WELCOME TO THE MANCHESTER AREA IN 1840 - This is a map I've created using "Pigot & Co's British Atlas Counties of England 1840" (on sale at English Heritage shops) as my source. I'm not sure if it's right to re-interpret the past like this - maybe it would be better to include the original. But I had fun doing it and I learnt a lot.

The 1840 county boundaries are quite different from today - Lancashire and Cheshire meet at the River Mersey - a "panhandle" of Cheshire extends north east through present day Tameside, taking in the Longdendale Valley. The Yorkshire and Derbyshire boundaries are further to the west than today. These boundaries survived until local government reorganisation in 1974.

The main road south west is the Chester road, which was used centuries before by Roman legions. In 1840, travellers covering the 183 miles to London took the turnpike roads through Stockport, Hazel Grove, Disley and beyond.

The Manchester and Liverpool Railway was opened in 1830 - in 1840 further lines are either planned or under construction and appear here as red lines - some are a bit vague, as they hadn't yet worked out the exact route. The line from Manchester to Birmingham, starting at London Road Station, (now Piccadilly), was opened in 1842.

Familiar names of country estates can be seen, including Lyme, Tatton and Heaton Park.

"Chapel" features in many place names, including Ringway - at that time a peaceful rural parish. Some of the place names are spelt differently to today - Kersley, Radcliff, Levensholme and Duckinfield - others appear as towns in 1840 - Norbury, south of Stockport, for instance, but have all but disappeared from the maps of today.

To the west, we can see the original course of the River Mersey, before it was partially merged with the Ship Canal at the end of the 19th century.

Despite a few changes, most of the towns we see on this map are still there today, as well as quite a few buildings which would be familiar to someone from 1840. I wonder what the map for 2140 will look like.

Any comments? Please e-mail me.