Catalogue description THE ALBINSON COLLECTION

This record is held by Bolton Archives and Local Studies Service

Details of ZAL
Reference: ZAL
Title: THE ALBINSON COLLECTION
Description:

The collection originates from the activities of John Albinson of Bolton, surveyor, antiquarian and book collector (1774-1854). It consists mainly of Albinson's own working plans and sketches, but also includes originals and copies of items compiled by other contemporary and earlier map-makers and surveyors.

 

Albinson undertook surveying commissions for a varied clientele, including landowners, enclosure commissioners, turnpike trustees, industrialists, ecclesiastical authorities, solicitors, property developers and private individuals, and this variety is fully reflected in the range covered by the surviving material. Although most of the collection relates to the Bolton area, it also contains many items concerning a wider area of Lancashire and parts of Yorkshire.

 

In addition to his private practice, John Albinson was appointed Clerk to the Great Bolton Improvement Trustees (Police Commissioners) in 1800, a post which he occupied until 1841. His private collection of maps appears to have been transferred to the Bolton Borough Council in 1850, together with the official Archive of the Trustees.

 

The collection was backed in linen and bound into a number of large volumes by the Bolton Borough Engineer's Department probably during the late nineteenth century. During the 1920s, these volumes were placed in the custody of the Reference Library, where they remained until their transfer to the Archives Service in 1974.

 

Since that date, the collection, which had deteriorated badly, has been removed from its bindings, and each item individually cleaned and repaired.

Date: 1774-1863
Arrangement:

To avoid confusion, the order in which the collection was arranged during its time in the Reference Library has been preserved in this list. As this arrangement appears to be rather haphazard, an index of places and subjects has been compiled, and appears at the end of this volume. The list also contains details of some of the handbills, legal documents and other items which Albinson used as scrap paper.

Related material:

Further maps and plans by Albinson are contained in the Thompson collection (ZJA) and the Shaw's Bookshop Purchase (ZSH). His Fine Arts and Literary Commonplace Books have also been deposited (Miscellaneous Deposits: ZZ/223).

Held by: Bolton Archives and Local Studies Service, not available at The National Archives
Language: English
Creator:

Albinson, John, 1774-1854, surveyor and antiquarian

Physical description: 1380 Files
Subjects:
  • Bolton, Lancashire
  • Maps
Link to NRA Record:

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