34.     Besley – Agricultural Show II                                             1850

 

Although one guide had already been published (see previous entry), Henry Besley produced his own guide for visitors to the prestigious Royal Agricultural Show. Besley dedicated the guide to the President etc. of the Royal Agricultural Society, and this Preface is also dated July, 1850. It would appear that Jewitt had better informed sources: Besley had to include an Erratum slip to notify a change of caterer. Instead of Mrs Murch, a local confectioner, the gala dinner was to be provided by M Soyer of London. 

Title: EXETER Royal Agricultural Society’s Meeting 1850

Size: 230 x 275 mm with no scale but with Plan of Show Yard. 

The border is cut to make space for a Plan of Show Yard to be included. The map is orientated with the river from left to right; it shows area from Railway Station (St. David’s) to Victoria Terrace and from St. Thomas Station to St. Agnes road junction. Drawn for the show, the Yard is clearly shown (by Veitch’s Nursery). Two notes for show visitors indicate To the Heavy Soil trial field and To the light soil trial field (top). Both City Markets are shown. As on his map of the city for the Route Book, both Pince’s Nursery and Veitch’s Nursery are shown in the borders. Compared to Jewitt’s map, above, this is a disappointing plan not up to Besley’s normal standard: churches and chapels are listed in the key with only nine public buildings, and no hotels or inns are identified.

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 35.     George Oliver / John Leland                                    1850 (1600)

 

The Reverend George Oliver was both Catholic priest and Exeter historian. He was born at Newington, Surrey in 1781 and was promoted to holy orders and moved to Exeter to the mission of the Society of Jesus at St. Nicholas in 1807. He retired in 1851 but continued to live in the priory until his death in 1861. He wrote numerous works on the history of Devon, the church and the catholic faith in the west. Probably while researching for material for a second edition of his History of Exeter (first published 1821) he came across two early plans of the castle which he then included in an essay in The Archaeological Journal of June 1850^[1]. The first was a manuscript plan (the original 480 x 480 mm) in the British Library which was for a long time thought to be by John Leland, the antiquarian and poet who visited Exeter in 1542^[2] and a second plan attributed to John Norden (see next entry).

Title: GROUND PLAN OF EXETER CASTLE above plan and below From an Original Survey in the reign of Henry VIII Preserved in the British Museum.

Size: 110 x 115 mm. No signature. An indication of scale is shown by 300 paces across courtyard. 

It shows the old Norman entry, closed up in late medieval time, as the Ould Port, and beside it ye latter port, where Castle Street ends today. Opposite, across the court, are the ould and latter sally ports. It shows the escarpment and the ditch, but it shows no buildings within the court and only suggests King John’s bastion and Athelstan’s tower.

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^[1] The Archaeological Journal for the Encouragement and Prosecution into the Arts and Monuments of the Early and Middle Ages published by the Archaeological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland June 1850 as part of Volume VII.

^[2] It was described as “Temp. Henry VIII” but Peter Barber of the Map Library has suggested a date closer to 1600 based on the style of hand-writing (i.e. 50 years after Leland’s death).

 36.     George Oliver / John Norden                                               1850 (1617)

 

John Norden (1548-1625), surveyor and topographer, produced the first complete series of county histories and invented the triangular distance table (Intended Guyde for English Travailers in 1625). In 1600 he was appointed to survey the crown´s forests in Devon (and other counties) and surveyed those areas c.1608. As surveyor of the King´s castles (appointed 1612) Norden surveyed Exeter castle in 1615 or 1617 (when James I made over the manorial rights of the Duchy of Lancaster and Cornwall to his ‘dearly beloved Charles’). The survey was presumably drawn to settle the actual castle boundaries, and made under the instruction of Sir James Fullerton, Surveyor General. 

Title: FACSIMILE PLAN OF THE CASTLE PRECINCT, EXETER and below MADE BY NORDEN IN 1617, AND ATTACHED TO HIS SURVEY. ADDL MSS BRITISH MUSEUM No. 6027.

Size: nominally 170 x 205 mm. There is no scale.

Signatures: P. H. De la Motte, del. (bottom left) and J. H. le Keux, sc. (bottom right). 

Plain sketch of castle area with the border broken at the top for a small triangular piece of the Castle Hill. Letters A – K as references but which are not explained on the map sheet.

This plan was included by Oliver in two of his writings: it appeared first in The Archaeological Journal of June 1850 (see above, illustrated opposite); and it was reissued with the reference key (see opposite) in his History of Exeter of 1861 with letter L added, signatures replaced by that of Geo. G. Palmer, Lith, Exeter and everything in title after date deleted. The plan was also copied for W M Bounsall’s Exmouth and its Neighbourhood (1868, illustrated below) with small variations. Bounsall’s plan has title John Norden’s Plan of Exceter Castle and Parte of the Citie of Exceter 1617 (upper case) and is signed by Day & Son (Limited) Lith.

