This Trigonometrical Plan Of The Town And Port Of Liverpool Including The Environs Of Kirkdale Everton Low Hill & Toxteth Park From Actual Survey Is By Permission Most Respectfully Dedicated To The Worshipful Mayor And Common Council By Their Most Obedient And Obliged Humble Servant Michael Alexander Gage

Cartographer: Gage, Michael Alexander
Publisher: M.A. Gage
Price: £1200 including postage in the UK
Publication Date: 1836
Edition: First edition
Map Size: 166cm x 105cm
Binding: Original red morocco slipcase
Condition: Very good plus in very good slipcase

Condition:

Folding map. Dissected on linen. Map has very slight age-toning and offsetting which is much less evident than usual and no apparent fading with bright and original hand-colouring. The red morocco slipcase is rubbed and worn and in very good condition overall. A very nice copy indeed.

Michael Gage’s Plan of Liverpool: A Brief Overview

Overview

Michael Alexander Gage’s Trigonometrical Plan is one of the most important early nineteenth-century large-scale maps of Liverpool, produced during a period of rapid urban expansion, escalating maritime trade, and major civic investment. Created from meticulous “actual survey” and published in the 1830s, the work reflects Gage’s ambition to bring mathematical precision and scientific surveying practice to the representation of a city that was, at the time, one of the most dynamic ports in the world.

The dedication — “Most respectfully dedicated to the Worshipful Mayor and Common Council” — signals both the civic significance of the map and its intended role as an authoritative reference for municipal planning, land management, and commercial development.

About Michael Alexander Gage

Michael Alexander Gage (c.1800–1840s) was a surveyor, cartographer, and civil engineer active during a transformative era for Liverpool. His work demonstrates:

• Technical competence in trigonometrical surveying, a method that allowed unprecedented accuracy before the advent of modern geodetic instruments.
• Professional integrity, evidenced by his insistence on data collected from field measurement rather than derivative copying.
• Relevance and authority, as Gage’s maps were used by landowners, merchants, surveyors, estate trustees, and municipal officials.

Gage is also associated with the extensive map series produced for the Liverpool Improvement Act, further underscoring his professional stature.

Key Features of the Trigonometrical Plan

1. Scientific Surveying and Precision

The term “trigonometrical plan” signifies that the map was constructed using triangulation, a method involving measured baselines and angular observations. For the period, this was state-of-the-art practice, comparable to the techniques being formalised by the Ordnance Survey.
This approach allowed Gage to:

• Accurately record street layouts, property boundaries, and elevations
• Represent significant engineering works, quays, and docks with reliable proportions
• Capture the expanding urban periphery with consistency and mathematical rigour

2. Coverage of Liverpool and Its Developing Environs

The map encompasses both the urban core and surrounding districts, each of which was undergoing substantial change:

• Kirkdale – transitioning from rural township to industrial suburb
• Everton – formerly a village on higher ground, becoming a fashionable residential area
• Low Hill – a semi-rural fringe area, soon to be absorbed by Liverpool’s expansion
• Toxteth Park – historically a royal hunting park, by the 1830s developing into a major residential and industrial district

Gage’s inclusion of these areas provides invaluable documentation of their pre-Victorian landscapes before later redevelopment obscured earlier patterns.

3. Detailed Representation of the Port

Liverpool’s harbour complex was one of the most sophisticated in Britain. The plan includes:

• Docks, basins, and quays (existing and under construction)
• Warehouses and bonded storage
• Access routes critical for the transatlantic timber, cotton, and provisioning trades
• Coastal defences and sea walls
• River Mersey soundings in adjacent charts on some impressions

The map thus serves as both a record of maritime infrastructure and a working tool for merchants and maritime officers.

4. Civic, Social, and Infrastructural Elements

The plan marks a wealth of features including:

• Churches, chapels, and parish boundaries
• Workhouses, hospitals, and philanthropic institutions
• The growing railway corridors: the Liverpool & Manchester Railway had opened in 1830, influencing subsequent editions and associated plans
• Turnpike roads, canals, ropewalks, mills, and early gasworks
• Estate boundaries and names of major landowners, crucial for legal and planning purposes

Because Liverpool was a city of migrants, merchants, and industrialists, such maps had real practical utility for taxation, boundary disputes, and public works.

Historical Significance

A Mirror of Liverpool’s Industrial Emergence

By the 1830s, Liverpool was expanding at a remarkable pace due to:

• The Atlantic cotton trade
• Shipbuilding
• Warehousing and international commerce
• The pioneering Liverpool & Manchester Railway
• The accelerating integration of surrounding townships

Gage’s plan captures the city at a crucial juncture, when Georgian Liverpool was giving way to the Victorian metropolis.

A Foundation for Later Mapping

The plan forms a link between:

• Earlier eighteenth-century mapping (Eyes, Perry, Horwood)
• Later Victorian surveys and Ordnance Survey large-scale coverage

It is frequently consulted by historians, genealogists, conservation officers, and architectural researchers because it preserves street names, building footprints, and topographical details that no longer survive.

Cartographic Qualities and Artistic Detail

Although fundamentally a technical artefact, the map also exhibits aesthetic refinement:

• Fine engraved linework
• Elegant hachuring to indicate relief
• Clear lettering styles suited to both scholarly and commercial readerships
• Insets, scales, and compass roses executed with formal precision

Such qualities make original impressions highly collectable.

Use and Legacy

The plan endures as a primary source for:

• Urban historians studying Liverpool’s pre-Victorian form
• Heritage professionals assessing historic landscapes
• Maritime historians examining port logistics
• Archivists, map libraries, and collectors
• Legal researchers concerned with historical property boundaries

Its continued relevance is a testament to Gage’s methodological rigour and the map’s clarity.

Conclusion

Michael Alexander Gage’s Trigonometrical Plan of Liverpool stands as one of the most authoritative and technically advanced surveys of the city in the early nineteenth century. Combining scientific precision with civic purpose, it documents a metropolis on the cusp of industrial modernity. For historians, archivists, and enthusiasts of Liverpool’s past, it remains an indispensable and beautifully crafted resource.

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