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Date:Sat, 24 Jan, 2015 at 10:20
Subject:John Cary - 'Plan of Proposed Somersetshire Coal Canal'
Dear All,
I am researching the Somerset Coal Canal in connection with William Smith, whose career as a geologist began in this part of the world. I have not been able to find two maps that provide a link Smith and Somerset Coal Canal, and ask readers of lis-maps if they know where I may find them.
Plans for the SCC were drawn by John Cary, possibly for an enabling Parliamentary bill for the Kennet and Avon Canal. The reference for them is in GH Fordham's cartobibliography, 'John Cary;
Engraver, Map, Chart & Print-Seller & Globe-Maker, 1754-1835', (1925). The maps are:
•Plan of the Proposed Somersetshire Coal Canal... in the counties of Somerset and Wiltshire to join the Proposed Kennet and Avon Canal... Survey of 1793. J. Cary Sculpt. Scale about ¼ mile to an inch. No Date.
•Plan of the Proposed Deviations of the Proposed Somersetshire Coal Canal... in the counties of Somerset and Wiltshire to join the Proposed Kennet and Avon Canal... Survey of 1793. J. Cary Sculpt. Scale about ¼ mile to an inch. No Date.
Fordham doesn’t specifically say where he has seen these plans, but his entry for them follows a description of other canal plans in the Bodleian (p.53). However, they are not at the Bodleian or in the National Archive or listed in COPAC.
William Smith, Smith at the time of Cary’s plans, was the engineer for the Somersetshire Coal Canal Company and would have supplied the drawings that Cary used for these large scale maps.
This is the bicentenary year of Smith’ great geological map, A Delineation of the Strata of England and Wales with Part of Scotland. As one of the bicentenary events, HOGG, the History of Geology Group, is organising a major conference on Smith and his Map, on 23-24th April, at the Geological Society of London. (see www.historyofgeologygroup.co.uk and http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/Events/William-Smith-Bicentenary).
The Somerset Coal Canal is a small but significant part of Smith’s story that my paper on ‘Smith; the maps behind the Map’ will develop for the HOGG conference at the Geological Society.
Any information or advice on the whereabouts of copies of these maps of the Somerset Coal Canal would be much appreciated.
Regards,
John Henry,
Chair, HOGG
