The land coloured pink

Back to sorting out, and today it’s the small room upstairs. On the desk is a high stack of papers, stuff that I have finished with but not filed, and which I now go through. I conclude at the end of it that I need to review the whole filing system, but that’s perhaps for those short days and long nights later in the year.

In the pile I find a folded up map, sent to J by friend R maybe three years ago. R had no need of it and perhaps thought J would find it interesting, but as it relates to a town neither of us have ever visited, and with no prospect of visiting together, it was put aside.

The cover says “Sale Plan. Ilkley. August 26th 1868”. The opened up plan refers to “Freehold Villa and other building sites … situated at Ilkley, to be offered by public auction at the Crescent Hotel Ilkley”. A handwritten note on the plan explains “the pink colour shows the lots that were sold at and since the sale”. The green/blue colour is lots unsold.

I forwarded photos of the plan to a friend who lives in the town. She responded that her house isn’t on the plan, it was built in the 1890’s. I want to see the three stanza stones I haven’t visited yet, and so sometime later this year will visit Ilkley. It might be interesting to take the plan and see what’s been built on the lots for sale (extras temporarily added for context). .

In my working life it seemed to be convention for the local authority ownership on plans to be shown coloured pink. “The land shown in pink” was how written descriptions would start. The convention of using it on plans to delineate ownership must go back a long way.