First, some background (feel free to skip this bit) :

One of my fascinations has always been maps. Since the age of about 8, when my grandfather taught me how to read a map, and orientate myself in a landscape, I have found them fascinating.
Not so much the history of mapping, and the who/where/when, but the maps themselves. I can quite happily browse the NLS site, Coflein, or old-maps.co.uk for hours on end, looking at changes over time, etc, or do the same with real maps.
I'm very lucky in that old maps are unpopular, and pretty cheap. Also, I've got an understanding wife, who is happy for me to have these old bits of paper in frames hanging on the wall, or taking up bookshelves.

Now the slightly more interesting bit :

That brings me to my latest : A Speed map of 1610 of Cardiganshire. In moderate condition, it is glazed on both sides, so the reverse has the details of the County (Towns, climate, landscape, etc), and 5 lines on "The commodities of this Shire"
"The commodities of this Shire chiefly consist in cattle, sea-fowle, and fish; corne sufficient, but of woods, some scarcitie: and at the head of the Istwydh are certaine veines of lead, a merchandise of no meane regarde or wealth" (all of the above re-done slightly by me, as the long medial s is regularly used, looking like an 'f' rather than the 's'. Other spellings unchanged)

For the (very) odd person who may be interested, photos of the map, back of the same, and detail as above are in my personal album.

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I'm quite happy being an odd person and I found it very interesting. I wonder if there is any scope for a map section on the website and I know that you are not alone having old maps that can't be attributed to a specific site, I suppose there might be a copyright issue?

Equally if they are uploaded as pdf then they can be viewed in greater detail than supersizing them as a jpeg.

But like you I suffer from being able to stare at old (and new) maps for ages, currently I'm being much exercised by some of the more idiosyncratic symbols used on some early OS 6 inch maps.

Jim

Old maps are wonderful; one of my happiest ever days in an archive was at Chatsworth when I had the good fortune to be there on a day when the Senior Atlas (c.1610-1620 estate maps) had been brought out for another researcher and I got the chance for a good look. :thumbsup: While doing that I found there's a place near Ashford-in-the-water that used to be called "Windes Arse" and that the river Wye was described as "River of Wee" on one particular map!:lol:

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Hi Adam, Whilst in my present state I have been playing about in the ADS downloads of the DAS Journals. In 1893 there is a reference to 'Wind Arse Road' near Little Chester!!!!!
There are all sorts of interesting snippets re lead mining I will hopefully write up at some time.

Cheers, Dave

I'm quite happy being an odd person and I found it very interesting. I wonder if there is any scope for a map section on the website and I know that you are not alone having old maps that can't be attributed to a specific site, I suppose there might be a copyright issue?

Equally if they are uploaded as pdf then they can be viewed in greater detail than supersizing them as a jpeg.

But like you I suffer from being able to stare at old (and new) maps for ages, currently I'm being much exercised by some of the more idiosyncratic symbols used on some early OS 6 inch maps.

Jim

There'd be no issues with copyright - this is an original 1610 map, not a modern facsimile version. The only copyright that exists is in the photograph (or any other image) that I take, which I'm not in the slightest bit bothered about.
I've noticed other bits and pieces on other maps, for example I've got a couple of Ogilby 'strip maps' (again, originals from 1675-ish), which list 'cole pits' and 'lead mynes'. I've also got an early copy of Pennant's 'Tours in Wales' which also has a few bits on mines.

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I agree with the others, old maps are fascinating things.
but you've got your headline wrong!
It should at least say 'A (quite) Interesting Discovery'

I put a thread up against this map of part of Swaledale around Grinton a while ago, whilst this is a better image it's still indistinct but does clearly show a line of shafts along a vein. With luck I'll have a complete digital version of the full map (8ft by 5ft this bit is approx 2ft by 2ft) in the near future. It's based on a 1774 estate map (linked to the 1773 Inclosure Act?) but, probably subsequently, amended with mining info, my current best guess is before the 1854 OS map. It's also orientated roughly south-north, the little loop of blue at the bottom is the Swale, a bit like Wallace's Alston map.

🔗108704[linkphoto]108704[/linkphoto][/link]

The amount of detail on the actual map is rather fascinating for the "very" odd person:)

Getting a full digitized version, you say ?

Now that would certainly be of interest. Any details ?

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My partner in crime, I usually call my brother, will be taking it to a graphics company he has had dealing with to see what they can do. If you look (carefully) to the right of the line of shafts, there is a start of another line, perhaps an adit mouth and a level?, at least one of the shafts marked, Bowes Shaft, (not on this image) links to NMRS on-line mine mapping facility, the other line of shafts doesn't seem to be on that.

As regards date, I do know it's not linked to the 1768 Grinton Liberty map that Mike Gill used in his Swaledale Smelt Mill paper, Elsewhere on the full map various feature are shown around Whitaside but no evidence of the scale of the mine shown on the 1854 OS map, hence my speculative date range. Slightly off the mining topic Wrearin Pot is shown, as a sizeable feature, on both this map and the OS map (a little west of Whitaside) but has vanished on the current OS mapping, all helps in making maps fascinating.

Old maps are wonderful; one of my happiest ever days in an archive was at Chatsworth when I had the good fortune to be there on a day when the Senior Atlas (c.1610-1620 estate maps) had been brought out for another researcher and I got the chance for a good look. :thumbsup: While doing that I found there's a place near Ashford-in-the-water that used to be called "Windes Arse" and that the river Wye was described as "River of Wee" on one particular map!:lol:

J: (to George) So, ahem, tell me, sir, what words particularly interested
you?

G: Oh, er, nothing... Anything, really, you know...

J: Ah, I see you've underlined a few (takes dictionary, reads): `bloomers';
`bottom'; `burp'; (turns a page) `fart'; `fiddle'; `fornicate'?

G: Well...

J: Sir! I hope you're not using the first English dictionary to look up
rude words!

E: I wouldn't be too hopeful; that's what all the other ones will be
used for.

I use an A3 SCANER for smaller maps which I splice together. I have found Staples have an AO scanner and printer which can be expensive but gives a very good result.

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Hi Adam, Whilst in my present state I have been playing about in the ADS downloads of the DAS Journals. In 1893 there is a reference to 'Wind Arse Road' near Little Chester!!!!!
There are all sorts of interesting snippets re lead mining I will hopefully write up at some time.

Cheers, Dave

I have frequently bust out laughing when consulting a map, the innocence of map makers and the way that words and means change throughout history.
On a none mining basis, near Aberford in Yorkshire, Little Ass Bridge crosses Cock Beck!
There is Dirty Spot, Dirty Piece and Dirty End in Swaledale.
But the best one I have come across is in the Forest of Bowland, Cocklick End :lol: near Bottoms, in the parish of Tosside. :guns:

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[photo]108894[/photo]

Having spent 32 years as a cartographic surveyor I can say that mapmakers are anything but innocent. Names and features depicted on maps are as we found them.

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Another mapophile here...

I have a number of the old 6" maps of mid/north Wales that have been annotated in one way or another with sett/estate boundaries, notes etc which add to the pleasure of browsing then!

As suggested, a map section to the website could be an interesting and useful addition.

there is a place down near me (cornwall), called "brown willy" and one up in the peak district national park called " cock up ". I wish there was a way of finding more of them.:lol:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/themuffinman/540812398 

now git orf moi laaaand... :tongue:

MARK

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ive just thought of another, the river "piddle" in dorset, and some of the villages there, ie piddle trendhide (sorry bout the spelling".