The Historian’s view of the Deben Estuary
On the Woodbridge Riverside Trust website: is An interesting map of the Deben with some historical notes. It has a different explanation of the name Kingsfleet.
1678 Essex by William Morgan
Shows Burnham near the sea, Ray Sand, Landguard fort. Shows marshes between Stour and Blackwater.
1815 Arrowsmith Suffolk and Essex
Shows land and sandbanks. High definition.
1941 German Maps and Photos of Eastern England
1941 Sudost-England. England Blatt Nr. 12. Militargeographische Objektkarten 1941 Ost-Anglia. England Blatt Nr. 9. Militargeographische Objektkarten 1940 Oberkommando reconnaissance photos from David Rumsey Collection extensive. Samples:
1575 Saxton’s map of Suffolk
At UCLA very high definition.
1594 John Norden’s Map of Essex
shows channels at Ramsey, Holland on Sea and lots of other places. Islands at Wallsea, Foulness, channel north of Canvey.. BL Georeferencer on Norden At UCLA
1759 Bowen Essex showing Orwell Beacon
Available at high definition at BNF. This shows the Orwell Beacon at Havengore. Did this lead to the Essex Inshore route? Some of the beacons, such as at Harwich Navy Yard, show shapes and the marshes and ‘-wicks’ along the Essex coast are worthy of note.
1785 Essex
1787 Suffolk
1690 Plan of Harwich at BL
Available here.
1584 A chart of the east coast of England – Richard Poulter
British Library Copyright but visible in low resolution here. Zoom only works with Flash! A good view of sandbanks but text is not readable. North up version below.
1579 Saxton Atlas of Britain
Download here.
1595 Britannicarum insularum typus / ex conatibus
Full size here.
+Sources for Charts, Maps and Images
Ordnance Survey Maps – National Library of Scotland Good source of historical OS and other maps at Vision of Britain British Library Maps and charts (rmg.co.uk) Foxearth Local History – local maps L Brown Collection – no re-use. David Rumsey Collection – excellent. Royal Collection Rijks Museum National Library of Spain OMNIA – Europe’s Culture …
1695 William III Map of England
Similar to Adams map. Best viewed online with zoom. Gunfleet and Havengore are interesting.
1677 John Adams Map of England and Wales
1677 English chart. Best viewed online with zoom.
1670s Le Royaume d’Angleterre – James II
This is not dated but probably 1670s or earlier. Best viewed online with zoom. Easton Ness and Gunfleet are interesting.
1760 Carte de Cotes Meridionales d’Angleterre
French chart with excellent zoom facility. Presumably based on English charts and maps but gives a very interesting, combined view of the land and sea. The original is 205 x 159 cm so it needs to be viewed in sections. Longitude is in Leagues from the meridian of Paris. Unfortunately, the chart stops at Bawdsey …
1587 Remains of the antient City of Dunwich
See Sailing past 1587 Dunwich
1664 ‘Atlas maior’ by Blaeu
Available here Essex from page 225 followed by Suffolk. In Dutch. This is a description of the country with maps and not sea charts. Nice drawing of forts at Shoebury.
1680 Great Britain Map
Interesting to look at the Essex coast.
0150 Ptolemy’s Geography
This chap spent twenty years translating it only to discover that the source text was useless. In 2017 he found that somebody else had done job – Geographia e codicibus recognovit, prolegomenis, annotatione, indicibus, ta… – Google Books The earliest useful found is the Geography of Claudius Ptolemy which mentions a promontory that seems to …
1635 Mercator Atlas of the World
Includes the first use found of the name Deben and some notes on distances. See here.