Dorset Map 18th Century

[Corben]

Hi,

I have a 1765 Isaac Taylor map of Dorset. I’ve been using it to locate old features in the landscape. I’ve overlayed it on modern maps and found it to be surprisingly accurate. But I have a couple of questions that perhaps you guys can help me with:
1. The map shows small buildings dotted around. Do you think these are accurately located or are they simply indicating that there are buildings in the area shown on the map?
2. Occasionally the map shows larger buildings. Do you think these are likely to reflect the architectural features of the buildings the mapping surveyor was looking at. Or are they just an indication of a larger/more important building?

All comments gratefully received.

I hope I've put this in the correct area of the Forum.

[Rongar]

I ... really don't know, but it appears as though these buildings aren't placed randomly. A quick google search for "Minster Dorset" shows a church that is identical in shape to the icon on the map (located top right). The same goes for the, what appears to be, St. Nicholas church in Arne where the surrounding line work indicates a wall or a difference in height. Much like the real church, which is apparently standing on a hill surrounded by a low stone wall, My guess is that only some important (farms, possibly butchers and everything useful?) or historical buildings (churches) have found their way onto this map and their positions seem rather accurate. However, places in 18th century weren't densely populated except for the big cities, so it could very well be that each of these buildings are actually representative and that these few were all there was back at the time. As a German, I can't really comment on 18th century English geography, though. Heck, I can't even comment on 21st century German geography.

This is a lovely map, by the way. And no, it's not the right part of the forum since you didn't create this map, but it's alright. And I wouldn't know where to put it either. Maybe general discussion. Hope that helped, if not for the information then maybe at least for the bump.


Cheers,

~~Rongar

[Mouse]

Here is a site that shows old maps:

https://www.old-maps.co.uk/#/

If the link doesn't take you straight to a map of Wareham I was looking at, put 'Wareham' in the search box you will get a range of old maps which may or may not show buildings that correspond with those on your even older map. Hope that helps

[Mouse]

Here is a screen shot of Lytchett Minster from the 1889 OS County Map series. The placement of the buildings on the OS map (which will be pretty much spot-on accurate) suggests quite strongly to me that the smaller buildings (and probably some of the larger ones as well) may be more representative than accurate on your map.

[Corben]

I ... really don't know, but it appears as though these buildings aren't placed randomly. A quick google search for "Minster Dorset" shows a church that is identical in shape to the icon on the map (located top right). The same goes for the, what appears to be, St. Nicholas church in Arne where the surrounding line work indicates a wall or a difference in height. Much like the real church,

Thanks, Rongar. Well spotted regarding the churches. I happen to know the church in Arne. The map representation shows a tower but the church never actually had a tower. I've come to the conclusion that the cartographer drew a representation of the building but he placed it accurately on the map. There are a lot of tiny building shown dotted around the heath. I think these mainly represent cob cottages on Dorset heaths. I'm still not sure how accurately they are positioned.

[Corben]

Here is a screen shot of Lytchett Minster from the 1889 OS County Map series. The placement of the buildings on the OS map (which will be pretty much spot-on accurate) suggests quite strongly to me that the smaller buildings (and probably some of the larger ones as well) may be more representative than accurate on your map.

Thanks, Mouse. You're could be right. I think the larger buildings are reasonably accurately placed. The smaller buildings may be a representation of building clusters. But it's the ones dotted around the heath that intrigue me. I keep wondering why would the cartographer lovingly draw all the hills and dips and not show the heath cob cottages in the correct locations. I have the early OS surveyor's sketches from 1809 (long before the first editions of the large scale OS maps) so I'll see if I can correlate the two maps.

[Mouse]

I remember a conversation between my dad and one of the traction engine exhibitors at Stourpaine Steam Fair 40 years ago (the fair is held annually only a few miles from Wareham, though its more recently been re-named the Dorset Steam Fair). My father was waxing lyrical about what a shame it was that these beautiful machines (a thundering great big traction engine, in this case, working a huge threshing machine) had been lost to the British countryside, and the old guy was saying that he wouldn't view them with such affection if he had been one of the farm labourers who were put out of work by their arrival on the scene - as his father and most of his father's generation had been when he himself was only a young lad.

1860-1919 is considered to be the hey-day of steam powered farming, so its feasible to suggest as an extrapolation of that overheard conversation, that there may well have been all those tiny little cottages out there on the heath in 1700s, as they would have been required to house the labourers who were later forced to move into town in the late 1800s when the traction engines came along and ruined their way of life.

I assume the reason the buildings completely disappeared in a matter of a couple of decades is that they were specifically demolished as part of clearance operations to create bigger and more profitable fields. That also rings bells in my memory of being taught as much at school, but that is one of my more sketchy memories - called up only because I was trying to work out why all these buildings might have disappeared.

[Corben]

I remember a conversation between my dad and one of the traction engine exhibitors at Stourpaine Steam Fair 40 years ago (the fair is held annually only a few miles from Wareham, though its more recently been re-named the Dorset Steam Fair). My father was waxing lyrical about what a shame it was that these beautiful machines (a thundering great big traction engine, in this case, working a huge threshing machine) had been lost to the British countryside, and the old guy was saying that he wouldn't view them with such affection if he had been one of the farm labourers who were put out of work by their arrival on the scene - as his father and most of his father's generation had been when he himself was only a young lad.

Those new fangled fancy-dan agricultural machines surely are the work of the devil. Around me it's all Dorset heathland and those dots on Isaac Taylor's map are cob cottages ... basically made of mud. The people that lived on, and made their living from the heath, must have been the toughest people ever. When they finally gave up and moved to the towns their mud built homes dissolved into the ground. I'm trying to locate a few of them using old maps I can find. I can't find many ... at least not accurate ones.

There are some other interesting features on the I.T. map. If you look to the east of Wareham you'll see a channel where boats sailed into the town. There are 3 'Y' shaped features. I wonder if they were navigational beacons? Perhaps the harbour master had to keep a lantern lit overnight.

[Mouse]

Those Y shaped things might be windmills? That's only a guess.

If the lost cottages were made of mud, and disappeared over a century ago, then the chances of finding anything are pretty slim. The worst drought we ever had in the UK (I think it was 1976) revealed unnatural pale/dark lines in previously unblemished fields on the aerial and satellite imagery of the time. In many cases these marks turned out to be the foundations of previously unknown Roman sites, but it might be worth a try examining any aerial photography of the area in question from the end of that year. The drought broke in September, when torrential rain and thunderstorms gave us some of the highest rainfalls ever, and erased these unique clues from the eye of the camera. So then you would be looking for photographs taken in July or August, and more specifically for the little spots that would mark the base of a chimney breast- they most usually being stone - even in a wattle and daub construction.

[Falconius]

I don't think those Y shaped things on the river are windmills, the location makes no sense for that. That said I have no idea what they do represent.