Lost map could have a value that’s off the charts
IT’S a lost map which details a big part of Manchester’s industrial past, and it could be worth a fortune.
Researchers are searching for the intricate chart which plotted the region’s coal mines, and once had pride of place in the head office of Manchester Collieries in Walkden.
From the Industrial Revolution until the mid-20th century, there were pits all over Lancashire.
Manchester Collieries was a big company, with around 20 to 30 pits in the south of the county. One, Bradford Colliery, was a huge mine at the site where the Etihad Stadium now stands. It employed thousands of miners in its heyday in the 1900s.
A beautifully illustrated map plotting the Manchester Collieries network was made by graphic designer MacDonald ‘Max’ Gill, whose work is now highly collectable.
Gill, who was famed for his world maps promoting trade, was commissioned to design the 6ft by 5ft map for Manchester Collieries in 1934.
It took him around six months to complete and was considered a masterpiece, with colourful illustrations and added quips.
But it disappeared without a trace around the 1940s, when Manchester Collieries was taken over by the National Coal Board during the nationalisation of the mines.
Dr Martin Dodge, senior lecturer in human geography at Manchester University, said: “The original would have been colourful and huge, and hung on the wall of the office.
“The map doesn’t seem to be in any kind of public archive. I don’t think it would’ve been thrown away. It’s one of those intriguing lost artworks, the kind of thing that if it does exist, it would be really great to find.
“If it was to be found it would potentially be the only copy of it, potentially worth tens of thousands.
“This work is very collectable, very attractive, quirky, quite humorous. This seems to be the only one he did for Lancashire.”
It’s possible that someone who used to work for Manchester Collieries took it off the wall when the company was nationalised – and such a person could still be alive.
Gill’s great niece Caroline Walker, who is writing a biography of the artist, who died in 1947, said it would be ‘wonderful’ if the map were found.
She said: “If people remember it, it would be lovely. The maps he made were very beautiful and colourful. They weren’t just full of formalities, but he put in little quips and places of interest.
“I have come across someone who said they saw it there when they were a small child in the 1930s. It was very costly to make – these things didn’t come cheap. Max was paid about £150 for it, which would be worth thousands of pounds today.”