Maps showing parishes
The only trouble (well one of them) with selling maps is that having taken one out, you start looking at it. Regardless of where it is, a good thirty minutes can pass if something were to catch your eye.

Someone just asked for a map of Lincolnshire showing parish boundaries with the parishes named. There was nothing in the large box of Admin. maps, but in the folder of index maps, we found what was needed. Combined index showing Civil Parishes and the Ordnance Survey maps of Lincolnshire. Essentially a 1954 quarter-inch brown outline map of the county, with parish boundaries and their names in black, plus the sheet lines for the 6-inch and 25-inch county series maps, also in black.

First, the really long parishes to the east of Spalding were spotted, then the straight line of Roman Ermine Street stood out, as it is used for many parish boundaries to the south and north of Lincoln. All needed investigating before parish names were studied. And so the time passes.

'Famous' names
Many years ago, when a student, I tried to find the shortest wording on an envelope that would arrive at the destination. Today, DA, SY16 4PD would almost certainly get to me, but in those days, postcodes were still fairly new, and little used. I think that the shortest that got through was Fred Bloggs, Lamphey, but not Fred, Lamphey.

Similarly, a few people can be identified just by their first name in many circles. When we see 'Delia' plastered across the tabloids, most of the British public will know who is meant, even if she has not been in the headlines for months or years. Last week a friend was talking maps and telling me about an event in London where 'Vanessa' was a speaker. No more was needed.

And for those living a life without Vanessa, a Google search for 'Vanessa map' will not work, but 'Vanessa os map' will. Not very short. A Google search for 'Delia' gives most of the first page entries to the one and only Delia (who is not very good at cakes).

I do not want them to go to Oxfam
I recently considered giving a vast number of maps to the Oxfam bookshop. Surely they have a major warehouse and could distribute them to their bookshops? I must admit that I still have terrible mis-givings about Oxfam, especially after reading the reports that only 20% of money received actually goes to 'good causes'. The other 80% goes on staff salaries, admin and so on.

Anyway, I though that I would investigate Oxfam. I agree that anyone donating items to the charity would expect them to get the best price for them, but I also think that if the staff are well paid, then they should act in 'a professional way', whatever that means. But you will follow my drift.

From experience, things vary greatly in Oxfam bookshops. I visit two towns quite often, and always pop into the Oxfam bookshop in each town, to have a quick look at the maps, which are usually modern and rather sad. In one shop, the maps are priced as I would expect, and as I think correct, a couple of pounds each. In the other, the prices are way up, vary greatly and are stupid. The person who prices maps in this shop has no feel for the subject. I would most certainly not want any maps that I donated to Oxfam to end up in here.

So what about Oxfam nationally? Where, one assumes, the maps and books will be handled by a paid specialist who knows the subject, or at least has a feel for it. A quick look at the Oxfam website and a search for Ordnance Survey maps has convinced me that I would rather send what I have to the tip than for the maps to enter the Oxfam system.

Items are listed by individual branches, not nationally. Maps are listed with a photograph. Good clean Landranger maps seem to be £2.99; we sell them for £3, so no problems. But there is a picture a Popular Edition sheet for Anglesey, which from the look of the front cover, I would put in a £1 box. The description is : 'The back cover is chipped, map itself is in Very Good condition'. And they price it at £17.50. From experience, I am positive that this is a very well used and sad map.

I would never give anything in this state to a charity shop, in the belief that it would just sit around and take up valuable space. So, if I gave anything to Oxfam it would be a nice clean map. Which they would appear to price at a ridiculous level, judging by the prices for tatty maps on the website today. Obviously, on the website, the same problems as occur in shops are perpetuated. Good and bad listing. And I have no wish to contribute to the bad listing, which I consider a rip-off. In the end, the customer will be unhappy, which is no good for the customer nor Oxfam.

Maybe I will investigate local charity bookshops. And if this does not work, the skip beckons. Worms like a nice bit of paper, card and cloth to work on.

What to do?
In the cartobibliographies published by The Charles Close Society, locations of maps examined are frequently given as PC (Private Collection), meaning that a copy has not been found in one of the copyright libraries. Such maps might, or might not be scarce, rare even. All we know is that they are not easily available to the public.

This is a great shame. I firmly belief that such maps should be in public collections for all to use and enjoy. But, as so often happens, for various reasons, public institutions have little money to spend on such items. Filling in gaps is a low priority. They are often reluctant to accept them as gifts, having little staff time to process them.

