Thank you very much to long-standing member Keith Gascoyne who showed us this superb map.This is the third map from 1769 that we have put on the website this year.

It is special in two respects.

Firstly it folds up so that John Varley could carry it about easily.

Secondly it shows the original route taking the canal to Bawtry where it would go into the River Idle and thence to the Trent. It was the townsfolk of Retford, led by the Reverend Seth Ellis Stevenson, who persuaded the canal proprietors to change the route. A larger view of the map is available for download. It's around 1.5MB in size and 4000x1600 pixels so much more detail is available.

If you haven't seen the other two maps yet, click here and here.