Digital Images Archive
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MPHH1-594-4
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Original Plan for the central part of MPHH1-132 from Cuckfield down to St John's Common. Detail on MPHH1-132 stops at the southern neatline; this plan extends a little further to a more natural termination.
To the north, a road traverse of almost three miles leads to Hand Cross (unnamed on this plan). This road forms the eastern edge of the Original Plan to the west and the dots marking the traverse stations occur in the same places, so it is almost certainly copied from the surveyor's notebooks for the adjoining area. It serves as a good test of how accurately detail was copied from notebooks to plan: buildings show excellent agreement; fences agree broadly but their exact alignment is not to be relied on. Drawing this traverse would be the first stage of extending the survey to the east to fill in the big hole on MPHH1-132.
A note top-left reads: 1794. John Ross Wright and Henry Hobbs. Cast by Lieut Col: Twiss. 9,200. Wright and Hobbs as surveyors have already been noted by Ivan Parr in Sheetlines 68. Wright was commissioned Lt (RE) in 1803 and enjoyed a successful military career. Twiss was the officer responsible for 'casting' - measuring the areas of - surveyors' plans to determine the piecework bonus to which they were entitled; this plan came to 9200 acres.