William Gardner (1739-1800) and Thomas Yeakell’s (fl.1758-1787) four-sheet map of Sussex published in 1795 is one of the most important maps of the county and one of the rarest. It is the first map of the county to be based on a trigonometrical survey. The Master of the Board of Ordnance was the Duke of Richmond under whom the Ordnance Survey became fully operational in 1790. Both Yeakell and Gardner worked for it. Unsurprisingly the map was a forerunner of the early Ordnance Survey maps. Published by William Faden this map won a Society of Arts Gold Medal in 1796.

In 1799 Faden published this reduction which is here found in folding format. A note lower right records ‘The Distances on the Great Roads are measured from Westminster Bridge, Surrey Side. Those on the Cross Roads are measured from Town to Town’. It was engraved by John Palmer (fl.1799-1818), who went on to work on the Ordnance Survey maps from about 1808-18. A fine copy with an associated provenance. Provenance: David Kingsley Collection, author of the cartobibliography of Sussex; acquired February 1999 by Clive A. Burden Ltd.; private English collection. Baynton-Williams, Roger (1995) ‘200th birthday of Sussex map’, in ‘The Map Collector’ no. 71 pp. 39-41; Kingsley (1982) 58.i; Rodger (1972) 461; Worms & Baynton-Williams (2011).