The earliest county map to show Carden is that first published by John Speed in 1610. His maps were copied and reissued over the next century and more. His survey was clearly influenced by Saxton’s earlier map of 1577, although it is not derived from it; his scale is about 1:175000. It has been thought that the symbol used to denote a township is a church, but as most Cheshire townships do not possess churches or chapels, this cannot be the case. As a local man (Speed was born at Farndon), it is unlikely that he was misled into believing that all townships possessed churches. The symbol may in fact depict a manor house, and this what is used to depict Carden.