1800 Bowles and Carven Map Folding Road Map of England and Wales

An impressive 1800 Bowles and Carver map highlighting the system of roads of England and Wales, including the dense network emanating from London.

A Closer Look

Taking in all of England and Wales, with portions of Scotland and Ireland, the map is expertly hand-colored with counties of England and Wales shaded to easily distinguish them. Distances (in miles) of stretches of roads between towns are noted, while the distance of towns and cities from London is indicated with a circled number. Aside from principal roads, often turnpikes, great roads and lesser roads are also indicated, as are ferry services to the Isle of Man, Ireland, and the Continent with distance marked in leagues. An intricate title cartouche includes drivers, muskets, and a vignette of a carriage on the move.

Historical Context

In the decades before this map's publication, the road system of Britain expanded considerably, primarily through the establishment of turnpike trusts financed through debts that were repaid by tolls. This approach was wildly successful for constructing a national network of wide, straight roads connecting large towns and cities, which facilitated trade and travel. However, the tolls came to be seen as onerous by travelers and were so resented that they even led to riots, especially in Wales, by the mid-19th century. As a result, the turnpike system was gradually undone (also known as detrunking) and local governments generally took over administration of the highways and turnpikes, with oversight and funding from Parliament.

Publication History and Census

This map was produced and published by the London-based firm Bowles and Carver in 1800. It was issued with some regularity around the turn of the 19th century, though it is now a rare map in any edition (in the 1830s, maps of the same title were produced by James Wyld). The OCLC lists 1796 and 1804 editions and we have located examples from 1802 and 1811 in institutional collections, but there are no other known examples of the 1800 edition in either institutional collections or on the market.