The Scottish series, along with the corresponding England & Wales series, was reissued in 1906 with no colouring by county, so reverting to the original style. These maps can be distinguished from the earliest uncoloured editions by the inclusion of the ‘Reduced from the Ordnance Survey’ acknowledgement, as well as of course road and railway revision and ‘Ltd’ added to the firm’s name. Topographical names, contours (still only at 500ft intervals), heights and main roads were still shown in brown. The series was now issued as ‘W. & A.K. Johnston’s Reliable Motor Map of Scotland’.
Since 1891 Johnston had been issuing its World-Wide Atlas, and the World-Wide name was used for an 8 mile to an inch map of Scotland issued in 1907 – later to become their Tourist and Motoring Map of Scotland. included on the map were tables of distances along principal routes. There was a similar map of England & Wales. The same ‘brand’ was, somewhat oddly, also applied to a very limited selection of new 3m to an inch maps – the World-Wide Series of Motoring & Cycling Maps’ – which appeared in 1906-7. These shared the current map style, but not sheet areas. Also under the World-Wide title was a 1907 strip map of London to Edinburgh, to rival the Gall & Inglis product, though on the 3m to an inch scale.
In 1911 the Scottish series began to be reissued with contour colouring, and now named Motoring and Cycling maps. This was similarly applied to the England & Wales series. The contour interval in Scotland was now 250ft: in England and Wales the contours were now at 300’, 500’, 800’, 1000’ etc. The post-WW1 development is resumed below.
Johnston’s 3 mile to an inch Map of England & Wales - Early Editions
The same initial map style of the Scottish series was used by Johnston’s companion 3 miles to an inch maps of England & Wales (initially in 25 sheets, 18” by 23”), commenced in 1899 and completed by 1900. As for Scotland, sheets were a shilling paper in card case, 1s 6d on cloth in card case, with elaborate covers featuring a Tudor rose. Some at least of the earlier sheets had the series title ‘England’ rather than ‘England & Wales’; 'Ltd' was added to the covers from 1901. As with the Scottish maps, they were from 1901 available in a celluloid case.
The maps were a little more detailed than the contemporary and rival 3m to an inch map series produced by George Philip (see separate page), but this distinction consisted mainly of showing more byways and tracks, and as there was no distinction between these and cyclable (or motorable) roads this was a mixed blessing.
While the England & Wales series was in course of publication, special area maps on the same scale (and using the same mapping) were also being produced - ‘Johnston’s Cycling & Motoring Maps’. These covered the London area (five maps, 1901), Newcastle area, Stockton area, and the Lake District. The maps had main and principal crossroads highlighted in red with ‘Danger’ and ‘Caution’ hills marked. Rather pointlessly, counties were still individually coloured, which served little purpose for cyclists and hindered legibility at night.The London maps also had circles at 3-mile intervals from Charing Cross. These special sheets were not revised or republished but those covering London – presumably unsold stock - were advertised after WW1 as The “Way To” Motoring & Cycling Maps by publishers Morgan & Hoadly.
New editions of the maps appeared in 1908. Before WW1 the original 25 sheets for England and Wales were reduced to 23 by changes along the south coast. In 1914 the maps were re-issued in contour coloured format published by the Temple Press, which had developed and diversified from ‘The Offices of “Cycling”’. These maps were branded under the names of its two publications – The Motor and MotorCycling. The latter was not, of course, directed especially at motorcyclists, as its advertising made clear – rather for motorists and cyclists.
Johnston’s 3 mile to an inch - Later Editions
After World War 1 Johnston continued with their series of 3 miles to an inch sheet maps of England, Wales and Scotland, which may be treated as one long-lived series, rather than two separate ones as in their early history, although they were still numbered separately. These maps later had colourful covers, giving a description of area covered (e.g. Cotswolds).
In 1932 an attractive touring map, using the contour-coloured 3m to an inch mapping, was published of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Central Scotland, viewable on the NLS website and highlighting places of interest. The price was an equally attractive 1/- paper, 2/6 cloth. A similar sheet was published for London & S.E. England.
In parallel with the Johnston-branded series, there appeared around 1925 a series of the same mapping, with sheets defined by a peculiar letter or pair of letters system rather than number. The double-letter sheets post-date the earlier single-letter sheets, and brought the total to 33. Coverage of the Scottish islands, northernmost mainland and part of the Northumberland coast was still missing, though sheets for these areas were to appear – at least on the index map – for a short time. The mystery was that on the early editions no publisher’s name was given, either on the cover or the map itself – they were totally anonymous. Circa 1933 a date code and attribution to W. & A. K. Johnston were added to the map (but not cover).
I can find no explanation for the initial anonymity, but the perpetuation of the series from the 1920s to the 1950s and the fact that they still turn up in numbers second-hand suggests that they were reasonably successful commercially, even if perhaps not sold in the conventional way.
The maps continued in production after WW2, from the late 1940s with a new garish green illustration and sketch map on the cover, and advertised for ‘Motoring, Cycling and Hiking’; only later was a one shilling price added. Even post-war the series was highlighting ‘Main Roads’ only; in practice only “A” roads and not all of those. Once off the main routes road quality was guesswork, which made the maps far less informative than their contemporaries.
Alongside this initially-anonymous series, the standard Johnston mapping was still continued, i.e. a 23-sheet series for England and Wales with contour-colouring (‘Altitude Tints’). The Scottish series of sixteen sheets was continued alongside. From the 1920s they showed MoT road classification (though not actual numbers), and have a coloured picture of a contemporary car on the front cover. There was also a 10m to the inch Johnston map of England and Wales, sharing the same picture cover.The identical maps of both the England & Wales and Scotland series were also published in 1924 in Ward, Lock and Co. branded picture covers. Prices were 1/6d paper, 2/- on cloth.