I have been sorting maps, and have been coming across examples not in public collections. What should I do? There are so many that even at a nominal price, they would amount to a lot of money, and I cannot afford to just donate them. If I leave them in the the sequence, they will in all probability never be recognised for what they are as I do not have the time to pencil a note on every map. I could put them all into one box and include them in my will to go to a library, but this would mean the same as donating them now: no income for us, which we cannot afford. An interested user of a cartobibliography might require one, ask for a copy and we will not find one in the main sequence of stock. (I certainly would not be checking a second boxed sequence all the time.)

So, they just sit in the main sequence. Safe for the moment, but vulnerable.

What is a state?
Someone recently asked about a nineteenth century Ordnance Survey map, and I told him of maps being engraved on copper plates, and different states of the maps existing. He was not familiar with the term 'states'. Briefly, a copper plate was engraved and maps were printed from it. These are the first state of the plate and map. Small alterations/additions might be made to the plate before more copies were printed, these being the second state,
and so on.

Later in the century, written indications identify a lot of states : Printed from an electrotype in 1881. Later still we get print codes of various sorts, 6.08, 2500/34, 25000/6/46 Wa, B/*, A2 and so on. All of which are fairly obvious as to what they mean, and can usually identify the chronological order in which states of maps were issued.

The problems begin when maps are issued in a new state without any acknowledgement. Or when the same print code is used, but is in a different position, or found with a different typeface or of a different size. Just moving the print code creates a different state.

In 1991, I was cataloguing maps and noticed three versions of the 1966 'A' printing of the New Forest one-inch map. (The small capital 'A' is found on the far left, in the lower margin.)
1. Bold 'A', with the New Forest boundary as green dashes.
2. Lighter 'A', with the boundary as a continuous green line.
3. Lighter 'A', with the boundary as a continuous green line, but with obvious 'fluff marks' on the brown plate in the lower border about 4" to the right of the 'A' code.

The 'fluff marks' do not affect the map content, and show it to be another printing of the previous item. But is it another state? Yes, I would say. It is different. Different enough to draw attention to itself.

The wonderful and not so wonderful Internet
A man telephoned yesterday looking for a copy of Maps and survey by Clough. Not a common book, but he is only the third person to have asked for a copy in twenty five years. I do not have one at present, and he mentioned having seen one on the internet at well over £500. I pointed out that there are a vast number of books listed for sale which do not exist or are print on demand books. All at silly prices, so beware.

A quick Google search just now led to http://www.defencesurveyors.org.uk/dsa-news/maps-survey/ where, it appears, the whole volume is available to members. A good chunky book, up there and waiting for those interested, and those desperate for the information. Which is excellent news. But give me the book rather than web pages any day.

Money from map problems
If someone interested in maps and problems sought advice on an interesting career (given that everything is a career these days), I would suggest getting into the 'rights of way' consultancy game. I get a lot of people wanting maps to sort out what appears to be a fairly simple problem, but will take a lot of money to find an answer to. And the money will go to solicitors, most of whom are pretty useless on such matters, and to consultants.

Anyone can set up as a consultant on this subject. I know of people who get paid for such work with backgrounds as Ordnance Survey staff, map scholars and people who have been through a dispute and gained valuable knowledge in fighting a case. The best part is that there is plenty of work for all.

I have just had someone telephone wanting maps showing a footpath around a house. She says it goes around the property, and a neighbour says it goes across the property. Of course, the solicitors did not pick it up during a house conveyance a couple of years ago, so the lady is having to start from scratch.

Before doing anything else, I always advise a visit to the council rights of way people. Most people who come back, say that the council had been more than helpful. Very helpful, yet we are to cut back on council services and council employees, in order to pay for the absolute mess caused by having to prop up the banks. The greedy bankers get away with all the money, leaving the poor and council staff to pay for it. As will map buyers if VAT were put to be put on maps. Let us not forget that the first thing Thatcher did was to double VAT to 15%, and then they increased it to 17.5% and now 20%.
"The leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats in Westminster has said he would not support an increase in VAT in Tuesday's Budget. Roger Williams, MP for Brecon and Radnorshire, said it was a "very regressive tax that falls most heavily on the poorest in society"."

Help wanted
A friend is trying to find all lists of Ordnance Survey and Geological Survey maps issued before 1900. Many are well known and are listed in the catalogues of large libraries. A lot were issued by booksellers and OS agents. Others were issued by publishers and are often found bound in books, at the end, after the main work.

