Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
parishes. These were not just agricultural estates; there were slate and limestone quarries, col-
lieries, mines and mills. The surveyor Isaac Thompson states in a frontispiece to the volume
of maps 'the method used to express ye most remarkable Things in ye Survey'. He gave a
letter to each farm so all its fields could be easily distinguished, and colours show where dis-
tinct fields adjoined. All the main features 'are copied from ye Things themselves'. A key to
symbols includes those for stiles and gates, springs and wells, carriageways and footpaths,
boundary stones, and traces of 'destroy'd' hedges and fences.
Rather than showing all the land in a parish or specific area, as is the case with the maps
seen so far, these are classic examples of estate maps. They only show the property of one
landowner, whose parcels of land may be scattered across parishes and even counties. They
indicate who the surrounding landowners were, but supply no detail of those lands. On other
sheets of this survey isolated fields appear as islands in a sea of blank parchment; this is a
very selective view of the landscape. The maps were for use with the written survey, which
gives for each field the tenant's name, the field name and acreage, and its use as arable, mead-
ow, pasture or woodland.
Woodhall is a small place near Hexham, south of the River Tyne shown on the map, a few
miles south of Hadrian's Wall. The map's focus is the land, within a framework of the river
and roads, bordered by lands of adjoining estates. Running through the lower centre of the
map is a clough, a narrow wooded ravine typical of this area. Very small pen and ink detail
shows houses, mills and a quarry. The fields labelled either 'H' or 'M' belonged respect-
ively to Woodhall Farm or Woodhall Mill. Red ink additions to Thompson's maps note later
changes such as gains to the estate by gift or purchase, land divisions, and the effects of En-
closure Acts in the 1790s. This is typical of the way that an estate map often continued to
serve across time.
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