From the Lorton & Derwent Fells LHS Newsletter No

1 The Greenwood maps online. accurate road distances and correct by Derek Denman latitude and longitude. Cumberland was surveyed by Thomas Donald in 1770-1 and The late Michael Grieve, who made such a published by Joseph Hodskinson in 1774. large contribution to the Society, wished We have a claim to Thomas Donald us to have his copies of the Greenwood because he married Ann Skelton of maps of Cumberland and Westmorland. Foulsyke in Loweswater and was buried in The committee agreed that these maps Loweswater Churchyard, though not before should be part of our archive, but also that producing some estate maps for local a project should be established to scan the landowners. Thomas Jefferys’ map of maps and to make them freely available Westmorland was published earlier, in on line for historical researchers and 1770 others. This would be done in his memory, By the 1820s the Donald and recalling his personal interest in old maps. Jefferys surveys were out of date in many This article provides a short discussion of respects, but they did provide a properly the maps and a guide to their use on the surveyed physical plan and a basic layout Society’s website at of the built environment. This could of www.derwentfells.com/greenwood . course be re-used freely by Greenwood, These Greenwood maps are part of and it is questionable how much of the a series of county maps surveyed and Greenwood maps were a new survey, and published by Charles and John Greenwood how much they were based on the old from 1817. The Cumberland map was county maps. It is most unlikely that the surveyed in 1821-2 and first published on Greenwoods made a new trigonometrical 10 April 1823 The Westmorland map was survey. In Cumberland and Westmorland surveyed in 1822-3 and first published in they may have had material from the 1824. Single sheet versions at three inches national trigonometrical survey by the Board of Ordnance, commenced in 1780 were published in 1830. At the one inch 1 scale a county would be covered by a but still incomplete. The qualifications and number of sheets, originally three in the actual surveying practices of the case of Cumberland and two for Greenwoods were matters debated Westmorland. Ours are on paper glued in between Christopher Greenwood and sections to linen to form folding maps, all Thomas Hodgson in Westmorland in 1823. housed in a single leather cloth slip case. Hodgson had decided to produce and sell They are hand coloured and are the his own map of Westmorland, published in second edition of 1844, which differs only 1828 at one and a third inches to the mile. in having the railways to that date He and his supporters joined battle with superimposed on the original survey, and Greenwood in the Westmorland Gazette with Cumberland being on four sheets. between June and September. The full The Cumberland map, surveyed in correspondence can be seen on the excellent Lakes Maps and Guides website 1821-2, remained the best and most 2 detailed map of the county until the by Martin and Jean Norgate. Ordnance Survey of the late 1850s/early Hodgson used a surveyor’s chain 1860s. This allowed the Greenwoods a to measure linear distances, for example good period to make a return on their along roads, while Greenwood was said to investment, for this was a private employ men to make a paced ‘eye-draft’ commercial venture for profit, and part of survey. no official or quasi-official sponsored project. It seems a daunting project for Some time since, a man was seen stepping on the Roads through the Villages, &c. of two brothers to seek to map the country at Westmorland and, to the no small that scale, and they did not complete all the counties. But their task was made easier by the fact that there had been an 1 I am grateful to Bill Shannon for advice on earlier part-sponsored project to map the Greenwood’s use of the Board of Ordnance counties accurately. From 1759 the Society information for Lancaster and Yorkshire, and for of Arts offered prizes for the production of a reference to the Cumberland and county maps to this scale. They must be Westmorland reports in the BL 2 based on a trigonometrical survey, have http://www.geog.port.ac.uk/webmap/thelakes/ html/wgaz1823/gz01fram.htm 2 amazement of those who saw him. He cadastral survey of England and Wales had stopped at intervals, and seemed to be been rejected due to the cost. writing on a piece of paper; but nobody The duration of the window of knew what he was, or what was his object in commercial opportunity open to the marching about in that way. Can Mr. Greenwood, (from his superlative education, Greenwoods was most uncertain when together with the instructions he had at they started, which clearly added to the Leeds,) tell me whether