Sanderson’s 1835 map
George Sanderson’s map of ‘The country 20 miles around Mansfield’ just about included Bingham in its reach! It is the earliest map of the town that is available and shows pretty much the present grid iron street plan.
Sanderson was a land surveyor who undertook his survey in response to the growing need for accurate maps to show developing industrialisation and transport systems - turnpike roads and canals. The map shows in full detail the results of enclosure on field patterns. He carried out his survey between 1830 and 1834, exactly at the end of the Georgian era and as the Victorian expansion was about to take off. The map was drawn at a scale of half a mile to one inch - 2¼ inches to the mile and the printed version (of which there is a colour washed copy on a wall at the Clifton campus of Nottingham Trent University and also one at Mansfield Library) measures about 7’ 6” square. It was circular. It has been shown by modern experts to have been particularly accurate.
However the scale is such that detailed depiction of individual buildings has to be treated with caution. We make considerable use of extracts from the map in descriptions of individual houses elsewhere on this web site, but only for illustrative purposes where hopefully it enhances one’s understanding of the historical context.
The west map shows the area bounded by the River Trent, Shelford, Cropwell Butler, Tythby and Hawksworth. Most of Bingham is shown on this half. The toll bars on the turnpikes are marked ‘TB’. The outlying farms of Starnhill, Brocker and The Holmes stand out well. Parson’s Hill is shown in relief. The brick kilns at East Bridgford and Saxondale used to source bricks for building the workhouse are marked. The course of the Grantham Canal rather suggests the Bingham Branch was not built! The east map shows the area bounded by Screveton, Thoroton, Granby and Wiverton; only a little if east Bingham is shown. The town of Bingham as a whole is shown at larger scale on the third map.
We are indebted to Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire County Councils for permission to use these parts of Sanderson’s maps and to be able this way to make them more widely accessible.