Chapman and André's Map of Essex 1777

Hi Tim, sorry about the late publication of the comment immediately below - it came about 10 days ago. I've had nightmare experiences with Windows 10 and Linux Mint that are now past so I've been able to resurface today.

Regards, Bob Stephen

Hello Brian, Bob and RDCA readers,

I have produced 'Version 2' of the Map of Essex 1777 based on the original 18th-century atlas of twenty-five engraved sheets.

This open access online version is now available at: https://map-of-essex.uk

I hope you enjoy exploring and please share widely.

Also, I am participating in this year's Rochford Art Trail (20 – 27 September) to share this magnificent piece of Essex heritage with new audiences – the window display at The Old House, South Street provides the perfect venue. For more info. about this event please visit: http://www.rochfordarttrail.org

Additionally, there will be opportunities on Tuesday 25 September to enjoy the fascinating (and free*) Art Trail / Heritage Walking Tours delivered by the Rochford Town Team. To book a place visit: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/historic-rochford-walking-tour-passing-some-art-trail-venues-tickets-50221855923

* 'Free' thanks to Rochford Parish Council and the generous sponsorship from Caremark.

It would have been quite a shock seeing the original engravings for the first time if you have only ever seen the later copies.

The originals are truly stunning in the amount and clarity of detail they have, I can well remember the first time I saw them myself.

Having the later copies on-line is a wonderful historic resource that I will no-doubt use quite a lot in my historical research so thank you, but to have a high resolution digitised version of the originals would be simply amazing.

Hello Brian, Bob and RDCA readers, thank you for your comments – good to know you’re enjoying the digital map and finding it useful.

You'll be pleased to know I now have access to the exquisitely detailed original 18th century engravings, the digitised plates will also be stitched together to produce a superior high-resolution interactive map to complement and enrich the above version/website for the further benefit of students, teachers, historians, researchers and other interested people. For your information, this will be freely available in July 2018 at: http://map-of-essex.uk

Maybe so Brian but the detail still looks impressive.

I had a quick look around the net and found this:

http://www.chapmanandremapofessex.co.uk/

which turns out to be another recreation of the originals (but without hanchures to show gradients), and which is available at considerable cost. Some useful associated information is provided about the Chapman and André editions.

Has anyone had a go recently at a full colour digitisation of any of the original coloured versions of the maps? Might be nice to have one of our local area in Essex.

Very useful thanks for the link. It is a shame that he had to use the 1950 re-print and was not able to use an original 1777 printing. The original that was printed with the original copper plates has far more detail than the 1950 re-print that used a photo type process to copy an original and as a result lost some detail and also lost some edges of the original maps.