Old maps arrive in old-style time

On Tuesday I ordered a couple of reprints of old Ordnance Survey maps from Karen Swift. At a speed reminiscent of the postal service around the time the original maps were produced - when, so we are led to believe, letters arrived at their destination almost before they'd been posted - just 21 hours later they had arrived.

One of the maps is of West Bromwich North in 1885, the one which Captain Ahab has drawn from in his recent posts on the lost canals of that area. Here's an example, with a sample of the map.

I'm grateful to Captain Ahab for drawing my attention to these. They have a wealth of fascinating detail, and bring to life the days when the canals were used for the purpose for which they were built. There are tramways directly connecting collieries and canals; disused mine shafts where the coal has already been worked out; iron works all over the place with wonderful names - was the Cyclops Works set up by a one-eyed entrepreneur? - and the modern railways striking through it all in comparitively straight lines.

Yes, I posted about these maps only two days ago, but I still can't get over how interesting they are.