G. W. BACON
G. W. Bacon Maps
George Washington. Bacon (1830-1922, Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society 1884) came from America to Britain and following earlier bankruptcy started publishing as G. W. Bacon & Company at 127 Strand, London in 1868 and advertising a variety of maps from that year. The firm became a limited company in 1890. Around 1895 its London address was referred to as Bacon’s Geographic Establishment. In 1900 the firm apparently came to a working arrangement with W. & A. K. Johnston, Edinburgh; however the firms maintained their separate identities and indeed produced competing (though dissimilar) maps, such as their respective Scottish 3m to an inch series. In 1913 Bacon opened the City Map Shop at 14 Union Court, E.C., and this address appeared alongside that of 127 Strand on a handful of maps before the outlet closed on the outbreak of war in 1914. In December 1919 Bacon moved to 7 & 9 Norwich St, though ‘Norwich St, Fetter Lane’ very quickly became its favoured form of address. These premises were bombed out in 1941 and the firm became part of the new firm of Johnston & Bacon Ltd in 1945, sharing their address at 30 Museum St, London.
Bacon produced the New Ordnance Atlas of the British Isles, using copies of reductions from the Ordnance Survey (or such of which that was then available) produced by well-respected engraver Edward Weller, assisted by fellow engravers John James Dower and Benjamin Rees Davies. These county and national maps had first appeared in the Weekly Dispatch newspaper between 1856 and 1862 and were reproduced in a couple of atlases by Cassells before the plates were acquired by Bacon in 1868, who himself published them in atlas form in various editions until 1911. They were also used in a succession of other atlases, such as the Popular Atlas of the British Isles, covering England by county with regional maps for Scotland, Ireland and Wales. They were long issued individually as a series of County Maps, initially primarily as office wall maps but later in folded pocketable editions. These Dispatch maps, as they were generally referred to, were to have a long if inglorious reincarnation as cycling maps well into the twentieth century.
As well as the Dispatch maps, Bacon was to acquire the engraved plates of John Cary’s 5m to an inch map series as well as those for various smaller-scale maps. These were similarly to be milked for all they were worth, even as motoring maps. More on the history of Cary’s maps is given in the Gall & Inglis section.
Bacon’s map series were long-lived and some names were applied to more than one set. In addition, the same map might be marketed under more than one name and the same style of cover used for more than one style of map. It was really from 1890 onwards that Bacon produced versions of existing maps specifically branded as ‘cycling’ maps. These tended to be later retitled as ‘Cycling & Motoring’ maps, then ‘Motoring & Cycling’ maps, sometimes the map title not agreeing with the cover title in retaining the older format. This branding was used regardless of scale or origin. In addition Bacon published over fifty town and city plans.
Total map production by Bacon was very diverse. To summarize, they have been described below under the following categories:
• Bacon’s Small-scale Cycling Maps
• Bacon’s County Maps
• Bacon’s 5m to an Inch Numbered Series of Cycling Road Maps
• Other maps sharing the 5m to an Inch base mapping
• Bacon’s New (1895) Series Cycling Maps
• Bacon productions using Bartholomew Half-inch Mapping
• Bacon’s Large-Print Motor Maps
• Miscellaneous Bacon Maps
• Bacon’s Scottish Maps
• Bacon’s Irish Maps
• Bacon Maps: Further Developments Post-WW1
Bacon’s Small-scale Cycling Maps
Like most publishers, Bacon’s first ‘cycling’ maps to be named as such were small-scale ones covering England and Wales in one sheet. From 1890 Bacon was advertising single-sheet cycling-branded maps of England & Wales (12m to an inch), Scotland (mostly, 11m to an inch), and Ireland (11m to an inch), each at 1/- on paper in case, 2/6 on cloth in case. A more cheaply priced version on cloth (1/6) was introduced by 1895 (possibly a different map), with a ‘superior style’ edition at 2/6.
Bacon continued publication of James Wyld’s Bicycle (later Cycling) Map of England & Wales (16m to an inch), after acquiring the rather dated catalogue of that company in 1894 (see notes for Wyld under Miscellaneous Publishers). This included a distance summary booklet for 77 routes marked in red on the map, similar in style and concept to those on the rival ‘Bazaar’ map, but covering those not only from London but also cross-country routes and including Scotland as far north as Edinburgh and Glasgow. Around this time, 1895, the Scotland map was augmented by a pair of new maps, South and Centre (the latter originally titled North on map and cover, though only extending as far north as Dornoch). These displayed steep and dangerous hills. Shortly after, Bacon’s own England & Wales map was sold reduced to 17” to a mile, price one shilling on cloth.
