16.     John Hayman (Cole & Roper)                                                     1805

 

In 1801 John Britton (1771-1857) received a commission to prepare the text for the Beauties of Wiltshire, the first county in the series of the Beauties of England and Wales. John started as a cellarman in Smithfield, then became an attorney’s clerk and gave that up when he became interested in archaeology and had published his first work the Adventures of Pizzaro in 1799.  By 1805 he was writing about Devon and in that year he arranged with John Roper for the engraving of a county map by George Cole and a map of Exeter drawn by John Hayman. He went on to complete the Beauties with E W Brayley (1773-1854), a fellow antiquarian, and it proved a great success. It led to further illustrated county books of which Devon Illustrated was published in 1829, and Cornwall Illustrated in 1831 (and brought together in 1832).

The plan was also issued in the British Atlas, first published 1810, published for the Proprietors^[1]. From 1810 editions appeared for Vernor and Hood and in 1816 for Baldwin, Cradock & Joy, and in 1816 English Topography by the Rev. J. Nightingale was issued by the same publishers. The Curiosities of Great Britain … London: Tallis & Co (1835) also contained a county map but no changes to map area (only plate number or imprint etc., see B&B 67 for the county map).

Britton was one of the most productive writers of his time. An author of numerous books on the antiquities and topography of Great Britain, he was so popular that the Britton Club was formed in 1845 and a sum of nearly £1,000 was raised by a subscription for his intended autobiography. 

Title: EXETER

Size: 220 x 180 mm with SCALE 800 feet = 24 mm or 1 Mile = 174 mm.

Signature: Engraved by J. Roper from a drawing by J. Hayman and Drawn and Engraved under the Direction of J. Britton. Note: To Accompany the Beauties of England and Wales and imprint: London: Published for the Proprietors by Vernon & Hood Poultry, June 1st, 1805.^[2] 

The Bishop’s & the City Arms are top left and at the bottom there is a vignette of East View of Exeter Cathedral &c. signed Hayman dd. and Woolnoth sc. The REFERENCE table is shown in wards above the scale bar. A north point is shown. The plan covers the same area as Tozer except that Holloway is extended as far as Parker’s Wall and the Cotton Factory by Trews Wear. As David Smith points out it was specially commissioned and Hayman used extensive local knowledge. [2A]

Outside the city walls: Bridge Street is named between the bridge and Fore Street with Frog Lane passing below; the notes Devon/Exeter are shown by the bridge; the western New Cut is omitted and a New Canal bypasses Blackaller Wear; the road from Bedford Circus has been extended and now passes through Barn Field (the crescent dating to 1800). There are numerous additions including Little Silver beside St. Davids, the two sets of Barracks off the New Road, and an Aqueduct to the City Conduits at the head of Longbrook (beside Lions Holt and the Ammunition Ground). Fryers Hay, previously full of serge racks is now built up with Graves Street and Colleton Crescent (only completed in 1805 after three years) but other fields are still dotted with rack symbols, even though their total area is dwindling, for example, Bull Meadow, between Holloway Street and Magdalen Street. Only one Turnpike Gate is shown: the gate opposite Parker’s Wall on Holloway Street.

Inside the walls: the Wards have only an initial as reference; most religious meeting houses are shown as well as all the churches; the Old Jail (Tozer) is now the Methodists Meeting House; St. John’s Hospital is called the Grammar Sc.; the Treasury, by the cathedral has been removed; North Street is widened by the old gate; and the chapel is omitted within the castle. The Quaker’s Meeting House was built in Magdalen Street in 1806 but is already shown and is in the key. The Mount Pleasant inn on the river has become the Knave of Clubs.

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^[1] Issued in parts without a title page.

^[2] Volume IV containing Devon and Dorset is dated 1803 (title page) but the three maps (Devon, Dorset and Exeter) are all dated 1805.

[2A] Amended 2022: David Smith; The British Atlas, 1810 – A Reassessment of the town maps; in the IMCoS Journal; March 2017.

 39.     Palmer & Stone / William Wood                                                  1857

 

Palmer & Stone advertised in John Billing’s Directory and Gazetteer of 1857. They had taken over from Angel & Co. and advertised themselves as Practical Engravers, Copper-plate and Lithographic Printers as well as providing the usual odd assortment of services, e.g. wedding orders, maps, bill heads and cards all executed on very short notice and at the lowest possible price. They operated the West of England Engraving and Printing Office at 3, Waterbeer Street and were established in 1816.

In or around 1857 the present map was included in two separate works. A simplified version appeared in W William Wood’s 3rd edition of the Hand-book to South Devon, Dartmoor Etc. with the imprint of Palmer & Stone, Exeter. A short time later Palmer and Stone published The Hand-Book to Exeter.^[1]  There were considerable changes to this edition: 10 attractive vignettes have been added and the map is considerably larger at 260 x 325 mm. The ten vignettes are: Exeter from Exwick Hill; Bury Meadow; Fore Street; High Street; Queen Street; Northernhay; Quay; Guildhall; Castle; and the Cathedral. An imprint replaces the signature Engraved for the Hand Book to Exeter, Published by Palmer & Stone, Waterbeer Street, Exeter.

The map was reissued in the third edition of the Exeter Hand-Book (circa 1863) with a new imprint: Engraved for the Hand Book to Exeter, by G. G. Palmer, 3, Waterbeer Street, Exeter. The map is slightly wider (at 350 mm) and the vignettes are repositioned with the Castle vignette replaced above the Guildhall so revealing the junction of Heavitree Rd and Magdalen New Road and To Wonford replaced beyond the road. The London & South Western Railway is shown with Queen Street Station and Longbrook ends at the New North Road. There was the addition of the Agricultural Exhibition which occupies the same space as the Show Yard of 1850, the adjacent note To Wonford, and the Free Cottages. 

Title: MAP OF EXETER Corrected to the present time.

Size: 260 x 335 mm with SCALE Chains 40 = 41mm.

Signature:  Palmer & Stone, Exeter. 

Plain three line border, title above the North point, the scale bar and the City’s Arms have seated pegassi. The Reference Key is printed on the adjoining leaf: Public Buildings; Hotels; Parish; Precincts; Dissenting Chapels &c. Note the detail and the parks and planting reminiscent of Rocque’s and Hayman´s plans.

Although the Tallis map a few years earlier is very attractive (and is usually found hand-coloured) this map is a very well executed plan and has far more developments given that it was engraved only about five years later.

The map was used again in 1872 in the fourth Handbook to Exeter. The Arms and Northernhay have changed places as have the Guildhall and the Castle. Development is shown east of Workhouse Lane and note the new brick fields south of Black Boy Road. The Agricultural Exhibition has been erased, the Militia Barracks are shown on Cowick Street, the county gaol and the reservoirs are reshaped. Note the development by Bury Meadow and Longbrook has disappeared. Circa 1877 new imprints appear: Entd. At Stationers Hall – Engraved & Printed by E.S.A.Robinson & Co. Bristol; for the Handbook to Exeter. About this time the county prison changes from the cross shape to the H form. A New Edition of the Hand-Book, possibly published by W Wood again, appeared circa 1881 (illustrated below, cover illustrated above) with no imprint and some minor changes: city crest simplified; Rougemont Hotel replaces the City Prison; and there are new houses opposite Bury Meadow.

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^[1] The text of both was written about 1855 but as the vignettes were retained in later issues it seems probable that Wood´s Hand-Book appeared first.