Bakewell was featured on John Speed’s 1610 map of Derbyshire. The town has yet to develop its modern name, and appears as ‘Bankewell’ on the map. The name Bakewell means a spring or stream of a man named Badeca. In 949 the town is listed as Badecanwelle, and later in the 1000s in the Domesday Book as Badeqeulle.
John Speed (1552-1629) was an English cartographer and historian , originally a tailor but when his skills were noticed by researchers, he was given the chance to become a full time scholar. In 1595 Speed published a map of biblical Canaan, in 1598 he was given the honour to present his maps to Queen Elizabeth, and in 1611-1612 he published maps of Great Britain, with his son perhaps assisting Speed in surveys of English towns. His atlas The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine was published in 1611 and 1612, and contained the first set of individual county maps of England and Wales, which is where the map of Derbyshire most likely came from.