Bedfordshire Archives Service Catalogue

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Reference
MC2
Title
Bedfordshire Printed Maps
Admin/biog history
Most of the maps of the county come from County atlases which have been broken up by the booksellers for purposes of profit, hence they usually bear no details of origin but the details given by the booksellers may have been taken from the title page and may be correct Maps were engraved from copper plates. These plates came into the possession of publishers who would re-use the old blocks, obliterating the marks of origin and sometimes adding new details. Blocks would pass from publisher to publisher and series of so-called new atlases came out which incorporated little if any new surveying. Beginning with Saxton, who was the first to survey the whole country and whose atlas came out in 1579, certain landmarks in suveying were responsible for major developments in mapmaking. For about a century after Saxton most of the maps produced (including those in Camden's Britannia and those of Speed who did, however, introduce certain innovations such as the town plans given in the corner of the county map) were based on the surveys of Saxton and of John Norden, his contemporary. Speed, Janssen and Blaeu were skilled engravers rather than surveyors; other outstanding names in the art of map engraving are those of Morden and Sellar; Blome, though more prolific than these, does not achieve the same standards. On the other hand, John Ogilby's road maps of England and Wales, produced in 1675, were the result of a survey made by him for the purpose. Again until about 1760 the chief development took the form of numerous reproductions of work already done; about that time the newly formed Society of Arts, by offering premiums for large scale maps, gave a stimulus to map production and new surveys such as those of Jeffreys and Cary were made. At the end of the 18th century begins the history of the Ordnance Survey. Triangulation for this began in 1784, the first map (that of Kent) appeared in 1801 and the first edition of the 1" map was completed in 1853. Outstanding work by independent map makers in the 19th century was that of Charles and John Greenwood and the engravers John and Charles Walker
Level of description
sub-fonds