174. John Bartholomew - New Reduced Ordnance Survey 1895

Towards the end of the century John Bartholomew & Co. produced a series of half-inch to the mile travelling maps for Tourists & Cyclists. These new maps were larger than the county maps produced and used in the later Black's and Murray's guides (150) and were completely overprinted in colour depicting accurately the heights of the landscape. It was, in fact, the first systematic commercial application of layer colouring to maps in Britain. A key to the height of land and the scale of colours was added for ease of use. There were 37 sheets covering England and Wales. Devon was produced on two sheets covering North and South Devon, and for clarity and detail they are excellent examples of late nineteenth century map production.

The maps had a long and varied life. The first sheets with colour contouring (South Devon and Surrey) appeared in 1895 and, according to the Bartholomew Printing Records held at the National Library of Scotland, North Devon and Sussex followed in 1896. The South Devon map was first published by W H Smith & Son in 1895 (as map 24 in their series of Travelling Maps) and advertised map 26 as North Devon. The plates were also used to produce sectional maps for Murray's 11th edition of the Handbook for Travellers in Devonshire in 1895-1901 (150.13). Sectional maps of North and South Devon were included although a north sheet map did not include the Lynton railway which was shown on the first recorded (and seen) North Devon sheet. The Dulau Thorough Guides also used sectional transfers from about the same date.

From 1896 the map series was numbered: North Devon and South Devon became 35 (1898) and 36 (1899) respectively.¹ From 1901 the maps were printed with the Cyclists' Touring Club symbol. Bartholomew published and sold these maps, either on paper or mounted on cloth, under his own imprint from The Geographical Institute, first in Park Road and from 1911, Duncan St., Edinburgh. Early in the next century G W Bacon was selling maps produced from the same plates but without the layered colour.² Other Mapsellers and Geographical Booksellers such as Sifton Praed and Co. Ltd, of 67 St James's Street London, were offering the the maps as boxed sets. The North and South sheets, with new titles and numbering were still on sale in the 1950s.³

Bartholomew began experimenting with different techniques to show heights much earlier. There are at least two separate maps of South Devon extant which presented differing techniques (and which do not have a matching north Devon). The first series, probably dating from the mid-1880s, has a heavy hachuring technique. This map was issued regularly toward the end of that decade. Another technique, seen only in two recorded ciopies so far, has a very soft, subtle colouring to depict heights. Howwever, Bartholomew seems to have been unhappy with these earlier attempts (illustrated in Kit Batten; Tourist Maps of Devon; 2012). The maps shown here were extremely successful and the method of colour representation became standard.

174S. South Devon 1895

Size: 480 x 705 mm folding to 195 x 105 mm.                                                                                          Scales 2 Miles to an Inch (5 = 65 mm).

SOUTH DEVON (CaOS). Imprints: NEW REDUCED ORDNANCE SURVEY OF ENGLAND AND WALES. - Scale, 2 miles to an inch. (AaOS) and By JOHN BARTHOLOMEW, FRGS (EaOS). Signatures: THE EDINBURGH GEOGRAPHICAL INSTITUTE. and JOHN BARTHOLOMEW FRGS (EeOS). Railway is shown to Plymstock. Coloured and contoured with a coloured Height Bar (Ee) and note Eddystone Lighthouse 14 Miles SW of Plymouth (BeOS). Road key is: Main Driving Roads and Other Driving Roads.

174N. North Devon 1896

Size: 480 x 730 mm folding to 195 x 105 mm.                                                                                            Scales 2 Miles to an Inch (5 = 65 mm).

NORTH DEVON (CaOS). Imprints: NEW REDUCED ORDNANCE SURVEY OF ENGLAND AND WALES. - Scale, 2 miles to an inch. (AaOS) and By JOHN BARTHOLOMEW, F.R.G.S. (EaOS). Signatures: THE EDINBURGH GEOGRAPHICAL INSTITUTE (AeOS) and COPYRIGHT-JOHN BARTHOLOMEW F.R.G.S. (EeOS). Note: For continuation Southward see SOUTH DEVON (Ce). Covers the area from  Hartland and Bude Bay to Watchet (enters inner border) and south to Oakhampton with both borders broken for Exeter. Height colour bar (Aa). Latitude and longitude with 5 mile scale bar (CeOS). Railway shown to Holsworthy with projected line to Bude; railway to Lynton under construction; Hemyock line inadvertantly omitted.

[1] We are grateful to Eugene Burden for information concerning this series. This section is based on his correspondence and also Tim Nicholson's letter to the IMCoS Journal, Summer 1999, Issue 77, pp. 62-63.