Old Map of Berkshire in 1611 by John Speed - Reading, Windsor, Newbury, Maidenhead

First engraved in 1611 for John Speed's Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine, the earliest atlas to map England and Wales county by county, this sheet shows Berkshire as it was surveyed and drawn under Speed's direction and engraved by Jodocus Hondius in Amsterdam. Like the other plates in Speed's atlas, it combines a topographical map with a decorative border carrying the county's coat of arms and a scale bar, all finished in the atlas's characteristic hand colouring.

Reading appears as the county town on the River Kennet close to its junction with the Thames, while Windsor is marked downstream beside its castle, already established as a royal residence long before Speed's survey. Newbury sits to the west on the Kennet, and Maidenhead is shown on the Thames near the eastern edge of the county, in territory that at the time still included Abingdon and other parishes later transferred to neighbouring Oxfordshire in the boundary changes of 1974. The Thames itself forms much of Berkshire's northern boundary throughout the sheet.

A county map made more than four centuries ago, before Slough and Bracknell existed as towns in any recognisable form, this sheet makes a memorable gift for anyone with Berkshire roots or a fondness for the Thames Valley. It is available unframed in sizes from 16x20 inches up to A0.