For example, Important, valuable, and cheap maps, and miscellaneous works, published, and in preparation, by Grattan and Gilbert, 51, Paternoster Row, London, Map agents (by appointment) to Her Majesty's Board of Ordnance. Contents : Ordnance County maps and survey of England and Wales....8,9,10. I have a copy of this list, probably from the 1840s, which has been dis-bound from a book of the period. It is this sort of thing that is sought.

So, please, please look inside the back of any volumes that date from before 1900 and let me know if any such lists appear.

And if anyone has a spare copy of a weeny little booklet How and where to obtain Ordnance Survey maps of the United Kingdom. Published under the direction of Colonel R.H. Stotherd, R.E.,.... again, please let me know.

Good hunting.

Things have changed
Since the election, two things have changed. Business has slackened noticeably, and far more people are offering maps than for the last year or so. Things often slow down at this time of the year as people go on holiday and cut the grass, but it is rather quiet at the moment. We all know a new Government announces that things are worse than they thought, but it appears this lot have decided to continue doing so and to actually talk the economy down, which is very different from blaming the other lot for a couple of weeks and then getting on with it. Maybe this has hit the powerhouse of the economy here in Kerry.

If things are slow it allows us to have a rest and to get down to work which otherwise keeps getting put off. Like offering maps to people and putting things on the website.

No, we are happy for the moment, but come the wet and rainy days of winter, we will appreciate a few orders. If you would.

Nothing to do with maps
Sometimes one reads something that just sticks in the mind and will not go away. A few weeks ago, the New Scientist published a statistic that I just keep wondering about, and am finding it impossible to even start to give an explanation for. It appears that on average, an American male uses 57 sheets of toilet paper a day. A day. Fifty seven. On average, meaning some use more than this.
Please email me if you know why this is so. Not why you think it might be so. I am not interested in theories, I want facts. I need to think about something else and must have the answer soon. Fifty seven.

Later : No Mr Thompson, I am not surprised at how little they use.

A fine time waster
Why is it that I always seem to mention time wasting things just before lunch on a Friday? And I work for myself, so no work, no money. Anyway, I have recently been told of Google Street View.
It is brilliant, wonderful, addictive and a complete time waster.
Do not read further whilst at work

Google street view
1. Go to Google.
2. Click on 'Maps' (top left).
3. Type your UK post code in the address box, and click search.
4. When the map appears (I prefer to click Satellite, top right), a little yellow figure can be seen under the navigation symbol in the top left of the view.
5. Drag the figure onto the map.
6. Some roads will appear outlined in blue.
7. Drag the green blob beneath the figure over one of these roads, and a scene will appear in the box above the figure.
8. Release the mouse button and the scene will replace the map.
9. Use the navigation symbol top left to move through 360 degrees.
10. Click on the minus sign to return to the larger map.

Saved by Christmas
My devoted reader will be pleased or otherwise, to know that I was building myself up for a good rant (his word, not mine) about spending so much public money on banks and tanks in 2009. But December has slipped by and I have been distracted by the annual analysis of cards. You will remember that last year the fascination was with robins, where far more faced left than right and not a postbox in sight.

Well, this year, the overwhelming fact is that most cards are either blue or fawn. We have had one postbox and noticeably, there are far more with snow than last year. Who remembers when most cards had a Dickensian theme, snow waist high, warm yellow lights in every window, six horses pulling coaches and the odd chestnut seller smiling in minus twenty degrees? Double glazing has stopped children having little triangles of fake snow in the corner of small window panes, because they would not know what it meant. Cold?

No. I must stop as I feel a good rant brewing.

I hope that everyone has the Xmas they deserve and thoroughly enjoys it, or otherwise; as they wish.

Happy Christmas to all our customers.

Oxfam
There have always been maps that I have been offered and not wanted, for whatever reason. Until recently, if they were modern or low value, I would suggest that a charity shop might appreciate them, often mentioning Oxfam bookshops. But not any more.

A while ago, I read that something like 78% of the money Oxfam receives does not go to the 'good causes' but is spent on administration costs. This horrified me but was backed up last weekend when a lady telephoned seeking advice on an atlas. She had supported Oxfam since her student days and had worked in their shops for over forty years, mostly sorting and pricing books. She knew the turnover figure for the last shop she worked in, which was run by volunteers. It was decided from above that there would be a full time, paid manager. This particular shop opened seven days a week, given its position, and did well on a Sunday. Alas, the manager could not work seven days a week, so a paid deputy manager was appointed and within a short time 'needed' two paid assistants.

Yes, you've guessed it. The next set of annual figures showed that the takings were little more than the cost of the four paid employees.

