Map of the estates of William, George Benson and Joseph Strutt in Belper, Milford and Makeney

This beautifully detailed map shows natural features, buildings including houses and the mills at Belper and Milford, allotments, field boundaries, selected field acreages, parcel numbers for property owned by the Strutts and names of owners for adjacent land.

The description on the map indicates that it was created 'to illustrate the extent of property acquired under each of the several title deeds and having a particular reference to a book. A full explanation of the shading used is given on the map. In addition to the revisions up to 1829 on the original 1820 survey, further annotations appear to have been to the map, including (for example) the route of the Midland Railway. Several annotations also give details of exchange of properties, and new and old roads, with relevant dates.

Large parts of the towns are not included because the purpose of the map is to show the property owned by the three Strutt brothers, so everything else was left out. However, with the addition of the route of the railway, the map does indicate how the original landscape was affected as the river had to be re-routed between Duffield and Milford.

The meaning of the various exquisite patterns are given on the map itself, along with a note to indicate that a separate schedule was created as a key to the several sets of plot numbers.

Surveyor: [Joseph] B H Bennett
Scale: 40 chains/440 yards to 0.5 mile