Research Notes


Map Group BRADSHAW 1841
Bradshaw 1841
Railway map, lines in Surrey, Sussex and Hampshire, and a little bit of Berkshire, scale about 10 miles to 1 inch, in 'BRADSHAW'S Railway Companion, published by Bradshaw and Blacklock, 27 Brown Street, Manchester, 1841. The map sheet is on page 10; the double page, is 146x113mm.

The railway guide studied is in the Map Collection of Hampshire CC Museums Service, item HMCMS:BWM469.4.

MAP FEATURES
RAILWAY COMPANION
LSWR TIMETABLE
TIME
GRADIENT DIAGRAM
BRADSHAW'S GUIDES
REFERENCES
ITEMS in the Collection
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MAP FEATURES
orientation    
up is N    
The map has no compass or north point. The orientation of the sheet is up is north.

scale    
The map has no scale line. A scale was estimated using the position of about 20 places on the map compared to their known positions (using DISTTAB.exe). The map scale is about:-
1 to 640000
10 miles to 1 inch
Source data:-
see:- BRA1DIS.txt
sea area    
sea plain    
A small bit of sea is shown; the sea is plain.
Southampton Water
is labelled.

coast line    
harbours    
Small bits of coast are shown; the coast line is not emphasised.
image snip from map
Harbours are labelled at:-
Portsmth Harbr.
Langston Harbr.
coastal defence    
castles    
fortifications    
The spit at the end of the estuary is labelled:-
image snip from map
Calshot Castle
and around Gosport and Portsmouth there is a line which is meant to be the fortifications.
Looking closely, there is a rectangular outline on the northern shore of Portsmouth harbour which must be Portchester Castle. (Notice that a label 'Portchester' has got misplaced; it is out by Havant.)

rivers    
bridges    
Rivers are drawn by wiggly lines. Some braiding is shown, on the Test for example. Some rivers are labelled, eg:-
image snip from map
Itching R.
R. Wey
Bridges are only implied where a road crosses a river. I have found only one label:-
Northam Br.
relief    
No relief is shown.

woods    
forests    
No woods are drawn by trees but at least one is labelled:-
Forest of Bere
which is the East Bere Forest north of Havant.

parks    
Parks are drawn by an outline with vestigial fence palings, and a dotted filling. They are not labelled.

county    
image snip from map
The county boundaries are dotted lines, coloured on the inner side of each county; Hampshire pink, Sussex yellow, Surrey orange. The west side of Hampshire is not included (say west of SU40xx); and the very southern parts are excluded (say south of SZxx99).
Each county is labelled, eg:-
HANTS
The detached part of Hampshire in West Sussex is shown, and labelled:-
Pt. of Hampshire
settlements    
Larger settlements are drawn by a group of blocks, smaller ones just positioned by a cross (plus sign). Places are differentiated by their style of labelling. It is not always clear where the settlement label is pointed.
city     group of blocks on a junction of roads; labelled in upright block caps, eg:-
image snip from map
WINCHESTER
town     larger town - group of blocks on a junction of roads; labelled in italic block caps, eg:-
image snip from map
WHITCHURCH
BASINGSTOKE
the text may be curved to fit on the map, as at Basingstoke. Southampton is an exception, labelled in upright block caps.
smaller town - group of blocks on a junction of roads; labelled in upright lowercase text, eg:-
image snip from map
Alton
Havant
village     cross; labelled in italic lowercase text, eg:-
image snip from map
Mitcheldever
Bishops Stoke

roads    
image snip from map
A network of roads is shown on the map. All are double lines; more important are a little wider, and have one line bold.

canals    
Canals are drawn by a wiggly line, with locks indicated by an arrow (> or <). The Itchen navigation is not shown. The:-
image snip from map
Basingstoke Canal
is labelled. This map shows a small part of the Kennet and Avon Canal in Berkshire, and various other canals.

