Tallis's Topographical Dictionary - A Gazetteer of Wales

The original source

The details and maps in this on-line gazetteer are extracted from the 19th century six-volume edition of Tallis's Topographical Dictionary of England and Wales, acquired in February 2002 from the former Hay Castle Bookshop of Hay-on-Wye, Breconshire. This monumental work was edited by E. L. Blanchard, and published in 1860 by L. Tallis of 21 Warwick Square, Paternoster Row, London. The volumes were bound by Bone & Son, of 17 Fleet Street, London and originally sold for 7/6 (seven shillings and sixpence) per volume.
Click here to read the preface and examine images of the title pages.

1. Gazetteer - The alphabetical gazetteer of place-names is set out in tables which include details of location, railway access, area, and population (see example below). At the end of each alphabetical section, a list of rivers is also included.

   
   

2. Descriptions - Selected entries in the gazetteer are cross-referenced (using *, †, and ‡ symbols) to a fuller description. For important entries the description may extend to several pages of text. An example of a typical description is shown below.

   
   

3. Maps - There are detailed colour-tinted maps of each county, to a scale of approximately 6 miles = 1 inch. The maps include towns, villages, railway lines, canals, roadways, and rivers; the topography of the landscape is indicated by shading. Judged from the limited extent of the railway network shown, the maps were probably produced circa 1850. They were drawn and engraved by J. Archer, of Pentonville, London.
   A small section from one of the county maps is shown below.