1830 Pigot Map of England and Wales

An 1830 map of England, Wales, and part of Scotland issued by James Pigot - one of the first maps of anywhere to include an operating commercial railroad. It was published at the beginning of the railway building craze in Britain and is one of the earliest maps to include the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, the first recognizably modern railway line.

A Closer Look

The map offers extraordinary detail, with hand color outlines of counties and shires. Towns, cities, large estates, canals, railroad lines, and ferries are thoroughly documented. A legend at right explains the notation used throughout, while a highly decorative title crowns the map at top-right.

Dawn of the Railway Age

Among the features of this map, perhaps the most notable is the railway line from Liverpool to Manchester, the world's first intercity railway and the first commercially successful railway, opened the same year this map was published. The railway was built with the intention of using stationary steam engines and cables, similar to a cable car, but the railway's chief engineer Robert Stephenson strongly advocated for steam powered locomotives that would pull individual trains. Stephenson's father George was a prominent inventor and had, with him, developed a steam-powered locomotive as well as tracks able to bear the weight of the engines they designed.

As the Liverpool and Manchester was nearing completion, the company's directors decided to hold a competition to determine which sort of engine would be most suitable for the railway. Dubbed the Rainhill Trials and taking place in October 1829, the demonstration was a resounding success for Stephenson's Rocket and set the stage for railways to expand at a tremendous pace in Britain, the United States, and elsewhere.

Despite the opposition of some landowners and established canal operators, Parliament and private investors devoted considerable sums to railways in the wake of the Liverpool and Manchester's success. The result was a veritable frenzy of railway building, with companies being formed, gaining Parliamentary approval, and often quickly fizzling out at a near daily rate. The cumulative result was that, by 1850, most of the major, medium, and even small cities of England, and to a lesser extent Wales and southern Scotland, were connected.

Publication History and Census

This map was published in 1830 by (James) Pigot and Co. Pigot's map seems to be based on the work of John Cary, which he reduced and updated for this 1830 publication. It is listed among the holdings of three institutions (the National Library of Scotland, the University of Oxford, and Aberdeen University.