railways    
This is a railway map. Printed as a bold solid line across Surrey and Hampshire and labelled along its length is the:-
image snip from map
LONDON AND SOUTH WESTERN RAILWAY
The route is complete through to Southampton (it opened a year before the guide, 1840).
Stations are marked by a dot beside the line and the word:-
image snip from map
Station
STATION
Sta
There are stations at:-
Farnboro' / STATION
Winchfield / Station
BASINGSTOKE / STATION
Andover Road / Sta
WINCHESTER / STATION
SOUTHAMPTON / [no label, but the line ends!]
The style of word 'station' appears to be significant, but I have found no explanation in the guide. Station names can be found in the fare tables, see below.
Andover Road is now known as Micheldever Station. Winchfield Station had earlier been called Shapley Heath, but this name does not even appear on the gradient diagram which does have the earlier name of the railway.
There is a second railway in Hampshire drawn as a double line, unfilled, presumably meant to indicate a line under construction. This runs from a junction near 'Bishops Stoke' to Gosport, and is labelled:-
image snip from map
PORTSMOUTH JUNCTN
which opened as the Bishopstoke to Gosport branch railway in 1842 after a false start late in 1841.

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RAILWAY COMPANION These notes are about the copy of Bradshaw's Railway Companion in the HMCMS Map Collection. The notes concentrate on the London and South Western Railway which takes the traveller from London into Hampshire.
The railway to Hampshire is the London and South Western Railway, which began as the London and Southampton Railway, opened throughout 1840, one year before this guide. The London station is Vauxhall, shown on the London map at the front of the book.
p.10 of the railway guide (beware the error in page numbering which has the previous page as 10 as well) includes the map of the LSWR line - through Esher, Weybridge, Woking, Surrey; Farnborough, Winchfield, Basingstoke, Micheldever, Winchester, to Southampton, Hampshire.
The map shows the Portsmouth Junction Railway as a planned line, this is the Bishopstoke to Gosport branch railway, opened a year later, 1842.
Also on the map is the London and Brighton Railway.
p.11 has a timetable of passenger trains from Vauxhall, and to Vauxhall, on weekdays and Sunday, and goods trains; and fare tables.

TITLE

The book is cheaply 'bound'. The cover has an applied label:-
BRADSHAW'S RAILWAY COMPANION Price 1s.
The title page is detached in the copy of the guide studied, but appears to be a verso page not a recto page which is the usual position for a book title. It reads:-
BRADSHAW'S Railway Companion, CONTAINING THE TIMES OF DEPARTURE, FARES, &c. OF THE RAILWAYS IN ENGLAND, AND ALSO Hackney Coach Fares FROM THE PRINCIPAL RAILWAY STATIONS, ILLUSTRATED WITH MAPS OF THE COUNTRY THROUGH WHICH THE RAILWAYS PASS, AND PLANS OF LONDON, BIRMINGHAM, LEEDS, LIVERPOOL, AND MANCHESTER. PRICE ONE SHILLING.
MANCHESTER: PRINTED & PUBLISHED BY BRADSHAW & BLACKLOCK, 27, BROWN-STREET; AND SOLD BY SHEPHERD AND SUTTON, PRIEST COURT, FOSTER LANE, CHEAPSIDE, LONDON; AND ALL BOOKSELLERS AND RAILWAY COMPANIES 1842.
The booklet is tiny, 8x11.5cm, the page size about 73x114mm. I am not a book expert; the book construction seems to be unusual; verso and recto pages appear to have been printed as a double page spread, implying that sheets are pasted together, back to back, to make the book? Each double page spread is given a page number, the 'front' page, a single page, reads:-
NOTICE TO THE PUBLIC.
The Time Tables forming this Little Work are arranged as a Sheet, and published, with the assistance of the Railway Companies, on the 1st of every Month, price 3d. Parties desirous of keeping the Companion correct may be enabled to do so, by purchasing one of these Sheets and substituting the Tables, in which alterations are made, for those in the Work.
The names of such Tables as have undergone a change will be mentioned at the foot of the Sheet.
It is possible that this copy of the guide has had pages replaced or added.
(Remember that these notes are mostly limited to Hampshire.)

LONDON MAP

Tipped in on the first page is a folded map of London; sheet 206x138mm. This is an uncoloured engraving.
scale line    
scale    
There is a:-
Scale of Half a Mile
length 18mm, giving the map scale about 1 to 44704; the map scale is about:-
1 to 45000
1 1/2 inches to 1 mile

The railway lines entering the capital are hand coloured, not too carefully, in red.
The LSWR terminus is at Vauxhall, on the south east bank of the Thames, south of Vauxhall Bridge, by Nine Elms, labelled:-
SOUTH WESTERN RAILWAY STATION
The 2 mile extension to Waterloo, the terminus we know today, was authorised 1845, opened 1848.

