Maps and Resources
This is a list of some resources I have found useful in my historical researches on the Liverpool & Manchester Railway and Liverpool history more generally. I will hopefully update it on an occasional basis. The entries below were current as of 26th Aug 2026.
See also Mike Royden’s link pages and the Eighteenth Century World resource page for a more comprehensive collection.
(A) = adverts
Archives
National
Regional & Local
- Knowsley
- Lancashire
- Liverpool
- Liverpool Digital Archive
- Digest of Liverpool Municipal Archives (1700-1835)
- Manchester
- St Helens
- University of Liverpool archives
- LJMU archives
- University of Manchester archives (John Rylands)
- University of Salford archives
Railways
Maps
Liverpool
- Maps via Liverpool1207 (A)
- Martin Greaney’s maps at Historic Liverpool (A)
- Wikimedia various
- David Rumsey Map Collection
- BL via Flickr (Eyes 1765, Perry 1769, Horwood 1803)
- Eyes 1785
- Gore 1790
- Gregory 1806 (Royal Collection)
- Faden 1816
- Gore 1817
- Swires 1824 (colour version) (also at Historic Liverpool)
- Undated, possibly 1825
- Gage 1836; Also at Harvard, Historic Liverpool
- Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge 1836
- New Universal Gazeteer 1842
- Town plan 1848
- 1851 OS
- Bradshaw 1853
- Austen 1854
- Letts 1883
- Bacon 1891
North-west
UK
- A Vision of Britain
- National Library of Scotland
- Goad fire insurance maps / Liverpool: Key Map I / Key Map II / Key Map III / Key Map IV
- Old Maps Online
Railways
Images, etc
National & regional
- British Library Online Collection
- Red Rose Collections (Lancashire)
- Cheshire Image Bank
- Britain from Above
- Cambridge air photos
- Cambridge Landscape Histories
- Historic England Aerial Photo Explorer
- Francis Frith (commercial)
- Liverpool History Society links
- Historic England Archive, e.g. Bedford Lemere photographs
- Lancashire Illustrated (book)
Railways
Panoramas
- Liverpool, 1725 (pdf)
- Buck’s South West Prospect of Liverpoole, 1728, alt1
- South East Prospect of Leverpool taken from the Seacombe boathouse, 1770
- A view of the Town and Harbour of Leverpool, 1770
- View by JT Serres, 1797
Aerial panoramas
Aerial panoramas by Ed Farrell
Herdman
General art sites
Texts
General
Liverpool
- Liverpool History Society Bibliography (pdf)
- Liverpool prints and documents (1908); catalogue of maps, plans, views, portraits, memoirs, literature &c. in the reference library relating to Liverpool
- Baines. Liverpool in 1859
- Britton & Brayley (1807). The Beauties of England and Wales
- Brooke. Liverpool as it was during the last quarter of the 18th century
- Butterworth. A Statistical Sketch of the county Palatine of Lancaster (1841)
- Corry (images by Troughton). History of Liverpool etc (1810)
- Enfield. Essay towards a History of Liverpool (pre-1800)
- Customs Letter-books of the Period 1711-1813
- Fraser’s Guide to Liverpool & Birkenhead (1855)
- Gregson’s Portfolio of Fragments (1824/1869)
- Hope. City of Liverpool (compiled for 1903 Public Health congress)
- Hughes. Liverpool Banks & Bankers (1907)
- Liverpool Memorandum Book (1753)
- The Moore Rental (1667)
- Moss. Liverpool Guide (1801)
- Muir. History of Liverpool
- Muir. Bygone Liverpool
- Muir. History of Municipal Government in Liverpool to 1835
- An Old Stager. Liverpool a few years since
- Picton. Memorials of Liverpool Volume 1, Volume 2
- Picton. Architectural History of Liverpool
- Poole. Commerce of Liverpool (1854)
- Port of Liverpool (1920)
- Port of Liverpool (1929)
- Silliman. Visit to Europe in 1851
- Stranger’s Guide to Liverpool (1833)
- Smith’s Strangers' Guide to Liverpool (1843)
- Pictorial Liverpool (c1844)
- Smithers. Commerce, statistics & institutions of Liverpool (1825)
- Stonehouse. Recollections of old Liverpool by a nonagenerian. Pub 1863
- Unknown. Picture of Liverpool (1805)
- Unknown. Picture of Liverpool (1834)
- Unknown. The royal picturesque hand-book of Liverpool (1852)
- Unknown. Liverpool of Today (1888)
- Wallace. General and descriptive history … of Liverpool (1796)
- Ward & Lock’s Tourist Guide to Liverpool (1881)
Newspapers
- BL Collection on Find My Past; Filters|Access Type|Free to view
- Welsh newspapers (including those published in English with syndicated content)
Directories
- Gore’s Liverpool 1766 (facsimile)
- Gore’s Liverpool 1773 (edited data)
- Gore’s Liverpool 1790 (edited data)
- Liverpool Pollbook 1806
- Baines. History, Directory, Gazeteer of the county Palatine of Lancaster (1824)
- Commercial directory inc Liverpool 1818-20
- Gore’s Liverpool 1825
- Gore’s Liverpool 1827
- Gore’s Liverpool 1829
- Pigot 1829
- Liverpool Pollbook 1833
- Gore’s Liverpool 1834
- Pigot 1837
- Gore’s Liverpool 1853
- Gore’s Liverpool 1860
- Green’s Liverpool 1870
- Black’s Guide to Liverpool & Birkenhead 1871
- Black’s Guide to Liverpool etc 1884