 |
Left is an extract from the third and last
edition Murray’s Handbook for the Eastern Counties which was first
published in 1892. |
| Murray’s handbooks were British rivals to
the more famous German Baedeker’s handbooks and are reckoned to be
superior. Compared to Baedeker they tended to be more detailed. Baedeker used
two guides for the whole of Great Britain. One for London and the other for the
rest of the country with a brief summary of London. Murray, whilst it did have
a guide covering the whole of Great Britain tended to go for individual areas
or counties. Whilst this policy did increase their usefulness it also meant
that if you decided to do a tour round Britain you needed an awful lot more
Murray’s than Baedeker’s Of course both covered countries
outside of Great Britain as indeed with Baedeker was natural. The first edition
of Murray’s Handbook for the Eastern Counties was produced in 1870 and the
last in 1892. Sadly no more were produced. Indeed Murray’s seem to
have retreated somewhat after 1900. The last one being for India in the
1930s, by which time the Blue Guide had come along. Baedeker continued into the
mid 1940s in Germany and the late 1930s in Britain. Sadly Stock never
appeared in Baedeker. |
| The guide book itself is very much a book of
the railway age. Indeed the motor car had only just been invented |
| and other than the
railway the only forms of transport were horse and carriages, bicycles and in
coastal areas steam boats. |
| As you can see
Stock’s main attraction indeed only attraction is the church. That is
somewhat better than guide books today, which do not even mention the
village. |
| The pages herewith are
reproduced courtesy of Archive CD Books Ltd of 5 Commercial Street, Cinderford,
Gloucestershire GL14 2RP – archivecdbooks.org who do a number of
old books on cd including all of Kelly’s Post Office Directories for
Essex. |
| Old House Books of The
Old Police Station, Pound Street, Moretonhampstead, Newton Abbot, Devon TQ13
8PA – OldHouseBooks.co.uk
have produced facsimile editions of Baedeker’s Great Britain for 1890 and
London for 1900. |