Early maps
Our publication A Descriptive List of the Printed Maps of Northamptonshire 1576-1900 (PDF) provides details of almost 700 maps that were created during the period with illustrations of a small number of them. Only a few of the maps are available online. However, the ones listed below can be freely consulted and downloaded.
- 1587 - Survey of the Manor of Kettering
- 1591 - John Norden's manuscript map of Northamptonshire
- 1611 - John Speed's map of the county, which you can reach at University of Cambridge Digital Library or Wikimedia Commons.
- 1622 - Poly-Olbion by Michael Brayton
- 1626 - The abridgement of Camden's Britania by John Bill
- 1630 - Dwellings at Naseby with the names of their occupiers (page 11)
- 1644 - This section of Wenceslaus Hollar's map of England & Wales includes Northamptonshire.
- c.1648 - Joan Blaeu's map of Northamptonshire
- 1708 - Robert Morden's map showing West at the top.
- 1712 - John Morton's map of Northamptonshire is digitised as two images.
- c.1720 - Plan of Kettering (reduced from Eayre's plan)
- 1728 - Map of the Manor of Kettering
- 1742 - Chorographia Britanniae by Thomas Badeslade
- 1746 - Map of the county attributed to John Rocque reprinted in 1762, 1764 and 1769.
- 1785 - Plan of the Market Place, Kettering (page 160)
- 1790 - Cary's Traveller's Companion showing East at the top.
- 1806 - Laurie & Whittle map of Northamptonshire
- 1827 - Map of the county of Northampton from a survey by A. Bryant in 1824, 1825 & 1826.
- 1837 - Northamptonshire map from 'The English counties delineated'.
Maps of the town of Northampton are mentioned in the Northampton section of this site.
Ordnance Survey maps
Between 1811 and 1817, William Hyett and three other surveyors drew a series of exquisite maps that cover most of the county. 'Homes and fields over 200 years ago' tells their story and provides links to the digitised versions.
All parts of Northamptonshire are included in The National Library of Scotland's vast digital collection of Ordnance Survey maps. These were originally published between the 1840s and 1970s but the years for which images are available vary from sheet to sheet.
The most detailed maps are town plans whose original scale was 1:500 - they were generally surveyed in 1883-1885 and published soon afterwards. Local towns in that part of the collection are Banbury, Bedford, Buckingham, Kettering, March, Northampton, Peterborough, Rugby, Stamford & Wellingborough.
Maps of Great Addington
Extracts from a number of maps can be found on the Great Addington: A history of an English village site. They show Great Addington and varying amounts of neighbouring areas, Dating from c.1565, 1760, 1801, 1803, 1816-1818 and 1885, the maps are accompanied by commentaries.
Publication and republication
There is much scope for clipping and saving extracts from maps, whether digitised, printed or manuscript. However, before incorporating a map or part of a map in a fresh publication it is important to observe the advice in 'Guidance on copyright and re-use of images'.