Bradshaw, George (1801-1853).

Map & Sections of the Railways of Great Britain dedicated by permission to James Walker F.R.S.L[ondon] & [Edinburgh], President of the Institution of Civil Engineers. Manchester: G. Bradshaw, 1st Mo: 14 [i.e. 14 January] 1839

James Walker, engraved armorial bookplate; William Newsam McClean, bookplate; un-named owner, sale, Bloomsbury Book Auctions, 19 January 1984, lot 55, £180, Thomas; acquired by Lord Wardington from Colin and Charlotte Franklin, Culham, Oxfordshire, July 1984, £440

the dedication copy of the first railway map.

Bradshaw, whose name was to become synonymous with railway timetables, published his first guide in 1830 with the opening of the Liverpool-Manchester Line and his first timetable in 1839, the same year as this, the first railway map.

"He was a Quaker, like my ancestor Edward Pease, known as the 'Father of Railways' because of his close connection with the Stockton-Darlington Railway in 1825, and with George and Robert Stephenson (I think I'm right in saying that around 1815 Edward Pease invested £1000 in their locomotive workshops and by 1850 was drawing £5000 per annum, and no tax!!)" (Wardington Catalogue).

Bound with the map is Bradshaw's Tables of the Gradients to Bradshaw's Map of the Railways of Great Britain, containing particulars of the Lengths, Levels, and Gradients, of all the Principal Railways in the Kingdom, published at the same time as a companion to the map.