LSWR MAP

The map of the LSWR is page 10; unfortunately, there is a confusion in the page numbering and the preceding and page - a timetable for the GWR - is also page 10.
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LSWR TIMETABLE
Page 11 is a timetable for trains on the:-
LONDON AND SOUTH WESTERN
The daily service has 13 down trains, 7 going all the way to Southampton, 3 ending at Woking and 3 ending at Weybridge; with corresponding up trains. There were also 2 goods trains each way which took 3rd class passengers. Sunday services were 6 trains, 3 all the way to Southampton. The Hampshire services are:-

SUNDAY TRAINS

GOODS TRAINS
     
FROM VAUXHALL    
To Southampton (mixed)   7am
To Southampton (mixed)   9am
To Southampton (first class)   11am
To Southampton (mixed)   1pm
To Southampton (first class)   3pm
To Southampton (mixed)   5.30pm
To Southampton mail   8.30pm
     
TO VAUXHALL    
From Southampton (mail)   2am
From Southampton (mixed)   6.15am
From Southampton (mixed)   9am
From Southampton (first class)   11am
From Southampton (mixed)   1pm
From Southampton (first class)   3pm
From Southampton (mixed)   6pm
     
To Southampton (mixed)   10am
To Southampton (mixed)   5pm
To Southampton (first class)   8.30pm
     
From Southampton (mail)   2am
From Southampton (mail)   10am
From Southampton (mail)   5pm
To Southampton   1.15pm
To Southampton   10pm
     
From Southampton   9.15am
From Southampton   8.30am
Third class passengers will be taken by these Trains.
There are fare tables, including:-
           
FARES   Fast, Mixed, Mixed, Goods,
    1st cls. 1st cls. 2nd cls. 3rd cls.
London to   s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d.
Farnborough   9 0 8 0 5 6 3 6
Winchfield   10 6 10 0 7 0 4 0
Basingstoke   12 6 12 0 8 0 4 6
Andover Road   15 6 15 0 10 0 5 6
Winchester   18 6 17 6 12 0 6 6
Southampton   21 0 20 0 14 0 8 0
The First Class Trs. take first class passengers only, except for a limited number of servants in livery.
Fare for Servants in livery, 15s.
The Mail Trains ... Fare the same as mixed trains for both 1st & 2d class passengers.
The fare from London to Southampton by the mixed trains will be 20s. first class, and 14s. second class, ...
It is not easy to assess just what these fares meant to someone living in 1841. Who could afford to travel by rail? where the railway companies interested in goods or passengers? Railways were the first form of mass transport on land; their success, passenger traffic, depended on selling lots of tickets, not on serving the few rich.
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TIME A fact to be born in mind when reading these early railway guides, timetables of trains running from place to place, is that the published time at a place might be its local true time. Local time was set by the sun, though perhaps a mean true time for the place rather than the true solar time of the actual day. There were no pips, there was no Greenwich Mean Time.
When mail began to be carried on the trains in the 1830s the Post Office official carried a timepiece in a pouch. The time carried from London was not the time at the destination. In 1838 the London to Birmingham timetable was printed with two columns for times; 'Slower than Euston Station' and 'Faster than Birmingham Station'. A Great Western Railway timetable, 1841, states:-
LONDON TIME is kept at all the Stations on the Railway, which is about 4 minutes earlier than READING time; 5 1/2 minutes before STEVENTON time; 7 1/2 minutes before CIRENCESTER time; 8 minutes before CHIPPENHAM time; and 14 minutes before BRIDGEWATER time. The railway companies had recognised the problem, in a sense they had created it. In 1844 the Liverpool and Manchester Railway petitioned Parliament for a universal time to be adopted. In 1847 the Midland Railway recommended that each railway company adopt Greenwich Mean Time at all stations as soon as the General Post Office permitted. ... The railway's high speed travel imposed GMT on the country; it became law in 1880.
It is said that in 1839 one railway director refused to supply times of arrival of trains to Bradshaw:-
I believe that it would tend to make punctuality a sort of obligation ...
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LSWR
GRADIENT DIAGRAM 		Towards the back of the book is a flimsy fold out engraving with gradient diagrams of the various railways. Each is labelled with the railway name, eg:-
London and Southampton Railway
Notice that this is the original title of the railway, that had been replaced by 1839, two years earlier.
map maker    
The diagram is pasted in the book obscuring an interesting detail. Looking between pages 47 and 49 (which are next to each other) the tab of the digram can be seen, with an inscription:-
Drawn & Engraved by G. Bradshaw St. Mary's Gate Ma[ ]
relief    
Looked at in terms of the railway map, the gradient diagram indicates relief.
image snip from map

