Old Britain Map – England and Wales by George Willdey, 1717

George Willdey and His Map

George Willdey was a London mapmaker, publisher, instrument seller and successful retailer whose business operated close to St Paul’s Cathedral. He was proprietor of the Great Toy and Print Shop, an establishment that sold far more than maps alone. Customers could purchase scientific and navigational instruments, prints, spectacles, optical devices and a wide variety of fashionable or practical goods. This mixture of cartography, commerce and public display helps explain why Willdey’s maps were designed not merely to convey geographical information, but also to attract attention and impress the viewer.

His publications often combined accurate practical detail with strong decorative appeal. Maps could serve as useful reference works while also acting as advertisements for Willdey’s shop and the range of goods available there. This large map of England and Wales is a particularly striking example of that approach. It was intended to be studied closely, but its scale, surrounding views and abundance of engraved detail also made it suitable for display in a prosperous home, office, shop or place of business.

At the centre of the composition is a detailed road map of England and Wales. Cities, market towns, smaller settlements and the principal routes between them are carefully recorded. Distances are shown along the roads, allowing the map to function as a practical guide for travellers at a time when journeys were undertaken on horseback, by coach or on foot. Rivers, coastlines and county divisions provide further geographical context, while London occupies its expected position as the political and commercial centre of the country.

The map is supported by an extensive alphabetical gazetteer. This records the names of towns, gives their market days and indicates which places could be reached by ships, vessels, boats or barges. Such information would have been useful not only to travellers, but also to merchants, carriers and anyone involved in the movement of goods. The references to navigable towns and waterways remind us how important rivers, estuaries and coastal routes remained to eighteenth-century trade.

Surrounding the central map are 18 engraved views of ports, harbours, castles and important towns. These include London, Chester, Bristol, Yarmouth, Southampton, Newcastle upon Tyne, Hull, Portsmouth, Harwich, Plymouth, Dartmouth, Falmouth, Torbay, Sheerness, Dover Castle, Liverpool, Windsor and Deal Castle. Together, these views transform the map into a broader portrait of England and Wales, presenting the country through its roads, trading ports, defensive sites and principal centres of activity.

Royal Museums Greenwich records these same features on a catalogued example of the map. Their presence gives the composition much of its distinctive character and helps explain why Willdey’s work remains so appealing today. It is both a practical geographical document and an elaborate decorative piece, offering a fascinating picture of travel, trade and national identity in the early eighteenth century.

Other historic maps of Britain include John Speed’s Old Map of Great Britain, George Lily’s early map of the British Isles, Blaeu’s decorative Britannia Map and Carington Bowles’s remarkable map of the River Thames.