant reminders of the skill and artistry of cartographers and engravers of the day. And nothing can take that away!

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