Old Map of Kent in 1809 by William Faden - Canterbury, Maidstone, Tunbridge Wells
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Published by William Faden in 1801 and issued here in its updated 1809 state, this map of Kent holds a genuinely special place in British map history: it was the very first Ordnance Survey map ever published, the result of the new nationwide trigonometrical survey begun in the 1790s in direct response to fears of French invasion. Unlike the earlier county maps produced from estate records and older manuscript surveys, this map was built from precise triangulated measurements taken across the Kent countryside, giving it a level of geographic accuracy no earlier map of the county could match. Originally printed at a monumental 180cm wide, it captures the county in extraordinary, almost obsessive detail.
Canterbury sits at the map's heart, its cathedral long the spiritual centre of England, while Rochester and Chatham anchor the Medway towns around their own cathedral, castle and naval dockyard. Maidstone appears as the county town, with Tunbridge Wells to the south-west and Sevenoaks closer to the London border, and the map's coastal detail runs from Gravesend and Dover, beneath its famous white cliffs, round to Margate, Ramsgate, Deal and Folkestone. Inland, the newly built turnpike roads crisscross the county alongside its older lanes, milestones and river crossings, all recorded with a precision that reflects the map's military origins, while the flat expanse of Romney Marsh and the chalk ridge of the North Downs are both carefully traced. Bromley and Lewisham, then still Kent villages rather than London suburbs, are marked among the county's northern parishes.
As a highly detailed piece of wall art, this map suits anyone who loves Kent's history as much as its landscape. It makes a brilliant Father's Day gift for a dad with a passion for maps or local history, and a considered housewarming present for someone moving into a new home anywhere in the Garden of England. It also makes a memorable Christmas or birthday gift for anyone with roots in Canterbury, Maidstone, Tunbridge Wells or the Kent coast.
