Old Map of Bedfordshire in 1611 by John Speed - Bedford, Luton, Dunstable, St Neots, Kempston, Leighton Buzzard
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This map of Bedfordshire was created by John Speed and engraved by Jodocus Hondius, originally published in 1611 as part of Speed's landmark county atlas, The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine. Speed's atlas was one of the first comprehensive attempts to map every county of England and Wales in a single, consistent series, and it remains one of the most significant works in the history of British cartography. This particular print is presented in monochrome, offering a cleaner, more graphic reading of Speed's original design, which was engraved with the fine detail typical of Hondius's workshop. As one of the earliest printed county maps of Bedfordshire to survive, it captures the county's towns, roads and parish boundaries as they stood right at the start of the seventeenth century, more than four hundred years ago. Bedfordshire, one of the smaller counties of England, is set out here in full, from its market towns down to its parish churches, in the detailed style that made Speed's atlas the standard reference for English county geography for generations after its first publication.
The sheet takes in Bedford, the county town, along with Luton and Dunstable, both established market towns within the county at the time. St Neots, on the county's northern side, and Kempston, close to Bedford itself, are also recorded, together with Leighton Buzzard to the west. Together, these towns give a good spread across Bedfordshire, reflecting the approach Speed took across his whole atlas: mapping not just the principal county town but the wider network of smaller market towns that structured everyday life across each shire in the early seventeenth century. Seen together on one sheet, they offer a clear sense of how the county's towns related to one another well over four hundred years ago.
This map makes a meaningful gift for anyone with family roots in Bedfordshire — a grandparent who grew up near Bedford or Luton, or a family marking generations connected to Dunstable, Kempston or Leighton Buzzard. As one of the earliest surviving printed views of the county, it also appeals to collectors interested in the very beginnings of English county cartography, well before the more detailed county surveys that followed in later centuries. It is supplied unframed and available across our full range of sizes, so it can be scaled to suit a family study, a hallway, or as a gift marking a significant birthday or anniversary.
