INTRODUCTION
Introduction
This treatise is concerned with the development of maps primarily or largely aimed at cyclists, so covering the period from about 1870 to the present, though the heyday of cycling maps really dates from about 1880 to 1920. Before that period cyclists were a minority of map-users, after that date maps were increasingly directed towards the needs of motorists. It covers maps from one-inch up to about five inches to the mile (1:316,800), these being the best scales for route-following, though mention is made of other specialist cycling maps on smaller scales, particularly during the early years of cycling. Whilst in the 1880s cyclists had to use whatever maps they could obtain, by the 1900s several publishers were producing maps at two or three miles to the inch, which (at that time) were the ideal for cycling, and, indeed, for the early motorist. Later the needs of the two groups diverged, with cyclists turning towards larger-scale maps to keep off the main roads, or nowadays even any road. Thus what may be termed the ‘ideal’ cycling map scale has reduced significantly over the years and explains the attention given here to maps on scales which today’s riders would deem far too small for cycling.
Maps for cyclists were not just about navigation. Of particular relevance to them, with the brakes of the time, were the location of dangerous hills, and various series of maps made a special point of indicating them. Tram routes, then as now, were a hazard best avoided, and so another feature to be highlighted, whilst some maps used colours to indicate the type and quality of road surfaces. Distances between towns and road junctions have always been a useful addition. But of all the features that distinguished a good cycling map, the most typical was to become the depiction of the rise and fall of the road, through contours and/or the showing of spot heights.
Rather than divide this work up by type of map, or by taking a chronological approach, I have preferred to split it up by the various major players in the cycle map publishing world. It tries to be both a readable history of the way maps reflected the development of cycling, and a reference source for those who may want some background on an old cycling map, perhaps passed down from an older generation, they have come across. Before browsing through the various sections on the map producers, the new reader is advised to visit the ‘Development of Cycling’ page.
As well as trying to be a comprehensive index of such maps as were available for the cyclist, it offers advice on the dating of maps, which can be far from straightforward. It also gives a background to the environment in which cycling developed and how mapmakers responded. Some notes are included on Road Books, which gave important information complementing cycling maps.
It is important to distinguish between map cartographers and map publishers. These may be the same, but the latter were much more numerous, ranging from nationwide companies such as W. H. Smith to small publishers in provincial towns, who liked to have their own name on the cover of the maps they sold. It is also important to remember that, for most publishers, maps such as those covered here were only a small part of their total literary output.
Where map extracts have been reproduced, I have tried to have these at greater than original scale when viewed or printed at A4, and this needs to be borne in mind when comparing maps of different base scales. However, for best quality they should be viewed digitally. All extracts are from my own collection.
Map areas were often named by County, which may not correspond to their modern equivalent. Monmouthshire (extending further west than the present authority) was officially treated as an English county until the 1950s, and so generally merited its own map in an atlas or map series whereas the rest of Wales was usually allotted just two or three sheets. In the 19th century it was usual for maps to originate as sheets in an atlas, or component of a wall map, with individual sheets sold more or less as an afterthought. It should be borne in mind that Victorian atlases were intended for reference in the home or office: the modern ‘road atlas’ for use on one’s travels was very much a 20th century development.
For the benefit of Millennials, 1 shilling (1s) = 5p, sixpence (6d) = 2½p, 2/6 = 2 shillings & sixpence etc. 1m = one mile, 1” = one inch. In 1900 a shilling, a typical price of a map, would pay for a dozen eggs, the same number of postage stamps or miles by train, or five pints of beer.
I have generally expressed map scales as so many miles to the inch as this was commonplace until the 1970s, taking its cue from the one-inch to a mile Ordnance Survey map (1:63,360). The half-inch scale, i.e. two miles to the inch, is thus 1:126,720, three miles to an inch 1:190,080, quarter-inch 1:253,440. For comparison, the modern Ordnance Survey Landranger map is 1:50,000. Electronic maps cannot be said to be to any specific scale. Elevations, except for ‘metric’ British maps and the continental examples, are shown in feet.
I have retained the original use of the apostrophe in publication titles, e.g. Cyclist’s, Cyclists’ – both had their advocates. WW1 and WW2 refer to the respective World Wars (1914-18 and 1939-45) during which there was very little map development, other than price increases.
I have stuck to the term ‘contour-colouring’ (a form of orography, the general term for the depiction of hills) for the system of indicating successive height bands in a particular colour (to be picky, it should be ‘inter-contour colouring’), and used ‘hill shading’ for the system of using hachuring and/or shadowing to give a three-dimensional effect to a map. However, the latter term has sometimes been applied by commentators to contour-colouring. The earliest use of contour-colouring in this country was by John Bartholomew, from 1878, but is claimed to have been used in Germany about the same time, or slightly earlier.
I have tried to cover Irish maps, but do not claim the same thoroughness as for England, Wales and Scotland.
Information on the dating of maps is given in a separate page. Additionally, the Time Line given for Bartholomew’s Half-Inch Maps includes dating information applicable to maps in general.
I have distinguished in terminology between ‘mapping’, taken to be a master set of engravings from which a family of maps might be derived, and ‘maps’, taken to be the paper end-products of such mapping and often customised. For example, the mapping produced by Bartholomew for Black’s New Large Map of England in 1866 spawned various series of maps under different publishers’ names over the following four decades.
I would like to thank the National Cycle Collection, in Llandrindod Wells, for the opportunity to read through their collection of cycling literature.