L&L map

[magpie patrick]

Been a while since I posted one of these...

 

Found amongst MtE's books, I've posted similar but not identical maps before, they were flat sheets, this is bound, and there are significant detail differences too. 

The map gives no info on who published it - there is a credit to the "Canal Office, Liverpool" but no reference to whether this was the L&L co or the BTC. The map shows four locks on the Leigh Branch which must date it to some extent. 

 

I find the long profile including the reservoirs fascinating.

 

Anyone got any  thoughts on date and provenance?

[Chris Lowe]

This is perhaps one for @Pluto

[Pluto]

It will be a copy originally from the L&LC office in Liverpool. I have seen other archive material with the same cover. The map itself seems to have originated around 1890, when they were looking to improve Liverpool to Burnley to 100 ton standard. There is also an approx A3 map from this time, and they were used, for example, to promote Winterburn reservoir construction and the 1891 Act. The map was up-dated as subsidence affected the Leigh arm. Your map probably dates from around 1920, following the construction of the second Poolstock lock, and the removal of Plank Lane Lock. I would suspect that John Freeman gave the map to the IWA during an office clear-out, such as the move to Wigan in the early 1970s.

The map is not particularly rare, and I have come across a number of examples, often rolled and uncut, in several archives. BW did have new examples printed circa 1970, and the transparent copy used for printing is in the Waterways Archive. The company also produced two booklets; one in the 1920s showing which carrier to use for specific general cargo trade after the company's carrying fleet and traffics had been divided between four private companies. These were coerced to form Canal Transport Ltd in 1930, and in the mid-1930s a map book showing businesses using the canal was produced, and I had an A5 copy printed for sale on Kennet some 15 or so years ago, now sold out. The GUC had a similar book printed.

[magpie patrick]

53 minutes ago, Pluto said:

It will be a copy originally from the L&LC office in Liverpool. I have seen other archive material with the same cover. The map itself seems to have originated around 1890, when they were looking to improve Liverpool to Burnley to 100 ton standard. There is also an approx A3 map from this time, and they were used, for example, to promote Winterburn reservoir construction and the 1891 Act. The map was up-dated as subsidence affected the Leigh arm. Your map probably dates from around 1920, following the construction of the second Poolstock lock, and the removal of Plank Lane Lock. I would suspect that John Freeman gave the map to the IWA during an office clear-out, such as the move to Wigan in the early 1970s.

The map is not particularly rare, and I have come across a number of examples, often rolled and uncut, in several archives. BW did have new examples printed circa 1970, and the transparent copy used for printing is in the Waterways Archive. The company also produced two booklets; one in the 1920s showing which carrier to use for specific general cargo trade after the company's carrying fleet and traffics had been divided between four private companies. These were coerced to form Canal Transport Ltd in 1930, and in the mid-1930s a map book showing businesses using the canal was produced, and I had an A5 copy printed for sale on Kennet some 15 or so years ago, now sold out. The GUC had a similar book printed.

 Thanks Pluto - I'm sure if I read one of your books I'll get the answer, but what was the original configuration on the Leigh Branch? Bradshaw 1904 has one at Poolstick, two at Dover and one at Plank Lane, which is what is shown on my plan, you suggest that by the 1920s this had changed (I don't have a later Bradshaw to hand to check) but what did it start as? 

 

The map is headed for a place in my personal library btw 

[Cananalmaps]

I think this 'in house' map originates from a rather similar one produced for the company by the consulting engineers Fulliter & Rofe. Cannot be dated exactly, but clearly after 1884.

[Stroudwater1]

It’s interestingly like the Repton red books isn’t it?

 

Humphrey Repton was a garden designer a short while after Capability Brown. The gardens he designed were accompanied by a red book which showed different vistas in watercolour. These were often done in advance of the commission as a form of advertising and salesmanship. Each or many vistas had a before and after page. The two were transposed like children’s books are now so as to flick from the before to after rapidly.
 

https://www.themorgan.org/collection/Humphry-Reptons-Red-Books

 

 

[David Mack]

3 hours ago, Cananalmaps said:

I think this 'in house' map originates from a rather similar one produced for the company by the consulting engineers Fulliter & Rofe. Cannot be dated exactly, but clearly after 1884.

It doesn't show the Ilkley to Skipton Railway which opened in 1888, so the map is unlikely to postdate 1884 by much.

[Heartland]

The engineer name of Robert Henry White, engineer to the L & L, is also of interest he died at Litherland when only 48

Edited March 12 by Heartland

[Pluto]

4 hours ago, magpie patrick said:

 Thanks Pluto - I'm sure if I read one of your books I'll get the answer, but what was the original configuration on the Leigh Branch? Bradshaw 1904 has one at Poolstick, two at Dover and one at Plank Lane, which is what is shown on my plan, you suggest that by the 1920s this had changed (I don't have a later Bradshaw to hand to check) but what did it start as? 

 

The map is headed for a place in my personal library btw 

Having checked through my collection

Leigh Branch

1819 and 1821 Maps suggests one lock at Dover 7ft 2in, and one at Plank Lane 8ft

1826 Survey shows two locks at Dover and one at Plank Lane

1901 First Poolstock lock built.

1905 Lock at Leigh at junction with Bridgewater propose under MSC Bill.

1915 Plank Lane Lock removed.

1916 Second lock at Poolstock built.

1927 Only one lock at Dover, so probably removed sometime in the early 1920s.

1950s Final Dover Lock removed.

 

The attached map appears to be the first in this sort of format, dating from 1884. The next is probably from the early 1890s, and includes the section, which was done for the Winterburn scheme application to Parliament originally circa 1890. Most of the non-L&LC material was removed, though some railways remained, as per Canalmaps example. A later version, with fewer railways, the table of Acts removed, and an outline of St Paul's inserted in the section was then created, possibly in the early 1900s. On some maps, the three branches (Leigh, Rufford and Bradford) are included in the sections, in some editions they are removed. The second map is smaller, and from the Leigh branch section, which is possibly incorrect, the date is circa 1915.

The White family worked for the L&LC for many years: 

1870, 1 Mar, Charles White engineer

1897, 18 Nov, Charles White retires and R H White appointed engineer

1907, 28 May, R H White dies, A W Stansfield appointed general manager & engineer

1925, 18 Nov, Robert Davidson appointed