138A. John Cary / George Frederick Cruchley 1859

 

George Frederick Cruchley was already publishing a large-scale map of Devon (see previous entry, 138) when he reissued the Cary plates originally used in the early 1820s. Cary's Improved Map of England and Wales with a considerable part of Scotland consisted of a total of 65 nearly square maps and was first published in parts by John Cary in London between 1820 and 1830. Cary sold the sheets as a boxed set of folding maps and as an atlas in 1832. After Cruchley obtained the maps he continued to sell each sheet separately in covers as Cruchley's Reduced Ordnance Map of England and Wales, and in a variety of different covers, each section being approximately 500 by 630 mm.

Cruchley even went to the lengths of cutting six maps to size to compile a map of Devon from the five sheets containing Devon plus a Somerset sheet. The map is a complete county map and comprises sheets 2 and 3, 10 and 11, 16 and 17 of the Improved Map in their entirety, i.e. full width and height. Map sheets 2, 3, 9, 10 and 16 show Devon: sheet 17 is mainly Somerset but includes small parts of Devon, southwest and southeast of Dulverton. The sheets were not all printed at the same time; careful inspection of sheet 3 reveals the date 1851. This was originally "Revised to 1851". Other sheets may be of later date. Railways are consistent with a date of approx. 1859.

Twenty years later maps would be published by George Richmond1 including a map of Exeter in c.1877. George Richmond was baptised September 1st, 1822 in Uley, Gloucestershire. He married Mary Ann Case at Stratford in 1852 when he was listed as Commercial Traveller. The following year his first child was registered in Birmingham. Richmond was first registered as Mapseller in 1864 and the first published map found for him is dated 1868. He produced his adaptations of the Cary maps between 1875-1893. A number are reported at major libraries.

The sheets were used again by Westley and Seeley c.1890 for a map of the Torquay area; by A H Swiss for his fox-hunting maps in c.1890 (see entry 166); and parts appeared in the Homeland Handbooks at the end of the century in guides by Cresswell.

Size: 1435 x 1265mm.  Scale of English Miles (20 = 265mm) Miles.

A separate paper label with title "From the ORDNANCE SURVEY" has been added centrally top. All five Devon sheets, with Sheet 17 (north Somerset), have been carefully trimmed on two (2, 3, 16 and 17) or three sides (9 and 10) and pasted together to form one map. Imprints: LONDON: PUBLISHED BY G F CRUCHLEY, MAP‑SELLER & GLOBE MAKER, 81, FLEET STREET (BeOS) and LONDON: PUBLISHED BY G F CRUCHLEY, MAP‑SELLER & GLOBE MAKER, 81, FLEET STREET (LATE CARYS) (DeOS). Two scale bars (BaOS and DaOS).Railway to Paignton, from there in blue to Kingswear.

1. 1859             Cruchley's Map of Devon2  
    London. G F Cruchley. (1859). P.
       
2.  1877 No Title. Large map folding into 24 sections into board covers with title: Reduced Ordnance Survey Around Exeter. Imprint at bottom of lowest second and fifth sections: Published by G. Richmond, 128, Nechells Park Road, BIRMINGHAM. Two scales (BaOS) and (DaOS). Map is printed with circles radiating from Exeter. Size 960 x 1275 mm. The map does not cover quite the same area as above: east-west the dimensions are the same but only the area of Devon is shown north-south, i.e. no Wales and almost no sea below Prawle Point. Railways up to and including Holsworthy (1879) but not Christow (1882).  
       
    Reduced Survey Around Exeter  
    Birmingham. George Richmond. (1877). DevA, TM.

 


[1] See Raymond Frostick; George Richmond – Map Publisher; in IMCoS Journal; Issue 75 Winter 1998; pp.33-43. Richmond was at the Nechells address circa 1875-77.

[2] Formerly in collection of Kit Batten, present whereabouts unknown. Original cover lost; map title as described. Recent owner had bound the map in cover with this title.