138. George Frederick Cruchley / Palmer-Cary 1859

George Frederick Cruchley (1797-1880) served as an apprentice with the Arrowsmith firm and spent part of his early career working with the Arrowsmith family, but later set up on his own as map-seller, engraver and globe maker at 349 Oxford Street (1823-25), later 38 Ludgate Street (1825-33) and finally 81 Fleet Street (1833-75). He was born in London, the son of John and Ann Cruchley and the story has it that he was christened at St Clement Danes, on St George's Day 1797 - hence his first name.¹

Cruchley was a jack-of-all-trades: although a trade-card announces his primary business as that of mapseller and publisher, he also offered a complete general engraving and printing service, producing invitation cards, banknotes, cheques, bill-heads and labels. He also engraved seals and brass name-plates. Even coats of arms could be found and engraved on stone, steel, silver and brass. He was a map wholesaler and advertised a full surveying service.²

The best opportunity for Cruchley in his early days lay in the production of maps of London. Two popular maps appeared in the early 1820s: Improved Environs of London and Environs of London Extending Thirty Miles from the Metropolis. Over the years Cruchley produced many fine plans at large scales and one at 5-inch to the mile was exhibited at the Great Exhibition of 1851. However, he had also started issuing travel maps and guides much earlier. In 1842 his catalogue stretched to 16 pages of maps, atlases, panoramas (of the Rhine), interpreters and dictionaries, and maps for schools. On the opening page he explicitly states that his catalogue includes the works of Messrs. Arrowsmith, Cary, Wyld, Smith, Laurie, and other publishers.³

However, by mid-century, Cruchley was content in up-dating and reissuing from old plates and resorted to copying or producing lithographic reproductions of others' maps and many of these were mounted on linen and folded into a card slip-case or a book-style cloth binding. He reissued some of Arrowsmith's maps and he bought the stock and plates of John Cary c.1844⁴ and continued to use these throughout his life and even into the twentieth century. Cary´s county maps of 1807 were reprinted until at least 1901 (see Printed Maps of Devon entry B&B 71). 

Th large-scale map described here was probably re-engraved in the late 1850s but was produced from the Palmer/Cary plates produced in 1813 (B&B 80). It has been extensively brought up to date. What is surprising is that Cruchley also produced a second large scale map at the same time (see next entry). However, the map below must have been easier to produce and the second map was discontinued.

Size: 615 x 950 mm (215 x 140 mm when folded).                                                                                 Scale of Miles (12 = 155 mm).

Map on two sheets with title: CRUCHLEY’S MAP OF DEVONSHIRE with parts of the adjacent Counties SHEWING ALL THE RAILWAYS AND NAMES OF THE STATIONS, REDUCED FROM THE ORDNANCE SURVEY. (Ee of South sheet). Imprint: LONDON, PUBLISHED BY G F CRUCHLEY, MAP-SELLER & GLOBE MANUFACTURER, 81, FLEET STREET. (Ee of South sheet). Devon is outline coloured red, Somerset green, Dorset and Cornwall are yellow. Thick piano-key border on three sides, broken for Hartland.  Railways to Bideford, Tiverton, Tavistock, Exmouth and Plymouth through Liskeard. Line to Kingswear is shown red to Paignton station which is named (officially opened August 2nd 1859) and proposed line to Kingswear coloured blue. Proposed line to Watchet.

[1] See D Smith; George Frederick Cruchley; The Map Collector; Issue 49; 1989.