THIS map comes from a book published in 1818, Durham, or General Delineations of That County, by EW Brayley and J Britton.
The book, as mentioned on the previous sale, is just one of thousands of items that were available at the Durham Book Fair at Durham Johnston School.
The map is dated April 1, 1805 – 20 years before the first proper railway joined Shildon, Darlington and Stockton. Indeed, Shildon – perhaps the world's first railway town – doesn't exist, although the hamlet of Old Thickley is represented.
There are loads of other old-fashioned oddities. For instance, there's a village called Painsher, between Durham and Sunderland, and out west there's Bernard Castle and Rombaldkirk. And there's a note that says that the post road from Darlington to Northallerton normally crosses the Tees at Neasham when the river is "fordable...but when unfordable the road is by Croft bridge".
Surely it was always easier and more comfortable to cross via the bridge rather than plodge across the ford.
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