A Johnston road atlas of Great Britain containing this 3m to an inch mapping (with rather garish contour-colouring) first appeared in 1939 as a Daily Mail (Associated Press) special offer with the first Johnston-branded version following in 1940. The atlas included all of the Scottish mainland at the full scale (unlike many atlases) but omitted the Outer Hebrides as well as Orkney and Shetland. Early editions of the atlas distinguished only Class A roads (in red, but without MoT numbers: Johnston were slow in displaying these, or those for B roads), all other roads were shown uncoloured. It was advertised as ‘for motorists, cyclists and hikers’ – which given that it included several tracks only suitable for walkers was perhaps appropriate. The trouble was that a great many ‘roads’ shown fell into that category. As a guide to what passed for a cart road in the 1890s it is invaluable, as a motoring atlas it was completely untrustworthy. Perhaps, being wartime, it was intended to be left around to mislead any German paratroopers. Nevertheless, It went through annual reprinting and various editions until the 1970s, when someone kindly drove a stake through its heart.
The whole history of the Johnston 3m to an inch family of sheet maps is one of stagnation. Whilst the main road network was updated to reflect new construction and road classifications the base map was seriously out of date. By WW2 the mapping, both of the atlas and the kindred individual maps, was already fifty years old and and this underlying age is revealed by the omission of older road schemes. In Scotland it still showed a ‘road’ (actually the older and poorer of the two pony tracks) to the summit of Ben Nevis, and named the observatory and hotel there, which had closed in 1903 and 1916 respectively. Whilst the inclusion of mere cart tracks (and worse) may have been acceptable when the maps first appeared, bearing in mind motor traffic was then of no consequence, the failure to update the road network and excise or downgrade those routes unsuitable for cyclists, let alone motor vehicles, made them unfit for purpose. Some of these inter-valley routes shown in Scotland had meanwhile vanished from the O.S. one-inch map. Only after WW2 was some grading of the minor road network introduced and the worst anomalies addressed.
The series produced an offspring in the late 1940s - Johnston’s ‘Readyfold Coloured Touring Maps’, of England & Wales in 16 sheets. This again was a fully-coloured version of the 3m to an inch mapping, including contour-colouring and main and secondary roads highlighted: in practice this meant “A” and “B” roads plus a very few others. The novelty was that any horizontal slice of the map could be viewed without having to unfold the map fully, and the small cover size was convenient for the pocket. A disadvantage was that the map could not be unfolded to show the whole area (a disadvantage shared with modern phone-based maps!). Place-names of towns and more important villages were shown more prominently, though the choice of places selected, particularly in Wales, was rather arbitrary. Available only on cloth, and initially at 4/6, these maps were relatively expensive for the period, though not in relation to the generous area covered. They also had to compete with ‘standard’ editions of the 3m to an inch map as well as the new half-inch map introduced by Johnston shortly after.
Alongside the Readyfold series there appeared a revised edition of the standard 3m to an inch map, in drab blue covers, at 2/- a sheet on paper (no cloth-backed version). The maps were in the contour-coloured format of the traditional maps, but had the sheet areas of the 33 ‘Motoring, Cycling & Hiking’ maps described above, numbers replacing letters. Of these, only 29 sheets reappeared, the three sheets for northernmost Scotland not reappearing as well as that for the Isle of Man. Only “A” and “B” roads were distinguished by colour, which meant that all minor roads, tracks and some paths were still lumped together, rather than subdivided as in the same publisher’s new half-inch series (and the 3m to an inch maps themselves prior to WW1!). Passenger railways had not been updated since the 1920s, so were now completely unreliable. The maps must have had a very limited sale, but struggled on into the 1960s (yellow covers, 2/6d).
Johnston’s Half-Inch Series
Another main series, commenced in 1950 but with sheets appearing over several years, was ‘Johnston’s New 2 miles to 1 inch’ maps, covering England, Wales and mainland Scotland in 43 sheets (not initially numbered), with a standard colourful picture cover. The map content and style was largely influenced by the old 3m to an inch mapping (still in production), as despite complete redrawing to the larger scale virtually the same roads and place names were shown, though the latter were in a new, clearer font.
The maps had contour-colouring at the same sparse intervals as the 3m to an inch maps. Initially only “A” and “B” roads were highlighted (continuous red and dashed red), with all unclassified roads uncoloured: soon a selection of better minor roads categorised by red dots was indicated, while “the uncoloured roads are inferior and not to be recommended” (strangely, the same wording as had been used by Bartholomew half a century before). Although an attractive-looking map, distance added enchantment. The reliability of minor road detail was poor in that included within the ‘inferior’ category were many tarred roads as well as routes no more than bridleways. Whilst the same criticism can be addressed to Bartholomew’s half-inch maps of the period, the latter had more contours and spot-heights and so was the more cycle-friendly map.
Initially the sheets seem to have been available only in cloth-backed format, price 3/6, almost immediately (1951) increased to 4/6. Later a paper version at 3/- was introduced. Inevitably, further price rises were to take place over time. Although some of the earliest sheets were dated on first issue, this was dropped. Motorways were added to the key from about 1958, even on sheets with no motorways. By this time the attribution was Johnston & Bacon.
In the 1970s the series was republished as the ’30 Miles Around’ series, with extensive updates and all tarred minor roads reliably indicated and the shedding of much dead wood. Although sheet areas and names were generally similar to the earlier series, not all were re-issued. An interesting feature was that the maps had no separate cover, but came in a transparent sleeve, as first employed by Johnston in 1900.
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