James Corbridge was a surveyor in Norwich in the first half of the eighteenth century. He produced numerous estate plans but is best known for his large scale maps of Norfolk, Norwich and Great Yarmouth. His career began in Newcastle and amongst his early work is the first plan of the town. In the early 1720s he moved to Norwich and in 1730 he published his great large scale map of the county of Norfolk, the first to be printed. In 1735 he published this large single sheet reduction complete with extensive lists of the towns and villages in the county in surrounding panels. Each is keyed to the map and has their Hundred identified along with the distance in miles from Norwich. Circles of distance from Kings Lynn and Norwich radiate the map. The coastline is decorated with ornate images of seven boats and ships. Top centre can be found Corbridge’s dedication to Baron Walpole. The map is engraved to the scale of three miles to the inch, each grid marking three miles. The year after the publication of the larger map Thomas Goddard and William Chase published a pirated copy. In this reduction by Corbridge he could not resist having a go at them about the scale of miles stating lower right ‘I refer them to Mr. Chase and his Map (if they doubt my Scale of Miles which contains 1760 yards) for if I mistake not he has given three Scales to his Map which he calls Great Middle and Small, things Uncommon in Surveys of Countys and as useless as the 3 heads Imploy’d in Copying My Late Map of Norfolk’. Thomas and John Bowles and Robert Sayer were the publishers of the second edition of the Norwich town plan, the original map of Norfolk and this plate. In the summer of 1779 John Bowles died and his business was acquired by Robert Wilkinson by the end of the year. The map is NOT LISTED IN RODGER’S list of large scale maps and only one example appears to have ever appeared at auction. According to Raymond Frostick this is the third of four known states. Frostick, James Corbridge, ‘IMCoS Journal’ no. 115 pp. 33-40; Frostick Norfolk 29.3; not in Rodger (1972).