Reports

DAVID FELTON ‘’A 1000 years of Maps of Cumbria’’ 30th September

Our speaker this week was David Felton, he is really interested in the history of maps and how their development reflects the history of the area being mapped. He has written several books and 3 years ago published ‘1000 years of maps in Cumbria’ and it was this that he had come to talk to us about.

The first ever map to show Cumbria as a distinct region was made during the Anglo Saxon period in 1050 and had been used as a teaching aid for monks - it was very different from our current view and showed Scotland as a group of islands. David used this to point out how knowledge of our country and where it sits in the world has changed dramatically over time.

The next significant map was published by William Cecil and researched and created by William Saxton in 1576. It was very close to the maps we see today and even showed Whitehaven and St. Bees Head. It was this map that was used as a base for all maps during the next 200 years, it being a lot cheaper to copy than to conduct new surveys.

David had brought a lot of photos to show us and was able to zoom into them and describe how the cartographers of the time got their information. He showed us some of the first street plans and showed how they gave an insight into life at the time and how the introduction of colour in 1595 made an impact on the understanding of heights and land use.

The use of triangulation in 1847 when creating maps was a major milestone and David finished his talk by taking us through the maths involved and showing us how the accuracy of distances and height has given us the latest OS map of our area published in 2017.
It was a fascinating talk and our members are looking forward to another visit by David in the future.