Between 1820 and 1833 the artists John Hassell and his son Edward Hassell created more than 2000 watercolours and engravings of Surrey. These works are now held by a variety f collections including the British Library and Surrey History Centre. Many of these are already imaged and available online with further information e.g. https://www.exploringsurreyspast.org.uk/themes/people/artists/john_hassell/
Approximately 135 of these images are held in the Society’s archives, also at the Surrey History Centre , but not accessioned to the History Centre catalogue. They are described in detail in the Society’s Library catalogue. We have now obtained high definition images of these Hassell artworks and they are presented on this site here.
John Hassell (c1767-1825) followed by his son Edward (1811-1852) created a unique record of Surrey before the railway age. Many of the images are of ancient churches prior to the changes caused by extensive Victorian restorations. A substantial number of the buildings contained in this archive are no longer extant, and these images may be the only record of their existence.
For a full article on these images together with background information please see the extensive catalogue in Surrey Archaeological Collections V75p. 3-55 https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/library/browse/details.xhtml?recordId=3182511 By J C Batley and G P Moss.
We would like to thank Gerry Moss and Mary Alexander for their extensive help in preparing these images for web publication. We would also like to thank the staff at Surrey History Centre for their help with the scanning of the images.