Bacon’s County Maps
The county maps from the Dispatch series mentioned above, obtained from Cassells, were sold individually from 1868 as Bacon’s Large Print County Maps, most sheets 20” by 26”, with railways revised to date. They were reissued, as ‘Bacon’s New Series of County Maps’ from 1875. They can be usually identified by Bacon’s practice of naming railway stations in small bold lettering, or underlining the relevant place name where direct naming of the station would overcrowd the map. From 1885 they were divided into five- or ten-mile squares, another Bacon trait. As well as aiding distance calculations they were used as a reference grid for brief gazetteers which were now incorporated with many of Bacon’s maps – Bacon productions catered for administrative and educational use as well as the needs of the traveller. In fact, the earlier publications were entitled County Guide and Map, later (from 1889) becoming County Map and Guide. These county gazetteers and descriptions, written by Bacon himself, were also published collectively as the Handbook of England & Wales. There seems to have been a general updating and reissuing of the series in 1890, when ‘cycling’ versions, omitting the colouring of political divisions and with main roads highlighted, were introduced. Some editions included a Route Guide: tables of distances along main cycling routes. Population data can be used to date publication to a particular ten-year census, though the maps themselves are an amalgam of features from half a century and more. Prices were increased to 9d paper, 1/6d cloth during WW1.
This is a good a place as any to mention the advertisements that were included along with the gazetteer information with Bacon’s County and other maps. As well as adding a bit of extra interest, they can help date the cover and hence, approximately, the map. Some adverts are dated, or include dates that help give at least an earliest date for a cover. The longest-appearing advert was that for Dr J. Collis Browne’s Chlorodyne, a regular up to WW1. Originally promoted as a palliative for cholera, by the 1880s it was touted as a remedy for about every ailment going. There were some variations in the form of advert but few date indicators: from 1896 it included a quote from the Illustrated London News of the previous year; from 1903 the address changed from 33 Gt Russell St (or Terrace; usage seemed to fluctuate) to 117 Union St, though the practice of including an address with the advert was soon dropped. One other regular advertiser was Fry’s Cocoa: in 1896 their adverts proclaimed ‘Over 130 prize medals and diplomas’; in 1897 (taken from contemporary newspapers) this had increased to ‘Over 200’, 250 in 1898, 275 in 1899; from 1900 to 1910 this was ‘Over 300 medals [or grands prix] and diplomas’. Another common advertisement is for Bacon’s Pocket Atlas & Gazetteer of the World, first appearing in 1895 (50 maps), republished 1899 (64 maps) and 1911 (66 maps). Although most Bacon maps from circa 1895 display an alpha-numeric edition number, these do not directly relate to the date.
The County series continued to appear under the Bacon title, complete with a gazetteer insert, into the 1930s. By then they showed MoT Class A roads, and most had redrawn mapping from various sources superseding the original, though the Hereford sheet was still using the 1850s base map of Edward Weller (see extract in a following section).
Bacon’s 5m to an Inch Numbered Series of Cycling Road Maps
In 1886 Bacon issued a series of seven cyclists’ maps covering England, Wales and southern Scotland on the scale of five miles to one inch (Bacon’s Cycling Road-Map of England: always referred to in the singular. Initially the maps were available in three formats: on paper, in cloth case (1/-, showing on the cover a pair of tricyclists), printed on flexible cloth, in case, 2/6; on cloth, cut to fold (i.e. dissected) in gilt-lettered case 3/6. “The flexible cloth maps will last for years, and prove invaluable in wet or windy weather”. Maps printed onto flexible cloth, or linen, variously described as weatherproof or waterproof, was to be an option offered by Bacon for various maps from 1890 onwards, though it seems to have been dropped as an option by or during WW1. Price was usually the same as the cloth (i.e. paper backed by cloth) alternative, however I have only come across one example, the map face having a shiny appearance and waxy feel. The stiff case option, standard on most folded maps up to this date, was losing ground to softer covers more suited to a rider’s pocket.
