An historical map of Shropshire

What it’s all about…

This isn’t a new map but recently I keep being asked about it and thought I’d write a post to explain…

Shropshire was at the heart of the Industrial Revolution and many well known figures from our history books feature here. In the manner of 'who would you invite to a dinner party' I have assembled some of the 'great and good' of Shropshire, although actually how good they were is kind of up for debate these days.

The mainly male group at the top left of the image features John ( Iron mad) Wilkinson (1728 - 1808), an industrialist so iron mad that he was buried in an iron coffin.

William Hazledine (1763 – 1840) was an ironmaster who supplied iron and entrepreneurship in pioneering the first skyscraper building in the world, the Ditherington Flax Mill. A very interesting character.

William Reynolds ironmaster (1758 – 1803) partner in the ironworks in Coalbrookdale, famous for devising the incline plane device to link different levels of canals, among many other things.

Abraham Derby I 1677 – 5 May 1717 smelted iron ore with coke to produce excellent iron which was instrumental in kicking off the Industrial Revolution.

Captain Webb ( Matthew) (1848 – 1883) was a merchant mariner made famous by John Betjeman's brilliant poem 'A Shropshire Lad’ and who, amongst other things, was the first man to be recorded swimming the channel. On the table in front of him he has a map of the route between England and France (yes that blob is the UK, minus Northern Ireland which is off the map.) His puddle refers to his swim and he’s wearing a smashing one piece.

Thomas Telford (1757-1834) the famous civil engineer was born in Scotland and became very much sought after for his bridges, canals and roads and founded the Institution of Civil Engineers. Aka the Father of Civil Engineering.

Charles Darwin (1809-1882) surely needs no introduction.

Katherine Plymley (1758 – 1829) made it to this table to keep the men in order. I’m firmly believe that if she was around today she would be a household name. She was a naturalist, diarist, traveller and painter at a time when it was hard to make any headway as a woman in any of those fields.

Mary Webb (1881 – 1927)( no relation to Matthew) is well known as a writer and poet recording life in rural Shropshire in the early twentieth century. Have a look at the society:

https://www.marywebbsociety.co.uk

Polly was one of Charles Darwin's dogs and Speckle Mary Webb's.

For some reason I thought Charles and Mary would get on like a house on fire!

Obviously the men got all the jobs, publicity and kudos at the time so I thought I’d better even it up with more clever women 'steering their paths' and their compass. The compass points their way towards future posterity.

Here we have, Eglantyne Jebb (1876 – 1928) a social reformer, who founded Save the Children in 1919.

Ellis Peters (the pen name for Edith Mary Pargeter OBE BEM (1913 – 1995) was an English author and medieval whodunnit writer.

Barbara Pym (1913 – 1980) was an English novelist writing social comedies.

Katherine Harley (1855-1917) was a prominent member of the Suffragist movement.

Charlotte Burns (1850 - 1923) was a Shropshire folklorist.

Georgina Jackson (1824–1895) a writer and schoolteacher who travelled the 'Shire' to collect and preserve local dialect, and compiled them in the 'Shropshire Word book'.

Katherine Plymley (see above) features twice because I’m a great fan! Mary Webb also again because she is still very popular in certain Shropshire circles.

Random map facts…

Obvs the little ghost above Hodnet Hall shows a reputed haunting, a bloody handprint and a Victorian ghostly apparition.

The women of Wem bravely dressed up as soldiers in red capes and held sticks in lieu of rifles to make the town seem as if it was bustling with defensive infantry men to deter invasion from Lord Capel and all his cavaliers.

The elephant and castle is a former coaching inn at Shawbury established in 1734.

I had always wondered where the canal might be in Shrewsbury, so I found it and included it. ( this map was made before the amazing Ditherington Flax Mill was opened to the public and the canal made visible as part of their exhibits.)

Fly boats were the express couriers of the time and feature in my illustrations for Fan-peckled ( more on that soon in another post) They had priority in the canal system, other boats had to wait for them to pass; they carried fresh produce from for example Wales to Birmingham, and had a series of fresh horses to relay them to their destination.

Gosh Jack Mytton was a bit of a one! A real so and so. There he is at the bottom of the map louchely lounging in his cups, and also riding between Bishop's Castle and the Long Mynd. And again along Wenlock Edge. You really wouldn’t believe what he got up to! Riding a bear across his dining table whilst dinner was proceeding! Sleeping with his horse, hunting naked! 😳 Driving his poor wife in a carriage straight off the side of the Stiperstones… you get the picture.

Cleobury Mortimer has a twisted spire, thus the tiny “ marks next to it to describe its twist.

Chelmarsh, where I learnt to sail (not very well😳) is featured with a little duck; it has great waterfowl and also a bird hide.

‘Butter 16-18 ozs to the pound' or '24ozs to the pound' etc refers to the random weights and measures at play in Shropshire before standardisation. Georgina Jackson collected this information along with her 'almost lost ' words of Shropshire.

Wem is famous for its sweet peas and has a Sweet Pea society and show each year.

W.H. is William Hazledine in case you didn’t guess.

The map is pretty accurate, I don’t think anything glares out as being wrong but of course it is a re-drawing of old maps with a bit of reference to modern maps thrown in. Mapmakers have always used others' maps, the secret is not to break any copyright laws.

I used a fineliner on this map and watercolour. Prints have been made and are available from my Etsy shop. https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/KatyAlstonStudio

And stop press! Tea towels have also been made, which will eventually appear in my Etsy shop but first I’m going to sell them at our local village fair in Wistanstow Shropshire (12th July if you’re interested)

Long live Shropshire!

Thank you, I hope you have enjoyed reading.