Sidney Hall (1788?-1831) was a prolific engraver of the period and according to Worms and Baynton-Williams ‘was almost certainly the first engraver to use the new harder steel plates for map work, using plates manufactured by the Jacob Perkins process as early as 1821’. His first county maps were those published by Samuel Leigh in 1820 in ‘Leigh’s New Picture of England and Wales’, a miniature county atlas which proved a success.

This series of maps was engraved for John Gorton’s ‘Topographical Dictionary’ issued in parts from 1831-32 and published by Chapman and Hall. There is no known familial link between the two Hall’s. We cannot conclude for sure that Sidney Hall engraved all of the plates, as his will was proved 26 March 1831. The dates on the maps vary between 1830 and 1832. His widow Selina Hall was also an engraver and as she signed hers ‘S. Hall’, it is difficult to tell. The first edition of the ‘New British Atlas’ was issued in 1833. Ensuing editions appeared in 1834 and 1836. Then it was re-titled ‘A Travelling County Atlas’ in 1842. The maps here are bound in no identifiable order with those of Yorkshire, Ireland, Scotland and Wales consisting of two plates joined and folded. Carroll (1996) 94; Chubb (1927) 501; Worms & Baynton-Williams (2011).