The base mapping used for these maps (as well as many other derivatives) was from a much earlier date: in fact the base engraving dates back to Cary’s Atlas of the 1790s which itself largely relied on even older maps. It showed distances from London to towns, taken from Cary’s road book (see under Gall & Inglis), and distances (generally as notional milestones) along main roads. These make the map series easily identifiable, even in 20th century reincarnations. The fact that Cary’s maps had always been primarily for the traveller, and kept up to date in respect of main roads until the railway era, meant they were well regarded by early cyclists. Even so, many later turnpike roads (and even canals) were shown with dubious accuracy. Even so, many later turnpike roads (and even canals) were shown with dubious accuracy. These 5m to an inch maps crop up under numerous Bacon map and atlas titles, with little consistency between them over the network of ‘main roads’ highlighted, and with piecemeal updating. As with the 2m to an inch Cary maps perpetuated by Cruchley and later Gall & Inglis, the base maps appeared just as the railway era was commencing, and post-Cary road development was neglected by map revisers who concentrated on the developing railway network.
The extract following is from Bacon’s 5m to an inch Cycling Road Map of England & Wales, Sheet 2. Although of poor quality, it has been chosen because, perhaps more than for any other area, it shows the unreliability of many cycling maps of the period. Published late 1890s, but despite ‘Revised according to the latest Ordnance Survey’ on the cover the underlying road network is pre-1840. It shows the old Horton to Askrigg route (with notional milestones) and the mythical Middleham – West Witton direct road. Several of the other highlighted roads were (and largely still are) no more than cart tracks. The new Clapham – Ingleton road of 1831 is an obvious addition. The present B6479 road up Ribblesdale through Selside is not highlighted while the Buttertubs Pass road north of Hardrow, which has largely superseded the routes from Askrigg to Swaledale, is omitted, not to be added to the base map until the 1920s. The road south from Hawes over Fleet Moss to Beckermonds and Wharfedale was never to appear
The same selection of cycling roads was given on the contemporary Bacon ‘County’ map of Yorkshire, on an even older version of the base map. This it shared with the 100 miles around Manchester map published by John Heywood (one proclaiming itself “Up-to-date and Comprehensive”). This too highlighted dangerous hills – but not the same ones! Not that the Bartholomew quarter-inch map of 1890 was much better, despite its more up-to-date base. Of the few ‘roads’ it highlighted in this area, one was the present-day bridleway from Bradley, in Coverdale, north to West Burton, and another was a barely-discernible footpath running from Halton Gill over moorland directly to Beckermonds. This would have crossed the equally non-existent route from Foxup to Deepdale shown on the Bacon and Heywood maps, above. I can only assume that in all cases the routes shown are in mistake for the Halton Gill – Raisgill track, itself hardly meriting the designation of road. Pity the unsuspecting cyclist of the 1890s, trying to take a 40lb single-speed fixed-wheel bicycle into the Dales! About the only trustworthy map of this period – though not perfect – was the Philip County Map cycling edition. Luckily, much-improved maps were to appear within a decade. In fact, the above Bacon maps went through various updates within a short time, to try and render them more reliable, but there is only so much lipstick you can put on a pig.
For a while there was a commercial tie-up between Bacon and Rover cycles, with the map covers showing cyclists riding various named Rover models. One example has an advert for J. K. Starley & Co.’s Coventry works appeared on the back (which dates that map, or rather cover, to 1889-96, after which Starley’s became The Rover Cycle Co.). Bacon continued with illustrations of cyclists for some years after the tie-up with Starley ended (minus the ‘Rover’ name endorsement), as shown in the following examples .Quite a variety appeared up to the First World War: it is interesting that lady cyclists featured extensively among the riders – was this an early demonstration of equality or a reflection that ‘sex sells’?
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Other Maps sharing the 5m to an Inch Mapping
As noted, the original series of Bacon’s Cycling Maps used a 5m to an inch base developed by Bacon from the old John Cary maps. This same map base was used for numerous other Bacon productions, many of which were also to be termed Cycling Maps. It was also used for the Yorkshire County Map and possibly others. With these Cary-based maps sold alongside his half-inch maps as perpetuated by Gall & Inglis, it would be fair to say that Cary maps were selling faster fifty years after his death than at any period during his lifetime.
Sections of the 5m to an inch ex-Cary mapping, covering much of south-east England, appeared in the Roadways of London (1890s, several editions). Additional to the series were four maps appearing in 1890: Twenty miles around London, North, East, South and West.
The same mapping was also used in the ‘Waistcoat’ series, a set of these (and some other Bacon maps) folded to a smaller size, and some ‘Ever Ready’ flagged maps (see below). These were 6d on paper, 9d on cloth. The series eventually comprised nearly a hundred titles centred on important towns, though in many cases the same map area was employed under more than one name. Although map lists called these ‘Waistcoat’ maps, this attribution was not given on the map cover – it merely referred to their small folded size.
