When Berwick was ‘Barwick’
by Adam Drummond
A DETAILED map of Berwick from the 17th century has been made available online to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the first atlas of Britain.
The town plan, which is an inset in part of a map of the whole of Northumerland names Berwick as ‘Barwick’.
It was produced by John Speed, who was born in Farmdom, Cheshire in 1551.
Sixty years later his ‘Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine’ was published, the first time that comprehensive county maps were available in print.
To celebrate the 400th anniversary of their publication, Cambridge University have made the proof maps available online.
Andrew Alexander, deputy head of maps at Cambridge University, told the Advertiser: “We have one of only five proofed copies in the world, so it is incredibly rare.
“It was important to digitise it and we managed to complete the project quite quickly.”
Mr Alexander added: “It is not unusual for place names to have different spellings on old maps. Names were recorded by word of mouth and were often misheard.
“Speed would have mapped most of it himself by foot, and some of it he would would have reworked from others.
“There was no satellite technology in those days of cousrse. So it must have been a laborious task.”
In Speed’s map of Northumberland only ‘Barwick’ and ‘Newe:castle’ are covered in detail, distinctly showing streets and buildings of interest, including in Berwick the old medieval church was later replaced by Berwick Parish Church.
Mr Alexander said: “I think the towns and cities are fairly accurate, given how they were done.
“Towns were stylised locations, and it is believed that town plans with a scale, like the map of ‘Barwick’ are places that Speed visited himself. The scale was his signature.
“This was the first time town plans were mapped in the atlas of Great Britain.”
The atlas was bought by Cambridge University in 1968 and each map shows a plan of each county town in the corner as well as coats of arms of local families.
The detail on the county map is impressive, with small villages and hamlets named on the map, including in the local area the likes of ‘Barmore’, ‘Doddinton’, ‘Fennik’ and ‘Tyllmouth’.
Speed’s ‘Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine’ is one of the world’s great cartographic treasures.
Inset into the corner of each county map is a plan of its county town and space around the edges of the maps are used to illustrate famous battles, local coats of arms, as well as Roman and pre-historic sites.
The atlas is now considered priceless. It contains a single sheet for each county of England and Wales, plus a map of Scotland and each of the four Irish provinces.
The atlas was so impressive at the time that it was used by armies on both sides of the English Civil War.
Anne Taylor, head of the map department at the university library, said: “Although the library holds several copies of the published atlas – including a first edition – it is the hand-coloured set of proofs produced between 1603 and 1611 that is one of its greatest treasures.
“It was bought by the University Library in 1968 after the government refused an export licence for the proofs to be sold abroad. We know it as the Gardner copy after its previous owner (Eric Gardner). It really is a rare and delightful item.”
John Speed was a historian as well as a cartographer, and paid tribute to earlier map-makers whose work he drew on, especially the county maps of the great Elizabethan surveyor Christopher Saxton.
The county maps were the first consistent attempt to show territorial divisions, but it was Speed’s town plans that were a major innovation and probably his greatest contribution to British map-making.
The atlas was an immediate success when it was first published, with the first print run of around 500 copies believed to have must sold quickly, because many editions followed and, by the time of the 1627 edition, the atlas cost 40 shillings.
The ‘Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine’ was a supreme achievement in cartography and made John Speed one of the most famous of all Britain’s map-makers, becoming the blueprint for folio atlases until the mid-18th century.
The maps can be viewed online at www.lib.cam.ac.uk/deptserv/maps/speed.html, from where copies can also be bought.
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Weather for Berwick-Upon-Tweed
Thursday 24 May 2012
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