Having just typed this, I did a quick web search and found the following:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2000/nov/15/voluntarysector.fundraisin...

Free maps
One good thing about the Internet, is that it does allow people to be generous, and to co-operate for the benefit of others. I do not like to be under the stranglehold of Microsoft, and do not use anything they produce except their operating system Windows XP. For all other purposes I use freeware, which one can download free of charge (donations are welcomed) and is just as good, if not better.

Thus, I use OpenOffice instead of Word and Excel, and see no difference in use; AVG Free for virus protection and Zone Alarm as a firewall. For web browsing, rather than Microsoft Internet Explorer, you might consider Firefox (and Colorful Tabs as an add-on). Pegasus Mail is used for email rather than Outlook Express (and has an added advantage for virus protection, in that most attacks are aimed at Outlook Express and will not work with Pegasus.)

Such things exist in all other areas, even maps. Have a look at the free outline maps available from Daniel Dalet : http://d-maps.com/
And http://www.openstreetmap.org/

Liverpool town maps
I am constantly amazed (and envious) of those people who can put up a really nice website with apparent ease. Tony Swarbrick's Liverpool site is an excellent example. An nice clean looking site, with exceedingly clear images. The maps are very crisp, and broken down into quite useful sizes so as not to be a pest to download. I wish that I had the ability to create something similar. Certainly a site to keep an eye on.

Map cover photographs
Sometimes one picks up interesting little snippets about maps and the workings of the Ordnance Survey. A short while ago, someone emailed asking for a copy of the Outdoor Leisure map number 18 - Snowdonia : Harlech and Bala. He wanted the mid-1980s cover with the photograph of three people and a dog, as he was one of the people.

"I'm the one looking like I'm having a rather earnest conversation with my Mum. My brother is holding the dog, which belonged to the photographer. As far as I remember, the photographer was commissioned to take some shots of the castle, and we happened to wander into view. He thought a family group might add interest, and asked if we wouldn't mind posing (!). I think my brother was rather pleased at being asked to hold the dog. I'm not sure exactly when the photo was taken, but would put it at 1962-63. I was surprised it was used so much later, with our clothes clearly out of date."

Irish maps
"Some of the maps are by Richard Bartlett, on whom John Andrews has recently written in his book 'The Queen's last map-maker', obviously drawn before Bartlett was beheaded by inhabitants of Donegal."

Obviously.

Mapping Manchester exhibition
In case you have not seen this mentioned elsewhere, you might like to look at the e-catalogue for this exhibition, which has a lot of images of the maps and plans displayed. Alas, no printed catalogue has been produced. The exhibition is in the Rylands Library, Manchester and will end on the 17th of January 2010.

Pages 26-28 are very nice and well worth looking at.

Download from
http://www.mappingmanchester.org/e-catalogue.pdf

(A version with higher resolution graphics is also available but its 30
meg, http://www.mappingmanchester.org/e-catalogue_high_res.pdf )

Conference maps
I see that there has been a lot of debate on various Internet forums as to why I have been silent for a while. Well, we had a week in New Quay (NOT Newquay, please) and since then, it has been political party conference time. This time of year upsets me so much that it is better for all that I do not write, as revolution would certainly follow.

Having said that, does anyone know whether these gatherings put out anything in the way of decent maps that one might add to a small collection of pre-war Conference maps? I ask, not for myself but for my friend Chris.

Where has the river gone?
When someone in 'high office', nationally or locally, does something wrong, we hear of their having privileges and responsibilities. These two words also apply to anyone who has access to a website, and can just churn out any old opinion for the world to see. Assuming they have an audience. The words ego and rant also come into it

Thus it is with me. Every day there are a few things that really annoy or upset me, causing me to have a good verbal rant. So good are my arguments, that they really should be known worldwide. But I desist. I have a self-imposed responsibility to try to keep to the subject of maps, and avoid words such as Thatcherism, privatisation or bankers. Oh the joys of a website, whether anyone reads it or not.

What has this got to do with maps, you ask? Nothing much. But then most people will read this whilst at work, it being Friday afternoon, so what has this to do with your work? Nothing much.

Which reminds me to tell you of the new London Underground map which came out last week, and was seen by Boris the Buffoon who hit the roof. Why? Because they thought not to put the River Thames on it ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8260943.stm ). (Click on the 'The revised Tube map' below the map extract)

If you think that you know London well, or the Beck diagram well, have a look at it and draw in the river. Fun, eh?

