Stratford-on-Avon through 450 years of Maps of Warwickshire

Lindsay MacDonald

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Lindsay was inspired to collect maps of Warwickshire after discovering that Margaret Cund had a collection of historical maps, some including partially clothed women! This illustrated talk covered 19 maps from the 16th to the 20th century.  The maps, which were all on display at the meeting, ranged in size from a playing card to a table top.  The following is a brief listing.

• Christopher Saxton – 1579 Warwic Lecestriae. The Privy Council commissioned a survey of England and Wales.  The scale was 4 miles to the inch.  It was a loose-leaf atlas of maps which the purchasers would have had bound. Maps were beautifully engraved and coloured, real works of art, with rivers, hills and bridges but no roads.  “Stretford” was included. John Leyland had described the region in his Itinerary of 1542 but this was the first proper map.
• Gerhard (Gerardus) Mercator/Jodocus Hondius – Warwicum etc. – 1607.  This was a map covering 16 counties in South East England and 'Stretford' was on it, showing our importance on the European stage! The maps were printed in monochrome and coloured by hand.
• John Speed – 1610 – Counti of Warwick.  Engraved in Flanders (the Flemish were particularly skilled), it included town plans of Warwick and Coventry. It shows revisions and spelling changes from previous maps.  It has 'Stretford upon Auen'.
• Will Hole – 1612 Warwick Shyre.  Accompanying the poem Poly-Olbion by Michael Drayton, it showed rivers but no towns, and included Guardian Nymphs, notably Diana, The Huntress in the Forest of Arden.
• Thomas Jenner – 1643 – Warwickshire.  It was cheaply produced during the civil war, for ease of carrying on horseback, so the map is 4”x4”.  It includes a grid of distances between towns, and also included town locations and rivers. No bridge is shown at Stratford (now spelled the modern way), because the Parliamentarian forces had taken down one arch of Clopton Bridge to prevent Royalist troop movements.
• Robert Vaughan – 1656 – The Mapp of Warwickshire, in Dugdale’s Antiquities, shows Watling Street, Icknield Street and Fosse Way. Details are sparse. It also includes the four Hundreds in the county. Stratford is indicated by the Steeple symbol – not a reflection of the reality of the time at Holy Trinity Church.
• Robert Morden – 1676 – Warwick Shire.  This is a map of the Restoration period.  At the time there were 39 counties in England plus 13 in Wales, making 52 in total, ideal for playing cards.  Each card is only 2.2”x”3.6”. The suit symbols are over-printed in black and red.  The map is not very accurate but still useful.
• John Ogilby – 1675 – strip maps were a new type of atlas in a linear presentation showing routes between places for journeys.  Compass directions were given for orientation. The routes for Glocester to Coventrey and Banbury to Bridgnorth intersect at Stratford. They were engraved by Wenceslaus Hollar, and are works of art, with illustrations too.  There are sketchy town plans.
• Christopher Saxton and Philip Lea – c. 1693 – Warwick and Leicester Shires. This map finally showed roads added to old maps, coloured, and in a large format – “20.5”x”15.5”.
• Robert Walker – 1746 – Warwick Shire.  Copper plates made printing cheaper and more plentiful, but the cartography was unchanged.  In these maps each county was isolated from the surrounding areas, looking like an island in the great terra incognita.
• Thomas Kitchen – 1753 – A New and Accurate Map of Warwickshire.  Now maps were larger and more detailed from better surveys and improved cartography.  Stratford-upon-Avon is featured with a sort of town plan, and all the principal roads are included.
• John Cary – 1789 – A Map of Warwick from the best Authorities.  It is an excellent example of the mapping of 3D space onto the 2D surface. This is more modern, clear and has three styles of lettering used consistently. It shows “visual equilibrium”.  Minor roads are not shown due to the scale.
• Samuel Winter – 1759 – Town Plan of Stratford.  It shows 430 houses for a population of 2,300. The layout is mediaeval, in the original 1196 design. The Bancroft area is a water meadow, maybe used as a sheep dip at the bottom of Sheep Street?  There are few houses on the Southwest side of town.  The charnel house is still shown at the side of the church (it was demolished in 1799).
• Robert Bell Wheler – 1814 – Plan of Stratford upon Avon.  This is well drawn and engraved but it is still based on Winter’s plan.  The Bancroft is now shown as a field, which later was dredged to become a canal basin.  The borough boundary is shown as a dashed line dating from 1553.  Outside the boundary are the Stratford Manor lands, including the church, college, manor house, dower house and the mill.
• Jones and Smith – 1804 – A New Map of the County of Warwick.  Industrialisation is now apparent. It is one of the first maps to show the canal.  It is marked 'fully navigable', which was not true until 1816.
• Christopher and John Greenwood – 1822 – Map of the County of Warwickshire.  This was huge – 50”x40”, printed in 4 sheets.  There is a drawing of Warwick Castle at the bottom. This was marketed to the 'upper' classes.  It was done from a new survey.  The canal is shown – now genuinely navigable.  It was very clearly printed, with 3 styles of lettering, and there is an accurate street plan of Stratford on which every house is shown.
• In the 1830s amateur and private surveyors were replaced by the Ordnance Survey, commissioned by the government.  Warwickshire was presented in six sheets in 1832.  The edges of the map follow lines of longitude so they slope slightly inward to the north!  It was done systematically and using modern equipment, and was very accurate, showing the topography, giving it a 3D look. There is fine detail showing houses and gardens, and the new houses in Shottery are shown.
• Edward Weller – 1858 (first edition) and 1884 (seventh edition) – Warwickshire.  Steel and zinc plates and lithography were used and it was printed in several colours over the black.  The map-makers struggled to keep up with modern developments, like train tracks. In 1859 Stratford’s first line and station were shown. Then, there were two linked lines and stations. This had been done in time for the tercentenary celebrations in 1864 of Shakespeare’s birthday. Railway lines were drawn in thick black to make them stand out.
• Ordnance Survey – 1919 – Map of Stratford-upon-Avon District.  Other map makers used O.S. data under licence.  Folding consumer maps with attractive cover designs were produced.  Colour coding was used consistently, e.g., blue for rivers and red for main roads and by now they resembled modern maps.  Contour lines were used to indicate height, and the railway lines were less bold. Stratford was still a small market town then, however.  Many would say, in agreement with Ursula Bloom, that it was a golden age and that, with the continuous growth that has gone on ever since, the quality of life has declined. Through maps we get a glimpse of that process.

Many questions were asked by a very interested audience.    Lindsay referred to a useful book: The Printed Maps of Warwickshire 1576-1900, by Harvey and Thorpe, 1959.