Until 1930, when the then Liverpool Boy Scouts Association bought Tawd Vale, the land was used for hunting as part of the Lathom Park Estate. The estate features on the earliest available maps of the area going back as far as 1577.
Our thanks goes to the National Library of Scotland (NLS), Vision of Britain (VOB) British Library (BL) UK Web Archive (UKWA), Universität und PH Bern (UB), Old Maps Online (OMO), and David Rumsey Map Collection (DR) for making all of the following maps freely available. Special thanks to Lancaster University (LU) for their Lancashire historic maps webpage, which lists and shows many more maps than we can here.
All years are the year of publication of the map.
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Earliest Maps
1577 map of Lancashire (LU) by Christopher Saxton (Wikipedia) is the basis for many maps that followed, and has the first depiction of the Lathom estate as well as the first mention of “taude flu”
1595 map of Lancashire (UKWA)
1598 map of Lancashire (UKWA)
1622 map of “Lancashyre” by William Hole (LU) has first mention of “Taud fl(u)” (the ‘e’ has been dropped), although it is overall far less detailed than earlier maps
1646 Lancastria palatinatvs anglis Lancaster et Lancas Shire (UB)
1659 Lancastria Palatinatus anglis Lancaster & Lancas Shire (OMO)
1664 LANCASTRIA | PALATINATVS | Anglis | LANCASTER et | Lancas shire. (OMO)
1670-1690 Lancastria palatinatvs anglis Lancaster [et] Lancas Shire (UB)
Blaeu Atlas Major 1662-5, Volume 5 (NLS)
1695 The County Palantine of Lancaster (LU) by Rob Morden (Wikipedia) has the first mention of “Taud R” (‘flu’ becomes ‘river’)
1724 The County Palantine of Lancaster (BL on Flickr)
1794 Cary’s England, Wales, and Scotland: Sheets 49-50 (DR)
1781 map by Emanual Bowen (NLS)
1786 map by William Yates:
- Whole map (BL on Flickr)
- Centre south west sheet (NLS)
- South west sheet (NLS)
1810 The British Atlas (BL on Flickr)
1816 The County Palantine of Lancaster (BL on Flickr)
1818 map by Christopher Greenwood (NLS)
1828 map by G Hennet and J Bingley (NLS) is the first time the outline of what is now Tawd Vale is visible
Ordnance Survey (OS)
First Edition
Sheet 89 SW: 1843 (VOB) is the first map to label what is now Tawd Vale as “Delph Wood”, and first use of “River Tawd” (“Taud” becomes “Tawd”)
All of the following OS maps are made availably by the NLS.
Six-Inch, 1840s-1960s
Lancashire LXXXIV: 1848 is the first map showing reliable detail of what is now Tawd Vale, with the name now being ‘Delf Wood” (“ph” becomes “f”)
Lancashire LXXXIV.SE: 1894 – 1909 – 1929 is the map closest to when Scouts took over the site in 1930 – 1951
25 Inch, 1840s-1960s
Lancashire LXXXIV.11: 1894, 1908, 1928
Lancashire LXXXIV.15: 1893 first shows names for different parts of what is now Tawd Vale, 1908, 1928
1 Inch, 1850s-1960s
Sheet 35 – Liverpool & Birkenhead: 1923 – 1940 – 1942 – 1943
Sheet 100 – Liverpool: 1947 – 1952 – 1958 – 1961 – 1965 – 1966 – 1969 – 1971 – 1972
1:25,000, 1920s-1970s
SD41 (34/41): 1946 – 1947 – 1953 – 1966
1:10:000, 1949-1972
SD41SE: 1955 – 1975 (still in copyright)
Batholomew Mapping Half inch, 1900s to 1940s
All of the following from Batholomew Mapping are made available by the National Library of Scotland (NLS).
Sheet 8 – Liverpool & Manchester: 1904 – 1920 – 1941