As well as the eleven-sheet numbered series, by 1908, and in similar light blue covers, Bacon was publishing an ad-hoc collection entitled ‘Road Maps for Motorists and Cyclists’. Including among these were a Birmingham (also Manchester) to North Wales sheet, using a Cary map base slightly enlarged to four miles to an inch.
Bacon’s New (1895) Series Cycling Maps
These first appeared around 1895 (the date obligingly given on the cover of the early sheets). A footnote on these earlier maps stated them to be ‘Revised throughout by the New Ordnance Survey’, which in a way was true, as for once these maps were an Ordnance Survey product in all but name: they were lithographic transfers taken from the ill-received O.S. quarter-inch series of 1890-91 with an added smattering of cycling information. They appeared in small red covers not unlike those then used by the Ordnance Survey: around this time Bacon was employing agents to sell their maps on commission and it appears that some of those taken on were not above passing off these and other Bacon maps as actual Ordnance Survey products, rather than ones simply based on them.
Inside the cover of later examples was advertised
- Bacon’s New Series of Cycling Road Maps. Scale 2½ miles to an inch. An entirely new series of maps specially prepared from the Ordnance Survey and carefully brought up to date. Main roads distinctly coloured... The best and clearest cycle maps ever produced. 22” by 30”. On Cloth in Case 2s, in Case 1s.
Only railways were up to date, the Ordnance Survey base mapping in many areas being several decades old. The use of bold for ‘Parish Villages’ gave an undeserved importance to some very insignificant locations, as can be seen on the Welsh extract given below, and emphasises that the source maps were not primarily travellers’ maps. Whilst main roads were prominently shown in yellow, later with the addition of dangerous hills, only an extremely limited and somewhat arbitrary selection of minor roads were included, giving a product in detail and accuracy well behind those of its contemporaries. Even some of the ‘main’ roads were suspect, such as their route across Exmoor between Dulverton and Lynmouth, much of which is bridleway, and a fictional road across Allendale Common in the Pennines even having a dangerous hill indicated! This was information added by Bacon, so blame cannot be put on the Ordnance Survey. The selective coverage of ‘cycleable’ roads, on these as well as other contemporary maps, suggests that the information was based on the personal experience of just one or at best a few riders, who transcribed their assumed route from other perhaps equally inaccurate maps.
Though updated editions were to appear, the series had a short lifespan, in consequence of the increasing competition from superior cycling maps from other publishers. Bacon were also to produce a lengthy series of half-inch maps using Bartholomew mapping, next to be described, so it is likely that their own series was squeezed out. Even so, all copies I have come across show plenty of wear and tear which suggests they were put to good use. Bacon continued to apply the Cycling (& Motoring) title to just about all its small-scale maps, and all the while this ‘New’ Series was in production, publication of the earlier 5m to the inch maps and the County maps continued (see above).
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Following the reissue of the Ordnance Survey quarter-inch map from 1900, with much-updated and now reliable road information, including spot heights, Bacon issued at least one new map using the new Ordnance base (outline version), customised in typical fashion as in the example below. Whether this was a ‘one-off’ for a particular client, or a standard product in a customised cover, I cannot say. It would form a natural continuation of the ‘New Cycling Map’ series (which lacked a Mid Wales sheet) , but I have seen no reference to it or sister sheets. No acknowledgement of the Ordnance Survey is given on map or cover.
Bacon Productions using Bartholomew Half-inch Mapping
From 1904 Bacon published an extensive range of maps using Bartholomew’s half-inch mapping, in effect taking over the ‘Special Cycling Maps’ advertised by that company around 1902 (but soon dropped) and greatly extending the range of sheets. These ‘Half Inch Cycling & Motoring’ (later ‘Motoring & Cycling’) maps were not contour coloured, a small loss in flatter parts of the country but a serious disadvantage in hillier areas. They highlighted ‘Best Cycling Roads’ in red, and showed ‘Danger Hills’ and those requiring caution. Also indicated were distances between centres and included a place index – a typical Bacon feature. Map size, at 23½” by 33½”, was generous (later advertised as 26” by 36”). All were available on paper 1/- or cloth, at 2/- This series was a direct competitor to Bartholomew’s maps published under that company’s own name, as well as Bacon’s earlier cycling maps.