scale    
The diagram has a scale of miles along the bottom edge. The LSWR diagram reads from right to left to right London, 0 miles, to Southampton, 69 miles 100 chains. (Later Southampton became further from London, when the capital station was moved to Waterloo, 2 miles from Vauxhall.) On this horizontal scale 75 miles = 236.2mm giving a scale 1 to 517824; the horizontal scale is:-
1 to 520000
8 miles to 1 inch.
There is a scale line for the vertical scale, 600 feet = 25.7mm, giving a scale 1 to 7116; the vertical scale is
1 to 7000
600 feet to 1 inch
This amount of vertical exaggeration makes good clear diagrams.
The actual height at the two end points is given; London 102ft, Southampton 103.67ft. The summit height, about 54 miles from London, is 494.64ft. The other figures on the diagram are the gradient figure for each section, so, for example, from Andover Road to Winchester it is mostly 1 in 250, with a short level stretch, 'Lev', and a last slope down to Winchester 1 in 250. Stations are marked by a dot and their name.

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GEORGE BRADSHAW'S GUIDES George Bradshaw was born 29 July 1801, at Windsor Bridge, Salford, Manchester; the Railway Age had just begun with the incorporation of the Surrey Iron Railway. George Bradshaw grew up as the Railway Age grew, and with it the need for railway maps, railway timetables, and railway fare tables.
Bradshaw was apprenticed to an engraver (accounts of to whom and where vary) and he later set up in offices in Manchester, engraving maps. In 1831 he took an apprentice William Blacklock; a letterpress department was added to the business in 1835; Blacklock became a partner; and the firm of Bradshaw and Blacklock moved to 27 Brown Street, Manchester, 1839. Bradshaw made a reputation with maps of canals and railways issued from the late 1820s onwards.
From 1838 Bradshaw employed a compositor, Robert Kay. The idea of a railway timetable was suggested to Kay in 1838, and Kay got on with the job of producing it - he remained editor of the various Bradshaw guides up to 1880. (It is clear from Kay's own account that Bradshaw had the idea.)
Another important character in the story is William Adams, 59 Fleet Street, London, who was Bradshaw's agent. The business was eventually taken over by Blacklock and remained the London address of 'Bradshaw' to 1905.

