162. Owen Jones / Ordnance Survey 1885

 

Throughout the 1800s the Ordnance Survey surveyed many western industrial areas and a large number of towns at various scales. However, it was not until 1875 that "the Battle of the Scales" ended when Cornwall was mapped at the new standard scale of 1:2500. Probably because of its industrial importance and tin-mining it was given priority. The rest of the West Country was surveyed between 1882 and 1889, with Devon having the dubious pleasure of being the last of the counties to be re-surveyed at 1:2500 (but at 6 inch to the mile for uncultivated areas). The survey was completed in 1888-9.

Nevertheless, during the last twenty years of the nineteenth century various maps of the county were produced at the offices of the Ordnance Survey. The following transfer was probably taken from plates of a larger map of England and Wales: the 15-sheet quarter-inch map begun in 1859 but only published in that form in 1891. The map, Devonshire: New Divisions Of County, shows the Parliamentary and Petty Sessional divisions and boroughs with red, blue and purple overprinting and Owen Jones' signature in a lozenge shaped panel. Most main roads are shown but not all railways; and although almost exactly the same as two later maps from the Ordnance Survey (164 and 181) it is not from the same plates.

Size: 470 x 470 mm in T-shaped frame.                                                                                      Scale - Four Miles to an Inch (4 + 12  = 100 mm).

DEVONSHIRE, NEW DIVISIONS OF COUNTY with title in a lozenge. Signature: R Owen Jones Lt Colonel R E. (Ed, again in lozenge). Imprint: Zincographed at the Ordnance Survey Office, Southampton. 1885. (CeOS, with lozenge frame). Reference has Boundaries of Proposed Parliamentary Divisions (in red) and Boundaries of Pretty Sessional Divisions (outlined in blue) as well as Parliamentary Boroughs. Railways to Plymouth, Exeter to Torrington, through Oakhampton, to Tavistock and Lifton, Exmouth, Tiverton, Ashburton and Moreton Hampstead. The line to Dartmouth has only been completed as far as Goodrington (it was actually completed in 1864).

1.  1885  Report of the Boundary Commissioners for England and Wales, 1885. Part I - Counties  
    London. Hansard & Son.1 1885.2 KB.
       
2. 1885 The map is essentially as above, however, the surrounding areas have been deleted including the lozenge frame to title and imprint (but not Owen Jones’ signature). The reference now has Boundaries of Proposed Parliamentary Divisions (i.e. word Proposed deleted) and the choice of name for the Parliamentary Division has a second, alternative, name, e.g. Totnes is now Southern or Totnes.  
       
    Redistribution of Seats Act, 1885. County of Devon. Return to an address ... 7th July 1885.  
    London. Henry Hansard & Son. 1885. GUL.

 

[1] The Agents from whom the work could be published included Hansard (mentioned first), Eyre and Spottiswoode who were also the printers, Adam & Charles Black in Edinburgh and Alexander Thom & Co. with Hodges, Figgis and Co. in Dublin.

[2] The Report which is included at the beginning of the volume is dated 10th February, 1885. It was signed by John Lambert, Francis R Sandford, T H W Pelham (who carried out the inquiry in Devon on Wednesday 17th December, 1884), J J Henley, R Owen Jones and H Tulloch.

 

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