Engraved map, dated 5 April 1786, captioned 'A Map of the Channels and Lands from Appledore Dowls [Kent] and Black Wall to Rye Harbour [Sussex].' [Illustrating proposed embanking and a new cut to the River Rother.]

Author: 
[Charles John Downes, cartographer?] [Anonymous 1786 map of 'the Channels and Lands from Appledore Dowls [Kent] and Black Wall to Rye Harbour [Sussex].]
Publication details: 
'5th. April, 1786.'
£225.00
SKU: 15024

Nicely printed on thick watermarked laid paper, roughly 56 x 78 cm. Plate dimensions roughly 40.5 x 64 cm. Even creases from folding of map four times. Fair, with a little discoloration along folds and very slight wear and loss fold junctions. At foot of plate: 'The Scale is 96 Rods to One Inch.' Only two copies of this item located: the first, in the British Library Department of Maps describes it as showing 'existing and intended drainage systems. Engraving style and date suggests hand of Charles John Downes, engraver for maps accompanying Hasted's History of Kent'. The other reference to a copy (RYE/132/25, 26) in the Archive of Rye Corporation, at East Sussex Record Office, the entry for which states that the map 'Shows principal sewers, bridges and sluices to illustrate proposed embanking of Salts Channel W. of Five Waterings Sluice and Sewer in Playden and Iden, and a new cut to the Rother. Conventional drawings of churches, houses and mills with their names.' The second description refers to a 'separate printed estimate of the expense of the works', not present here. Captions include 'Late Mr. Jewhurst's now Clark's' and 'Where Craven Sluices did lay'.