The full list of maps comprised 33 sheets, although Glasgow District (covering Kilmarnock to The Trossachs, the only Scottish sheet) was not advertised continuously. Sheets took their name from the district covered or principal town near the centre of the map and between them the series covered all England & Wales, with some variations in sheet coverage over the years. Reference numbers were intermittently shown on index plans but not on the maps themselves. Initially included with the series was a Leeds, York & East Riding sheet, not actually a Barts map, but one derived from Hobson’s Map of Yorkshire, 1843. This same source was used for an Environs of York cycling map, c. 1897.
The final sheets – Mid Wales (aka Aberystwyth) and Hereford – probably appeared in 1913. The dour dark-brown cover style came in about this date – the Bacon custom of attractive and colourful map covers was no more. Post-WW1 prices were 2/- paper, 3/6 (later 4/-) on cloth. Reissuing of the series seems to have ceased in 1925.
The propagation of this half-inch series was despite the maps being in competition with Bacon’s new associates, Johnston’s, three miles to the inch series, as well as Bartholomew’s own versions of the maps. Even so, they continued in production until at least the 1920s, now inevitably titled ‘Motoring & Cycling Maps’. The ‘dangerous hill’ information had been dropped. Ultimately only “A” and “B” roads were coloured (and numbered), providing no information on the rideability or quality, though by this date such main roads were satisfactory in that respect.
Bacon used Bartholomew half-inch mapping at enlarged scale for various one-off maps, such as the Exeter example below and a one-inch map of Llandrindod Wells. Other Bartholomew products were also adapted: by 1908 Bacon had published a quarter-inch Motorists and Cyclists Map of East Anglia (and possibly other areas) using Bartholomew mapping on that scale, covers and map in style akin to the half-inch series.
Bacon also used Bartholomew half-inch mapping for large varnished wall maps, covering two or three counties, intended for offices or schools and branded as Excelsior maps (a title long used by Bacon for educational maps). These highlighted administrative boundaries (down to parish level) and gave other information such as populations. Some small-scale folding maps also used the Excelsior name, but again these were not cycling maps.
Miscellaneous Bacon Maps
One problem with categorising Bacon maps is the sheer variety of maps that the firm published, all of which got lumped together in advertisements. Whilst listing titles and prices, no information was given as to scale and information included: also the same map might appear under more than one name and versions would come and go. In particular, the old Cary 5m to an inch mapping was used for numerous series and one-off examples of Bacon Maps. It was also the practice to label all road maps as for cyclists, later ‘Motorists and Cyclists’.
In 1891 Bacon was advertising a series of over a hundred Fourpenny Waistcoat-Pocket Maps ‘which include the environs of every town in England’. These were also available on cloth, priced 1/-. Soon after, these seem to have been included in the Bacon catalogues among the ‘Environs of Towns’ and ‘District Maps’. Many of these were advertised as available on paper, cloth-backed and printed on flexible linen, though this last option was gradually phased out. Paper copies were typically 6d, in cloth case, copies on cloth 1/- in case, though some maps were priced higher. Over two hundred titles were offered during the 1890s and up to WW1, though only about half were on sale at any one time and many of these must have been the same map under local names.
What became branded as the Sixpenny Map Series seems to have been a subset of this general list. These were more local than Bacon’s County maps, though initially using the same ‘Dispatch’ or Cary mapping ‒ ‘With the Main Roads specially coloured, and showing the distance of each important town from London, and the mileage from town to town. Danger hills specially indicated’. Price on cloth, in cloth case, 6d. No paper alternative was offered: presumably what had been the fourpenny paper version was not worth retaining once the cloth version had been halved in price.
Later a number of sixpenny paper maps reappeared, together with shilling versions on paper. Titles included several northern towns – Bolton, Bury, Wigan, Halifax, Huddersfield, Dewsbury, Wakefield.
The Sixpenny title was later dropped, with these and others forming Bacons New Series of Pocket Road-Maps c1899, with 71 maps then advertised. The series may have been new, but the maps were not. Included in the map series were area maps for London, Belfast, Dublin and Cork and one-inch maps of West Cornwall, Bristol, Plymouth and Southampton. Some of these one-inch maps used older mapping, but a number published in the 1890s were lithographs of recently-published O.S. one-inch maps augmented with the usual Bacon embellishments, i.e. railways in the Bacon style, the map divided into 2-mile squares and, from 1898, danger hills. Production seems to have been via a collage of paper copies of the component OS maps, with the result that some slight differences in scale had to be overcome, as in the example below. These would not have arisen if using direct lithographs of the OS plates.
