Giles' 40" Sewerage Plan of Lincoln (1849)


The Survey of Lincoln has added images of a mid-nineteenth century plan of much of the City of Lincoln onto this website. This plan has previously not been easily accessible and we hope that it will be of interest. The project to make the plan available and to indicate its significance has been driven by Dr Dennis Mills and Dr Rob Wheeler.

The map presented here is that drawn up in 1849 by the engineer George Giles, who had been commissioned to produce proposals for a Lincoln sewerage system. It is at 40 inches to the mile (1:1334). It is owned and currently [2015] held by City of Lincoln Council. Another version survives at the considerably reduced scale of 20 inches to the miles, which shows almost as much detail and is in far better condition.

The topographical base for both these maps was the 20-inch plan by JS Padley which had been produced in 1842 and would reappear in 1851 in a new edition. What Giles seems to have been given access to was Padley's revision material, based on the 1842 printing but showing some of the amendments which would be incorporated in 1851 and a couple which had changed yet again by the time the 1851 edition came out. It therefore provides a glimpse of an intermediate state between these two editions and allows one to date certain changes to before 1849 which otherwise might only have been datable to before 1851.

There are two problems in using it. The first is that a lot of street names and minor detail like garden paths were not copied, and this makes the map more difficult to follow. The second is that the clerk or clerks copying the map were erratic: at times they employed excessive generalisation; and by copying some buildings in not quite the right place, they found themselves having to squeeze detail into spaces it would not fit. Thus a difference between this map and Padley's printed 1842 map does not necessarily correspond to a real change on the ground. To confirm a suspected change, a comparison needs to be made with the Giles' 20-inch and with Padley's 1851 edition.

After the map had been copied, various street names were added in black ink. In some cases, this was done neatly by a clerk, in other cases a hastier, cursive, script was used. These include many names of courts and yards that are not on the Padley map (nor on the Giles' 20-inch). The names often appear in directories, but this is the only known cartographic record for many of them. Giles was interested in these courts and yards because they needed sewers. Thus, where there is some doubt as to which group of buildings a name refers to, the user should look for the sewers: groups of buildings like workshops that did not need sewers were of no interest.

The map has been scanned in a series of overlapping sections, each of which has been given a letter. To open an image, click on the appropriate Extract Letter in the Index (below).

You will be taken to the web-page for that part of the map - the image may not look very clear. Double-click on the web-page image and this will open the Drive page on which the map images are stored. These images should be of better resolution.

To enlarge the image, use the magnifying glass icon (top bar) and/or the scroll wheel to enlarge further. Right click will take you to the print option but beware - this may print the entire extract on several sheets of paper unless you set your printing options correctly! If you have the Snipping Tool, this may be the simplest way of saving and printing a screen-shot.

Clicking on the < or > arrows on the image will take you to another section of the map but these are not labelled with the letters below.

Website Map Extracts Index

Vicinity of

A Burton Road

B Newport

C Nettleham Road

D Wragby Road

E Rasen Lane; Burton Road

F Newport; Rasen Lane, Church Lane, Bailgate, Burton Road, West Bight, East Bight, James Street, North Gate

G Newport; Church Lane, Bailgate, Northgate;Eastgate, Greetwellgate, Langworthgate

H Langworthgate; Greetwellgate; Wragby Road

I Carline Road; West Parade

J Carline Road; Union Road; Westgate; Drury Lane; Spring Hill; Michaelgate; Bailgate; Steep Hill; Cathedral Close; Eastgate; Minster Yard; Danesgate

K Pottergate; Minster Yard; New Road, Lindum Road, Wragby Road; Lindum Terrace; Eastgate; Cathedral Close; Danesgate

L Lindum Terrace; St Anne's Road


M Brayford Wharf North; Newland Street West; Gas Street

N Motherby Lane; St Martin's; Hungate; Beaumont Fee; The Park; Park Street; Mint Lane; Newland; Guildhall Street; High Street; Waterside North; Brayford Wharf North; Saltergate; Free School Lane; Broadgate; Silver Street; Grantham Street; Danesgate; Flaxengate

O Monks Road; Rosemary Lane; Croft Street; Waterside South; Waterside North; St Rumbold's Street; Friars Lane; Broadgate; Lindum Road; Danesgate; Grantham Street; Flaxengate; Silver Street; Clasketgate; Free School Lane; Saltergate

P Monks Road; Waterside North; Waterside South

Q Brayford Wharf North; Brayford Wharf East; St Mary's Street; Waterside North; Waterside South; Sincil Street; Canwick Road; Broadgate

R High Street: Midland Station; Monson Street ; St Peter at Gowts church; Salt House Lane

S High Street

T High Street

W Upper LongLeys Road: Mill Road; Burton Road

An index to the courts and yards is available here.

The Sewerage Plans were scanned to protect the deteriorating original paper plan, with considerable assistance from City of Lincoln Council - including John Herridge (Heritage Team), Lincolnshire Archives, and others. Please respect copyright and our efforts. Email solsecretary@gmail.com if you wish to reproduce any part of these plans or if the links fail to open.