Maps and plans
Maps and plans are a very important source of information about the development of places through time. The study of urban development, rural change, land use, communications, industries, places of worship and individual properties are all examples of topics where maps can be especially useful as evidence.
However, all maps were made for a specific purpose, and care is necessary when using them for different ends. All maps tend to exaggerate certain features, and reduce, or ignore others. Accuracy can vary enormously, and some mapmakers omitted features that were not central to their purpose.
Early maps
The earliest printed maps, produced by Saxton, Morden and others from the late 16th century onwards, were usually drawn of individual counties and are of very limited historical use, However, their successors began to include an increasing amount of detail, especially main roads, from the late 17th century on.
The first detailed maps
A revolution in map-making took place during the 18th century. The need for new and improved mapping was created by developments such as the enclosure of common land, the commutation of tithes, and the planning and building of new turnpike roads and canals. By the end of the century published mapping had become much more detailed. Burdett's plan of Derbyshire (1767, revised 1791) is a typical example of what had now become possible.
Enclosure and tithe plans, mostly made during the period 1750 to 1850, often provide the best map of a village or neighbourhood prior to the appearance of large-scale Ordnance Survey plans. Because of their manuscript format, the original plans will only be found at the Derbyshire Record Office, although some Local Studies Libraries have microfilm versions of some of them.
The Ordnance Survey
The end of the 18th century also saw the emergence of the earliest official mapping, with the establishment of the Ordnance Survey. Although publication began in the early 1800's at the scale of 1inch to 1 mile, the first plans of Derbyshire did not appear until around 1840.
Then the large-scale plans began to be produced, at 6 inch, and later 25 inch to the mile. These were surveyed on an individual county basis (known as the County Series), and are the most useful maps for local studies. Derbyshire sheets began to appear from the late 1870's. These maps are especially useful for study of a period of rapid population growth, extensive migration, industrial expansion and agrarian change with the associated development in transport. Some of these maps are available in paper form but in many cases are held on microfilm only.
The Second Edition 25 inch maps of Derbyshire are available for purchase on CD Rom price £25.00 by order through any Derbyshire library.
Town Plans and Specialised Mapping
Larger scale (usually 1:500) plans were also produced for towns of over 4,000 population; at this scale, street furniture is included, and the roofs of some public buildings are removed, to show internal layout. Coming not long before the slum clearance, street widening and road building programmes of the late 19th to early 20th centuries, they show the old courts, yards and alleyways, many of which were eliminated by these modernising schemes. The towns in Derbyshire for which mapping was produced at this scale are Belper, Buxton, Chesterfield, Derby, Glossop, Ilkeston and Long Eaton.
Much other mapping from the mid 19th century on was derived from the Ordnance Survey. For example local authority planning and administrative maps and street plans; commercial atlases and street maps; estate surveys and sales plans; industrial, commercial and shopping centre plans; and the mapping of the Geological, Soil and Land Use surveys.
Examples of all these different kinds of mapping for the local area can be found in Derbyshire's larger local studies libraries.