In 1898 Bacon was advertising a Cycling & Touring Pocket Atlas of the British Isles, presumably a rebranding of small-scale source mapping from other atlases . Also published that year was Bacon’s ‘Up-to-Date’ Cycling Pocket Road-Book of England & Wales. By the third (1905) edition this had become Bacon’s ‘Up-to-Date’ Cyclists’ and Motorists’ Road-Book of England & Wales.
Around 1910 Bacon was advertising a series of 28 Waistcoat Pocket Road Maps. The original full set of 71 Pocket Road-Map Maps were from around 1912 rebranded as Bacon’s New Series of Waistcoat map, still priced at sixpence on cloth. Although referred to as ‘Waistcoat’ maps, this attribution was not given on the map cover or the actual maps – it merely referred to their small folded size. They took their names from towns roughly central to the sheets and were titled as Cycling & Motoring (or reverse) maps. The number of titles advertised was still over sixty after WW1, now priced 9d on cloth. These were still mostly based on the old Cary mapping and still termed ‘New Series’ well into the 1920s.
Bacon produced several maps of London and the surrounding area, some of which were branded as being for cyclists, though not initially including any additional cycling features. These maps included a very detailed Cycling Map of the Environs of London 1s & 2/6 (1891; 1” to a mile), supplemented by four separate sheets between them covering a broader area at 1s & 1/6 each, e.g. Bacon’s Cycling Map of 20 miles SW of London). The central map was then sold as Bacon’s Cycling Road Map of 20 Miles Around London. Post WW1 this map was simply labelled The Roads Around London (cover), but remained Environs of London on the map itself: apart from main-road distances there was no special cycling content. Other productions were 30 miles round London Cycling Map (ditto 50 and 150 miles), Counties around London (yet another incarnation of the old Bacon favourite, Cary’s 5m to an inch mapping) and Reynolds’s Shilling Cyclist’s Road Map of the Environs of London. This last was on the half-inch scale and included a guide; it was priced at 1s paper, 2s on cloth and was one of the final incarnations of a long-established London map on a Cary base by James Reynolds (d 1876). Reynolds’s map was also published by John Barker & Co., London.
The Cycling Map of 30 miles round London was at 4 miles to an inch and on the same base as an Environs of London map in Bacon’s Popular Atlas, with additional highlighting of main roads and danger hills. The Cycling Map of London & 150 Miles Round (1890), described earlier under Bacon’s Small-scale cycling Maps,was of course not really a ‘London’ map, though it included an inset half-inch to a mile map of the capital. The various Bacon London street plans and gazetteers need not concern us.
Akin to the one-inch to mile maps of the London area, mentioned above, much of Lancashire was also available on the same scale and stylistically similar. These maps appeared under various titles from the 1880s, e.g. Liverpool , and were shared with atlas plates originating with the ‘Dispatch’ maps. Some were still on sale in the 1920s.
Bacon used the ‘Ever Ready’ subtitle intermittently for various cycling maps, one of the first being a one-inch to the mile map of Environs of Birmingham published about 1896. The name refers not to the map itself (which in this example was also published in a standard cover and format), but to the fold, with the map face on the outward side, allowing easy access to all parts of the map – ‘opens like a book’… the advantage of being able to consult a map… even with one hand when riding, will commend itself to every cyclist’ [if not to Health & Safety] . . 'The map is folded into three sections, two of which are always ready for inspection; the remaining section being infolded between the other two'. It required the map to be folded to give three horizontal sections, with separate front and back covers attached at either end of the middle section. Quite what this particular triumph of origami (patented!) offered over other map folds I haven’t been able to discover. However, this is a reminder that it was long standard practice for maps to be folded such that the map face was concealed, to help protect it, although this made it less convenient for consultation.
Circa 1908 Bacon issued a series of Large Print Motor Maps, covering England and Wales in nine sheets, on the five miles to the inch scale and later available in atlas form. These were superficially attractive-looking maps, also available with limited contour-colouring, but deliberately restricted to showing few roads other than main routes and so definitely not cycling maps. However, the same map base was used for a 100 Miles Round Birmingham Motoring & Cycling Map, c. 1909, a Cycling Map of the Midlands for E. J. Larby, and probably other maps aimed at least partially at cyclists.
Bacon’s Scottish Maps
Throughout the 1880s and 1890s Bacon published a single-sheet map of Scotland, alongside those for England and Ireland, as mentioned earlier. The base mapping was dated, originating with that by Edward Weller for the Weekly Dispatch c. 1863. In 1890 a version of this, branded as a Cycling Road Map of Scotland, appeared. Despite glowing reviews (based, one suspects, on blurb supplied by Bacon) this had numerous errors, with tracks in both the Highlands and Lowlands being marked in colour as main roads. Such howlers include Blair Atholl to Braemar, Glen Affric to Loch Duich, the old Dalveen Pass (The Well Road) in the Lowther Hills and many, many more. It may be viewed on the National Library of Scotland website – preferably from behind the sofa. Their attributed date of 1900 is too late. Later editions, as given below, corrected these howlers.