The Railway Time Table
'Bradshaw' began in 1838 as:-
Bradshaw's Railway Time Table
Robert Kay's account, written 1883 is:-
In the early part of 1838 I received an appointment from Mr. George Bradshaw, engraver, copperplate and lithographic printer, Cope's Court, St. Mary's Gate, Manchester, to inaugurate the letterpress printing, which he was anxious to have added to his other engagements. He had already acquired considerable notoriety by his large canal maps of Great Britain, in the publication of which he had been very successful .... It was in the middle of 1838 when Mr. Bradshaw handed me one of the Liverpool and Manchester passenger time bills to condense into a form and size suitable for the waistcoat pocket. The information thus prepared was put into a stiff cover, accompanied by a map of Great Britain and labelled Bradshaw's Railway Time Table. The idea was suggested in order to create a sale for a large number of maps of England and Wales which he had in stock, lying idle. The first edition was quickly sold, the second and third equally so. In the meantime, I was making additions in the shape of railway information, etc., so that by the 19th October, 1839, we had a really most compact and useful little railway guide, containing with the title and address, eight pages of railway matter and cab fares, and five pages of maps and plans. Before the end of 1840, it contained twenty pages of railway and other matter, and twelve pages of maps and plans, price 1s., and the title changed to Bradshaw's Railway Companion.
There were other railways guides published around the same time, for example: James Drake's, published in Birmingham, 1839; Joseph Bridgen's, published in Wolverhampton, 1839; John Gadsby's, published in Manchester, published 1840.
The earliest surviving example of Bradshaw's guide [known at 1939] is dated 10th Mo. 19th. 1839 ie 19 October 1839, titled:-
BRADSHAW'S / Railway Time Tables, / AND ASSISTANT TO / RAILWAY TRAVELLING, / WITH / ILLUSTRATIVE MAPS AND PLANS. / ...
This covered the northern lines, contents:-
Map of the Railways in Lancashire, &c.,
Liverpool to Manchester Time Table,
Plan of Liverpool,
Manchester to Liverpool Time Table,
Plan of Manchester,
Manchester to Littleborough Time Table,
Map of Railways in Yorkshire,
York to Leeds and Selby Time Table,
Plan of Leeds,
North Union Time Table,
Manchester to Bolton Time Table, and
Liverpool Hackney Coach Fares.
A second issue covered more southern lines, contents:-
Map of Warwickshire and Northamptonshire,
Map of Bedford and Hertford,
London to Birmingham Time Table,
Birmingham to London Time Table,
Plan of Birmingham,
Birmingham to Liverpool and Manchester Time Table,
Liverpool and Manchester to Birmingham Time Table,
Map of Salop and Stafford,
Liverpool to Manchester Time Table,
Manchester to Liverpool Time Table,
Plan of Manchester,
Map of the Railways in Lancashire,
Abridged Time Tables:-
Birmingham and Derby,
Manchester and Leeds,
Manchester, Bolton and Bury,
North Union Railway,
Nottingham and Derby,
Sheffield and Rotherham,
Thompson's Table showing the rate of travelling per hour,
Great Western Railway Time Table,
Hackney Coach Fares from Euston Station, London, and
Cab Fares from the Railway Station, Birmingham.
A third issue combined the two sets of information, 25 October 1839.

Butterfly Binding

The guide was put together physically in an unusual way; also used by Joseph Bridgen. Pages were printed on one side only, as a double page spread. The pages were folded, face inwards, and pasted back-to-back to assemble the booklet. First and last pages were pasted to the folded card cover. I have heard this binding referred to as a 'butterfly binding'. It was possible to buy replacement timetable sheets and paste them in to keep the guide uptodate. The method of assembly also allows for a great variety in the issues offered for sale! and allows for confusion in page numbering. The convention of odd number pages on the right, recto, page is ignored; even the printer has had a hard time knowing which way is up on some pages!

The Railway Companion

It is not clear when the name of the guide changed; the first certain issue of:-
Bradshaw's Railway Companion
was published 1 January 1840; the intention being to publish every three months. The rate of opening of new railways was so great that circumstances overrode planning.
The edition of the railway Companion in the HMCMS Map Collection is dated 1841. This still uses the cut and paste method of assembly. This method was abandoned in favour of a publication put together as a normal booklet, monthly from 1845 to 1849. The Railway Companion was then replaced by the now more famous:-
Bradshaw's Railway Guide
which had been published in normal book form since December 1841.
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REFERENCES
: 1935 (June):: Railway Magazine: vol.76 no.456: pp.391-392
Smith, G Royde: 1939: History of Bradshaw: Blacklock, Henry and Co (London and Manchester)
Wright, Lawrence: 1968: Clockwork Man: Elek Books (London)
Norgate, Martin: 2001: Bradshaw's Railway Companion, 1841: Hampshire CC Museums Service:: ISBN 1 85975 484 8; enlarged facsimile reproduction:-
A photocopy reproduction of the copy of Bradshaw's Railway Companion in the HMCMS Map Collection has been made. This is presented in A4 format, enlarged to make it more readable; double page spreads x1.41, single pages x2. Pages are not tidied up, and bits hidden in the 'binding' arrangements have not been forced into view. The sequence of the original pagination of the example has been followed exactly; but double page spreads now appear together as one page, facing another. The gradient diagram, which is minutely engraved, is enlarged more and presented in sections, not a fold out sheet, but in its original place in the sequence.
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ITEMS  in HMCMS Map Collection   (scanned item in bold)
  HMCMS:BWM469.4 -- railway guide
  HMCMS:BWM469.4.10 -- railway map
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   All Old Hampshire Mapped Resources