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 37.     Featherstone & Co. I                                                            1852

 

The Featherstone company of lithographers and printers produced two maps of Exeter in the 1850s (see also 40). William Charleton Featherstone was born circa 1794-95 in Plymouth and died 3rd February 1858 in Exeter. He married Jane and they had one son, Samuel, but it was Jane who registered William’s death and it was probably she who announced the sale of her late husband’s business to John Pollard in the Exeter Flying Post of 18th March of the same year. William worked from a large number of addresses and he is listed at 67 Fore Street in Pigot’s 1822 directory and under the Weekly Times Office 1828. As early as 1825 he printed a broadsheet on the proposed railway to Exeter (printer to J Godfrey). Between September 1832 and April 1833 18 issues of The Western Spy were published: the first two under Featherstone, the others by W C Pollard. He also published the Western Times for a while but severed connection with the paper to start up Featherstone’s Exeter Times in 1836 which was not successful and ran for only four months. 

Title: MAP OF THE CITY OF EXETER, EMBRACING ALL THE Alterations and Improvements to the Present Period.

Size: 445 x 590 mm with scale Chains 22 = 73 mm.

Imprint: DRAWN, PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY FEATHERSTONE & Co. Lithographers and Printers. 246, High Street, Exeter. 

A panel on both sides shows the ‘Street List’. There is a scale bar and the City Arms. There is a note on population: Population 1851, City of Exeter, 32,818 but including St. Thomas &c. 38,886. Three panels at the bottom list the parishes, the churches and public buildings. One interesting feature is the ‘cross’ shape to the City Prison which reappears on later maps: Warren correctly showed the prison as a shallow ‘H’ shaped building.

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Illustration reproduced by kind permission of Devon Archives & Local Studies.
Documents held at Devon Archives are copyright. Copying, printing, reproducing or sharing images of them on this website is not permitted.

 38.     Tallis / Rapkin                                                                              1852 

The Tallis family were leading London publishers of atlases and famous for their illustrations of the facades of London Streets. Their hallmark was the use of elaborate frames around their maps often incorporating a wide variety of scenes. 

Title: EXETER

Size: 230 x 305 mm (excl. frame) with Scale of (20 = 53 mm) Chains or ¼ of a Mile.

Imprints: The Illustrations Drawn & Engraved by H Winkles (bottom left), JOHN TALLIS & COMPANY, LONDON & NEW YORK (below central) and The Plan Drawn & Engraved by J Rapkin (bottom right). 

Three line border with highly ornate baroque edging incorporating both the title and the Scale Bar. There is a North point and there are six vignettes surrounding the plan itself: Southernhay; Post Office; St. Sidwell’s; view of the Exe; Guildhall; Exeter Cathedral. The county prison plan is a ‘cross’ similar to Featherstone’s symbolised building. Nevertheless, it is an attractive map, clear and precise, and principal buildings are named.

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Illustration reproduced by kind permission of Devon Archives & Local Studies.
Documents held at Devon Archives are copyright. Copying, printing, reproducing or sharing images of them on this website is not permitted.

 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.

 40.     Featherstone & Co. II                                                                    1858

 

The actual dating of this smaller map by Featherstone is not known but seems to be a few years later than the large plan executed in 1850 (see 37 above). On the one hand the reservoir is still portrayed as a single basin although two filter beds had been added in 1854 but it is probably the only map to include the Exeter & Yeovil railway line as projected. As the actual South Western line was completed in 1860 the map must have shortly pre-dated the arrival of the new line. 

Title: MAP OF EXETER.                        

Size: 185 x 233 mm with Scale of Feet 1000 = 40mm (or 1 Mile = 211 mm).

Imprint:  Featherstone Lithographer 246 High Street Exeter. There is a note below this: Circulating Library Bedford Street. See below (all top left in plain panel). 

Note the inset plan showing the location of Featherstone’s Circulating Library and their printing office (bottom left). There is a scale bar, North point (west is at top) and two tables of Reference – Churches and Chapels. The prison shape has been altered from that in Featherstone’s earlier plan, and now has the correct H form. The South Devon Railway is clearly shown and the Intended Exeter & Yeovil Railway.

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Illustration reproduced by kind permission of Devon Archives & Local Studies - MM B/EXE/1855/FEA.
Documents held at Devon Archives are copyright. Copying, printing, reproducing or sharing images of them on this website is not permitted.