8. Ichabod Fairlove 1709
In 1709 Ichabod
Fairlove was the first surveyor to
produce a plan of the city since Hooker and Robert Sherwood (who produced a number of
manuscript maps and plans) nearly 100 years earlier. This was the first printed
plan produced entirely in the City. The engraver, Joseph Coles also illustrated William
Musgrave’s antiquarian works and the map
was distributed by Edward Score, the Exeter bookseller. It
included illustrations of the major buildings in the City and became the model
for both Nicholls and William Stukeley in 1723
and remained the standard until John Rocque’s survey of 1744 (see 11).
Only one edition is believed to have been printed and it was possibly issued
separately as a broadsheet map.[1]
Title: A True Plan of the City of Excester
Size: 545 x 450 mm with A scale
of 1000 feet (= 102 mm or 1Mile = 540 mm.).
Signature:
Ichd. Fairlove Surveyed Ios Coles Sculp
There
is a wreathed dedication: This plan is
humbly dedicated to Mr. CALEB LOWDHAM Junr.
of the Citty Surgeon by Joseph Coles-
Imprint: Sold by Edward Score Bookseller over agt the Guild-hall
The map is decorated
with four vignettes in the corners: the So. West Prospect of the Cathedral; the
Guildhall; the Work-House; and the Custom-House. The left hand panel contains a
column with a lettered strip wound round it St. Peters Church foundd By K.
Athelstan AD 932. 43 years Building and is surmounted by the Bishop’s Arms below two heraldic
snakes twisted round two north points and the sun over the date Anno Domin
MDCCIX. The right hand panel is similar but with the winding strip reading Urb.
Condit. Anno Mundi 2855. Ant Christ 1100. The City’s Arms are above with
the snakes, north points and sun but no date. The scale bar is vertical.
The plan is drawn with north to
the left and following the Hooker format shows the city from just over the
bridge to St. Sidwell and from St. David's Hill to Wynard’s Alms Houses on the
London Road. Moving away from the bird’s-eye view it gives a better shape for
the city. It is a street plan with only churches and the Bishop’s Palace drawn
eye-view (but not the cathedral, shown
with an internal plan). Principal buildings are either titled or numbered to
the reference key. The Cathedral gates, the Great Conduit and the Alms Houses are shown. Of
special note are the Shambles and the Bridewell in Goldsmiths Street, the Guildhall on High Street and the arch at the
bottom of Key Lane. The serge industry is
expanding: Rack Lane (11), illustrated on all maps
so far, is identifiable but so, too, is the serge market with its stalls in Southgate
Street (17), and there are racks set
up at all points west of the city with Shilhay now covered[2]. Houses are shown
diagrammatically and far too small: for example, some 13 houses are shown on
the east side of Cook Row, in Southgate Street, as
against the 8 in Hooker’s plan of the city. The crane (Izacke’s wind mill) has
gone from the quay. Note the spelling of Bunny for Bunhay and Paree for Paris (Street). Lethbridge’s Alms Houses (1668) in St. James Street are shown.
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