From around 1895 the company was publishing its Cycling Map of Scotland, still based on the 1863 Weller map-base, but extensively revised and enlarged to six miles to an inch, in two sheets (North and South: the former extending north only to Dornoch). These appear to be updates of two maps given gratis with the Glasgow Evening Times in 1884. Main roads – now correct - were coloured brown and steep hills marked. Although still somewhat dated the maps included a booklet insert giving over eighty routes with distances and comments on the roads, so perhaps served adequately as a route planning map. Inevitably, later editions were renamed ‘Motoring & Cycling’ map.
Bacon had acquired the Cary 5-mile to an inch map of England, described earlier, which extended far into Scotland. Sheet 1 of this series was thus also sold for many years alongside Bacon’s other Scottish maps under various Scottish titles. One such map was the 1893 Cycling Map of the Environs of Glasgow & Edinburgh. With revisions the Cary maps remained on sale until the 1920s, and post WW1 the South of Scotland name was taken over by Sheet 1 of this series – a sixty-year-old map being replaced by one with even older origins! A new North of Scotland map of little cartographic or cycling value also appeared. Amongst the Waistcoat maps mentioned above, Scotland was represented by district maps of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, Aberdeen, Perth and Oban.
As noted above, Bacon's Bartholomew-derived cycling/motoring map series on the half-inch scale was confined to England and Wales, apart from a Glasgow District sheet which was listed intermittently from about 1905. This should not be confused with an earlier (1890s) Glasgow & District Cycling Road Map appearing in the sixpenny series, on the scale of 3m to an inch. This, like most Bacon products of the period, was more reliable in respect of railways than roads, with the original map dating, I would guess, from c. 1860.
Around 1908 there appeared a series of 3-mile to the inch Motoring & Cycling Maps covering central Scotland. Some at least appear to be re-workings of older maps, such as the Glasgow map on this scale mentioned above, These show a family resemblance to the one-inch map of the Birmingham area mentioned and illustrated above, and the Bacon half-inch maps of the West Country. Main roads were highlighted, initially in brown; later the main roads were shown in red and many spot heights were added. However, no contours were shown, a big shortcoming in such a mountainous country. Most tracks and the like were omitted, giving an uncluttered map: even so, some of the minor ‘roads’ retained were only rough-stuff cycling routes and potential snares for motorists. Examples of the maps may be viewed on the National Library of Scotland website. Seven (at least) large sheets were produced in this Scottish series, titled by principal places covered.: Inverness, Oban, Aberdeen (the map itself titled North East Scotland, perhaps an earlier title: in the list of important towns given as covered Aberdeen is missing!), Edinburgh to Aberdeen, Perth, Glasgow, and Edinburgh. The Perth/Oban and Glasgow/Edinburgh pairs had considerable overlap. The Inverness sheet seems to have been a later addition but was the worst of the lot. The key on this sheet was restricted to ‘Main Roads’ (coloured), ‘Roads to Places of Interest’ (dashed-red) and ‘Other Roads’. Included in the second category were the abandoned road over the Corrieyairack Pass and the path from Glen Tilt to Deeside, neither motorable and both barely traversable by bike. Some of the ‘uncoloured’ roads were unfit for wheels. After WW1 the Aberdeen sheet was dropped and the remaining sheets numbered 1 – 6 in the order given above.
The same mapping was also used in the 1920s and 1930s for Bacon’s Road Atlas of Scotland, most areas falling outside the boundaries of the above sheets being excluded, which suggests Bacon’s maps on this scale never reached beyond them. This atlas replaced an earlier version on a smaller scale.
In the 1930s the 3m to an inch Bacon series was being supplemented (and effectively duplicated) by ‘Scottish Counties’ sheets – 'an entirely new series of county maps, based on our well-known 3m to an inch copper plates'. This reference to copper plates was somewhat anachronistic by this time, but presumably was to imply a high-quality product. The original plates were of course Victorian. These maps were enlarged to 2½m to an inch and showed “A” roads (red) and “B” roads (green); size was 20 by 25 inches, price 1/- paper, 2/- on cloth. Sheets available or in preparation listed in 1935 were
- Ayr & Bute
- Lanark
- Perth
- Renfrew, Stirling & Dumbarton
- Fife, Kinross & Clackmannan
The 3m to an inch sheets referred to earlier (less the discontinued Aberdeen sheet) were still in print, now referred to as Divisional Road Maps.
