Dr Colin Runeckles Profile picture
Aug 29, 2021 9 tweets 4 min read Read on X
Maps & road plans are great aren't they? So useful for telling you what was where at the time.

Yes...but some are more reliable than others as I've just been seeing on this from Philips' Handy Volume Atlas of London for Ilford for 1891.

So let's see what's wrong with it.
1/9
Let's start south of the High Road. Clements was sold in 1879 and by 1891 there were houses in Clements, Cleveland, Oakfield, Albert, and Scrafton Road in what had been Lot 11

But on this map those roads re nowhere to be seen and Clements is apparently still there!

2/9
Moving along the High Road, Queens Road is missing.

By the time of the 1891 Census, 32 houses were occupied. Building on them had begun very quickly after the Clements sale 12 years earlier.

3/9
A little to the east and what was called St Mary's Estate.

No cemetery - this was laid out in 1880/1.

No roads - these were laid out in the same period. The OS map is from a couple of years later but you get the picture.

4/9
But the oddest thing of all about this map is what can be seen north of the High Road in the Ilford Lodge Estate begun from 1882.

Again, the comparison is from a couple of years later but this time there are too many roads and houses!

5/9
Firstly the Sports Ground. We know that was there between 1886 where it was in the middle of fields, to 1904 where it was now surrounded by Coventry, Wellesley, Bathurst, and Melbourne Roads.

But on this 1891 map it has simply vanished. There is a patch of green...

6/9
...in the middle of a square but this never existed.

There are roads that weren't laid out until the auctions of remaining plots in 1896.

And one, Burns Road, that I've never heard of at all.

So what's going on here?

7/9
In 1892 the collapse of the Balfour Group and the Liberator Building Soc. brought work on the Ilford Lodge Estate to a halt.

When this map was being drawn, was the builder J.W.Hobbs consulted about how the Estate was going to progress and prospective roads drawn in?

8/9
What we have here, therefore, is a map that for part of it, looks back to the state of Ilford before the Clements sale in 1879; and possibly looking at how another part of it would look in future.

Result - nowhere near reliable enough for any research on the area in 1891

9/End

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Dr Colin Runeckles

Dr Colin Runeckles Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(