it is possible for this pressure to make their surveys as simple man to have been taking a Survey for a and speedy as possible, and their county County Map?3 maps just sufficient for the needs of their customers for an up to date county map. The rivals debated their training as One compromise was perhaps to exclude surveyors and their access to any heights or contours, or indications of mathematical and astronomical steep roads, which could have been useful instruments, but never their actual use of to travellers, especially with carriages. This these techniques and equipment – which might have been particularly useful in one therefore suspects was minimal. It Cumberland and Westmorland – for was not the accuracy of the survey of the example on the Whinlatter Pass. However, C18th maps which was the problem, but the Greenwood map did recognise the local that the content was out of date. This importance of tourism by its depiction of debate about the accuracy of the rival the fells. Donald had shown the periphery surveys was probably just a diversion. of the fells by hachures and added a few They each needed to spend their time and names. Greenwood used extensive money on adding content, and to divert hachuring to give more detail of the fells their rival into resurveying the land. themselves, plus their watercourses. Many The potential threat to the viability more names of fells, watercourses and of these maps came from the official and summits were given, with a list of the quasi-official mapping projects which were heights of the principal mountains. slowly developing. Maps of the Board of A further compromise might be Ordnance at one inch scale were briefly found in the exclusion of information which available in southern England starting with might quickly become outdated. Donald Kent in 1801. Publication was prohibited had charged gentlemen to have their between 1811 and 1816, but thereafter names against their seats, but Greenwood Ordnance Survey one inch maps became did not offer that. Raisbeck Lucock Bragg’s 4 increasingly available in the south. The seat at Lorton Hall was clearly surveyed by need for publically funded mapping came Greenwood and shown as a ‘C’ shape, but firstly from military requirements, and its owner’s name was not given. More then for cadastral surveys which were surprising is the exclusion of roadside inns sufficiently accurate and detailed to act as and alehouses, important to travellers and a basis of valuation and taxation of particularly in our district, but perhaps too landholdings. It was the latter need which fluid to name. caused the Board of Ordnance to be The deficiency in the Greenwood charged in 1824 with mapping Ireland, Cumberland map was the lack of any town which had been part of the United plans at a larger scale. Donald had Kingdom since 1800. The Ordnance Survey provided plans of the three most important Act was not passed until 1841, and from in 1770, Carlisle, Whitehaven and 1846 maps started to become available Cockermouth. The industrial revolution from the full survey of England Scotland was in full swing in 1820, even in parts of and Wales at six inches and approximately Cumberland, and so Donald’s plans needed 25 inches to the mile. An earlier updating and could have been included. opportunity to use the Tithe Commutation Greenwood, instead, used some of the Act of 1836 as the justification for a full white space for a view of Carlisle from across the river. The Westmorland map had no plan of Kendal, which Jefferys had 3 Westmorland Gazette, 26 July 1823. included. However, the excellence of 4 See W A Seymour, A history of the Ordnance Greenwood’s map of London of 1827, at Survey, Dawson Folkestone 1980. eight inches to the mile, must be http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/docs/ebooks/ appreciated. a-history-of-the-ordnance-survey/index.html 3 The main changes that the enclosure of the commons. Many of the Greenwoods captured in our area were the turnpike roads were already on the C18th roads, particularly in the context of the maps, for example the two from 4 Whinfell & Lorton from the Donald map, surveyed 1770-1 Greenwood shows the full new enclosure Cockermouth on the section shown, to roads, as in Embleton but not Lorton. It is Keswick and Kendal via Whinlatter, and to interesting that the enclosure awards for Penrith via Heskett Newmarket (not via Embleton and Whinfell were dated 1824 Keswick). The Greenwood survey pre- and 1826, after the Greenwood survey. dated the new turnpike from 1825 through The process of enclosure started after the Embleton and down the West side of earlier Acts of Parliament, and the awards Bassenthwaite, intended as a level recorded the completed process.

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