Bacon’s Irish Maps
Sold by Cassell’s and later Bacon were three ‘Environs’ maps, of Dublin, Belfast and Cork, taken from full-page atlas plates – not to be confused with the small ‘inset’ maps on the all-Ireland map mentioned earlier. These were on the half-inch to a mile scale, again originating with the 1860s Weekly Dispatch maps. There was also a Lakes of Killarney map from the same atlas source, later sold as Killarney & Glengarriff. These maps were periodically updated and from c. 1890 were also branded as cyclists’ maps. By now the Weller attribution had been dropped.
First advertised by Bacon back in 1893 were three sheets covering most of Ireland – North, Central and South (more precisely South-East), main roads coloured, a shilling each. These were updates of extremely elderly maps, as can be seen in the Dublin area extract following. The base map can be traced to Aaron Arrowsmith’s Map of Ireland, produced in 1811, and enlarged from an original 6½ mile to an inch. Goodness knows why Bacon thought these outdated maps suitable for marketing as cycling maps, especially as the firm had better sources to hand.
By 1896 these maps (or their successors) were being advertised as 22” by 30”, 1/- (paper) in case, 1/6d cloth-backed in case; for the same price available of flexible cloth. These three maps were to be supplemented by two further maps, also on the same quarter-inch scale: South-West and West, probably 1896 and 1897 respectively. Whether these were of the same provenance as the earlier sheets I cannot say. These completed the coverage of Ireland – or almost, as according to Bacon’s key map, a fair chunk of County Clare was omitted, as well as some inconvenient bits of Donegal and Cork. All but the South-West sheet soon included a route guide listing distances, the information being taken from Mecredy’s Road Book of Ireland. All were available as paper/paper mounted on cloth, 1/- and 1/6 respectively. Quoted dimensions were still 22” by 30”, though there was some variation between sheets. The South-west sheet was later given as 26” by 36”, that of the Bartholomew map mentioned below, but the key map still showed the original map area..
At least two of the sheets were, probably in 1904, replaced by ‘Baconised’ duplicates of superseded Ordnance Survey quarter-inch mapping, without hill-shading or contours, with town names in larger font and railway station names emphasised. Main cycling roads were coloured and dangerous hills shown. They were therefore akin to the England & Wales Bacon series of ‘New Cycling Maps’, described in an earlier section, albeit not increased in scale. In both cases the source O.S. quarter-inch maps were themselves based on old one-inch mapping which was quite out of date in respect of roads, the Irish survey having been completed in the 1850s. However, they were notable improvements on the previous offerings from Bacon. I have included an extract from Bacon’s South East Ireland sheet covering the Waterford district under the Ordnance survey section, as it belongs as much there as here.
In 1904 the Ordnance Survey itself published a new series of quarter-inch maps of Ireland, reduced from recently-completed one-inch mapping, and showing up the deficiencies of the Bacon edition. In the same year John Bartholomew & Co. completed their Irish coverage on the same scale, so the Bacon maps were a poor third on quality. In fact, the Bacon South-west sheet was, sometime around 1905, replaced by one using Bartholomew mapping, similar in style and cover to the Bacon versions of the Bartholomew half-inch maps of Great Britain, i.e. no contour-colouring but with addition of inter-town road distances and dangerous hills, and including a town index. This map was of a larger size, 36” by 26”, extended north to Ennis and east to Waterford. Unlike its earlier namesake it fully covered the southern coast of Cork, However, the old sheet boundary was still shown on the key map for the series.
After WW1 the above quarter-inch maps were replaced by a set of three ‘Motoring & Cycling Maps – North, Central (omitting northern parts of County Mayo) and South, on the scale of 5m to an inch. These had first appeared in 1913 as a set of eight maps, 22” by 15”, 1/6d each, also available as a cased set. These maps were deliberately low on detail – “To secure special clearness, small villages and minor details are omitted”. In fact, their clarity arose from their being the pre-war 7.9 miles to an inch single map of Ireland, mentioned above, being significantly enlarged. No spot heights or contours were given and the result was a map of little interest or value to cyclists. In the 1930s the set was replaced by a single double-sided sheet branded as a ‘Motor Road Map’.
Bacon Maps: Developments Post WW1
