GENERAL CASSINI PUBLICATIONS
 

Fay Weldon, author

"Where our forbears lived, the towns and roads they walked, the difference between now and then – these beautifully produced and elegant maps of our shared past have a mysterious power over the imagination, much as does a  family portrait on the wall.  Me, yet not me.  They're doubly fascinating to anyone interested in their personal lineage  (and these days, who isn't?) but compelling, too, to anyone who is content with the present but has half an eye for the past.  As a Christmas or birthday gift, there's no faulting them!"

Terry Jones, popular TV historian and ex-Monty Python

“Cassini Historical Maps provide a wonderful key to the past - a key to a treasure-trove for everyone who wants to know what has happened to their world."

Miss Driscoll, Manchester
 
"My Mother’s grandmother came from Woolbeding, a tiny settlement near Midhurst. I found your map very useful when I went to visit the area because I could trace the original roads unobscured by modern developments. It was great to see the house where my great-grandmother’s twin sister was a dairy maid in 1871 and the tiny church next door still candelit where they were probably baptised seventeen years earlier.

The rescaling of the original maps to 1:50,000 together with the addition of the British National Grid lines made it easy to use and the slight enlargement makes the print more legible.

Looking at previous census returns give indications of roads - depending on whim of Inumerator - eg June Lane - corroborated by our maps - Severals - much easier to find places on an old map where there is no extraneous detail - and then grid cross-references to modern map to actually visit - kills two birds with one stone."

J. Ellis, Epsom
 
"Cassini Historical Maps are excellent because they have been reproduced to a high standard and match the scale and grid of modern Landrangers, which, amongst other things, helps to show how the routes of main roads, such as the A1, have changed over time...and they're printed on very good quality paper, so unlike original historical maps, they can stand up to a considerable amount of wear and tear. "

Mrs Janet Daley, Somerset
 
"We find these historical maps fascinating. Especially when you have them side-by-side with the modern map. Even my grandchildren are interested and we have spent ages crawling around on the floor comparing the past and present of places where they live. "

Brian Sylvester, Town Crier of Newbury
 
"My daughter gave me the Past & Present map of Newbury and Thatcham for my birthday. It was a lovely present and I spent hours pouring over it. Good to see side by side four different periods at the same scale which made cross-reference very easy. I was fascinated to see the development of the roads and to be reminded that Newbury originally evolved because it was situated on a cross-roads."

Paul Reeves, Hungerford
 
"The Cassini Old Series map 174 of Newbury & Wantage was the best present I’ve had for a long time. My wife knows how much I’m interested in the history of the area where we live and she found the perfect gift for me. This beautiful nineteenth century map has even got her interested in our local history and now she understands why I’m so fascinated. "

LONDON BOX SET
 

Richard Oliver
Research Fellow in the History of Cartography, University of Exeter

"These maps show the transition from an essentially small city at the start of the 19th century, with most people living within walking distance of their work, to a city in which most people lived a considerable distance from their work in vast suburbs, connected to the centre by numerous railways. Though often regarded as 'typically Victorian', railways were still being built well into the 20th century, and this process is graphically recorded on these maps. Taken together, they give a vivid sense of growth. "

Peter Barber  MA, FSA, FRHistS
Head of Map Collections, British Library
 
"The Cassini Historical Maps of London Box Set is an exciting introduction to London’s past. They are extremely accessible because they are clearly printed and have been adapted to bring them to the same scale and coverage as modern OS Landrangers 176 and 177.  This means that Ordnance Survey’s traditional separation of the London area onto several sheets has been overcome.  You can see the whole of London at a glance and nowhere in the Greater London area is off the map!  It could hardly be easier to identify where you live and how the neighbourhood has developed over the past 200 years.   The maps also include expert but accessible texts by experts giving clear information about the history of London in the period depicted on the maps and on Ordnance Survey mapping.   The maps can be easily handled and stored, making them a lovely addition to anyone’s bookshelf.  

These maps will be particularly fascinating for those in outer suburbs developed after 1918 showing in full colour what the neighbourhoods were like before development took over. They will be of great use to local historians not only because they show change over time but because the  maps include unexpected detail and precious information on local history between the early 19th century and the 1940s: you can see where smithies used to be (are there petrol stations on the site today?), the location of old pubs (which may not survive), post offices and – perhaps most important- the farms and country estates of wealthy merchants which have usually been built over, but whose boundaries often dictate the lines of existing roads.  See, for instance, in the neighbourhood of Southgate, how the core of the Grovelands estate has been preserved as a park, with the house, an early work of John Nash, still surviving where the numerous neighbouring parks, to be seen on the 1805/1822 and 1898 maps, have now vanished almost without trace.  The New River can be seen crossing Hornsey High Street in no less than three placed on the 1805/1822 map, but by 1898 its course had been altered to avoid the High Street entirely. Walk the High Street today and the map explains why the road dips where it still does.

Old maps of the sort published by Cassini are an excellent introduction to local history throughout the United Kingdom because they focus the user’s attention on the sort of unexpected questions that act as starting points for research.  “Well, I never knew that there was a house in that location 200 years ago”.  “I never realised that xxxx Road followed a different course 150 years ago . . . why?”.  Of course, detailed local histories will probably contain the answers to some of these questions – but they hardly ever force them on you as vivdly – and attractively – as old maps. And, in some cases, you will find yourself asking questions that even the standard histories do not answer.   So, before consulting those published histories, look at the maps! "

BOOKTRADE

Emma Milne-White, The Hungerford Bookshop
 
"As soon as we got Cassini Historical Maps in stock, my husband and I pounced on them as gifts for our own fathers. They were delighted with the maps. My father lives in Cambridge and I can’t wait to give him the new Cambridge Past & Present."

Ben Anderson, Bookseller Borders, Newbury
 
"I love Cassini maps as I’m very interested in the history of Upper Buckleberry where I live. It’s also amazing to see how Thatcham has evolved from just being a few houses in the early nineteenth century."

Colette Burgess, Buyer, Borders Preston
 
"Your maps are now really flying out since I've put up a huge display near to the till points! So with eye on Christmas can I order 170 maps?"

CARTOGRAPHIC EXPERTS

Rodney Leary
The Charles Close Society for the Study of Ordnance Survey Maps
 
"Your old new/maps are great! I wonder how we ever used to read the old ones..."

Richard Oliver
Research Fellow in the History of Cartography, University of Exeter
 
"Cassini publications are produced to a high standard and are attractively packaged. They are more user-friendly than any previous historical map reissues, for three reasons: they use convenient modern sheet lines; they use the Ordnance Survey's 'Landranger' scale of 1:50,000, rather than the original smaller one-inch scale; and they carry the National Grid, enabling easy cross-reference with modern mapping, which is especially important where there have been dramatic changes on the ground."

Peter Barber  MA, FSA, FRHistS
Head of Map Collections, British Library
 
"These Cassini maps are unique - enlarged from historical maps to match the modern OS Landranger scale and encompassing greater London on one sheet they are superb for both research and leisure."

HISTORIANS

Dr S.A. Skinner, Fellow & Tutor in History, Balliol College, Oxford
 
"These maps are elegantly produced, each with a detailed accompanying historical commentary. Rescaled for consistency, they make it possible to compare London's pasts and present at a glance, and will appeal to a wide audience."