Old Map of Herefordshire in 1844 by Samuel Lewis - Bromyard, Hay-on-Wye, Ledbury, Leominster, Ross-on-Wye

Samuel Lewis built his reputation on thoroughness rather than decoration. His multi-volume Topographical Dictionary of England, first issued in the 1830s and revised through the 1840s, set out to describe every parish, market town and manor in the country with population figures, local industries and church livings, and each county entry was paired with a clear, workmanlike map rather than the ornamental cartouches and coats of arms favoured by earlier county atlases. This Herefordshire sheet, dated to the 1844 edition, belongs firmly to that Victorian reference tradition, arriving more than two centuries after John Speed's Jacobean county atlas had first mapped the same ground.

Bromyard, at the heart of the county's hop-growing district, and Hay-on-Wye, straddling the border with Wales on the River Wye, anchor opposite corners of this map, while Ledbury's timbered market town, Leominster's old wool trade and Ross-on-Wye's position at the gateway to the Wye Valley are all marked along the way. The map also follows the River Lugg and the River Frome as they wind toward their confluence with the Wye, and records the scattered orchards and cider-producing parishes that were already central to the county's farming economy by the 1840s.

This map suits readers interested in Herefordshire's rural and agricultural history, in the Wye Valley specifically, or in the broader project of Victorian topographical reference-making that Lewis represents. It has been reproduced at high resolution from an original 1844 print and is available in a number of sizes. Its plain, functional style is itself a small piece of history, marking the moment county mapping became a tool of record rather than of display.