Introduction & Explanation

Welcome to Old Essex Maps, a site that lists and displays all the antique maps of Essex I can find, and has information on many other aspects of historical maps.

The website is divided into the following sections (click on a link in a description to go to that section, or use the navigation at the top left of each page):

Mapmakers of Essex - now has two listings: a chronological listing of all the "mapmakers" who have been involved with the county maps of Essex, whether as surveyor, designer, engraver or publisher, sequenced by the date of their first item. Against each one is listed the County Atlases or separate maps they produced of Essex, with links to associated mapmakers and to images of the maps. In addition, there is also an alphabetical order of the same people - this is accessed from the chronological one (and on the "Sundry" page). Note: links to "Mapmakers" from individual maps take you to the chronological Mapmakers listing.

County Maps of Essex - has images of each map of Essex in more or less chronological order, fronted by a listing of them. The maps run from Saxton's of 1576 to early 21st century ones, but are mainly 17th, 18th and 19th century maps from Atlases of British Counties.

Map publishers - has images of Essex maps in more or less chronological order within each of the publishers who had many differently named maps/atlases - particularly for folding maps.

Road Maps - at present has examples of the 17th to 19th century road strip maps, but later will have up to 20th century road atlases of Essex.

Dealers - has a listing of map dealers, with links to their websites.

Libraries, Societies and other websites - has listings and links to Libraries that hold originals of these maps, Societies that specialise in various aspects of maps, and other useful websites.

County cartobibliographies - describes the books that have been written listing all the maps of some other counties, plus links to the counties that have websites for their cartobibliographies.

Books - has a listing of standard reference books on county maps and other mapping topics.

Dating folding maps - has notes on identifying the dates of (undated) folding maps, based on codes or other information found on them.

Parliamentary divisions - has a description and maps of the parliamentary divisions that have existed in Essex from before 1832 to 1918.

Railways in Essex - has a description and maps of the railway lines across Essex as they came (& went) from 1832 to 1913.

Sundry - has a variety of sub pages, such the Coastal maps of Essex, Regional maps, Surveys of Essex and the variation in Scales.

Revisions - has a list of material changes made to this site over time.

More pages will be added to this site, but in the meantime you can contact me via email to info(at)oldessexmaps.co.uk if you'd like to send me any comments or queries.

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© Peter Walker 2013 - 2020