No, it really should be shown, because the river is the great divide in London. As someone who was brought up south of the river, I have to say, nay have to stress, that one needs to know when one is planning a journey, whether it involves going north of the river. The north is so different, a hostile country, populated by savages and full of taxi cabs, main line railway stations and football hooligans. South of the river, there are nice quiet streets with trees, children playing and all round happiness. Thus, one never feels safe until back across the water. I have to admit it, but Boris the Buffoon is quite right, despite him holding the map up side down in the picture I saw.

Unbelievable
Last night, I decided to ask Mr Google to have a quick look for a few maps that interest me. A search brought up one map, an Ordnance Survey map, produced in the 1920s, not rare, less common certainly, but of little interest to the vast majority of OS map collectors. In very good condition, I might price it at £50 or just under.

What did Mr Google find? What looks like a good clean copy, on offer from a well known South of England mapseller (I am playing safe here, but would stress that it was not Jonathan Potter) at a mere £495.

None of your silly eBay prices, a genuine request for ten times what I would ask. I have been thinking about it ever since and have no hope of sleep tonight.

Please, please, please can someone tell me how anybody can arrive at such a price? A pin? Roll a dice three times? Unbelievable. £495 point nought nought (the point was definitely there, and followed by two noughts).

What is an island?
Someone emailed over the weekend asking for a map of the Isle of Lewis. No problem, just check it on index sheets for a couple of one-inch maps to get the sheet numbers. 'Isle of Lewis' appears with the words 'Isle of Harris' almost merging with the former. Strange. Looking at the atlas, the words 'Isle of Harris' appear to be the southern part of the 'Isle of Lewis'. No clear water between them.

So, the next step, as anyone knows, is to see what Mr Google has to offer. 'The Isle of Harris is actually joined to the Isle of Lewis, and has a short border, shown by a ‘dashed’ line on the Harris map. I then remember the Isle of Dogs in London, which is also not a child's version of an island.

So, the next step, as only the knowledgeable know, is to see what Brian Adams has to offer in his Projections and origins, 'basically any detached piece of natural land, however small, which is above the level of mean high water spring tides.' Detached, he says detached. So, children are correct, and maybe authorities in Harris, Lewis and London might like to reconsider matters.

IMCOS Journal
I have always been aware of the International Map Collectors' Society and their Journal but have never joined. Mainly because the subscription fee was high when I first knew of them, and it still is. Added to which, I am not very interested in what I call decorative maps, and a lot of others call antique maps. Maps on which hills are shown as pimples or small triangles.

Anyway, I am not getting at the society nor members, but must say that I have seen the latest issue of their journal and it really is nice. So much changed from a copy dated 2001. A larger format, excellent coloured illustrations, and a wide ranging selection of articles.

Is it a large or small scale map?
Some things come naturally to most people, but tell some people to turn left and they turn right, or they have to spend ages thinking about it, and then act. With maps, large scale and small scale are the difficult ones, and I must admit that it took me years to be at ease with these two concepts and for them to just trip off the tip of my tongue.

Small scale, I tell people, is when things on a map appear very small, houses are just black dots, and large scale is when they appear very big and are shown in detail.

I used to follow this up by saying that small scale maps had a large area on a given sheet of paper, and large scale maps had a small area on the same sized piece of paper. But mixing the words large and small for the same scale just did not work.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
If one more person says that they need to source a map, I will scream. They need to buy a map. And whilst I am at it, I am also sick to the teeth of hearing that the police or army have received intelligence of this or that. The word is information. They have received some information. If they have received intelligence they would be more intelligent. Which means they were lacking intelligence before.

And why do we now have a National Archive and Supreme Court, as in America? Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Laminated white card map covers
It is about 8.30pm and I am sitting at the computer with a bright lamp beside me. A few minutes ago, I was checking some details on an Ordnance Survey one-inch Third Edition map in the white waxy covers. The bright lamp reminded me that if such a cover is held to the light, one can often see that it is made of several pieces of paper and cloth. The inner piece of the sandwich is usually part of a map, frequently large scale, but not exclusively. Sometimes two pieces of map are used.

Try it on a few white covers. Any series. Hinged covers are best, especially back covers with no text on the inside. The light must be bright, holding the map so as to almost touch the light bulb. Great fun.

Great fun it might be, but what are the implications of all this?
1. Did the Ordnance Survey make the covers?
2. Did the Ordnance Survey provide the waste maps to a manufacturer as part of the contract in order to lessen the cost of covers?
3. What was the state of the 'card' industry in the early twentieth century?
4. Why was an OS production cheaper than buying in card, if indeed it was?
5. What technology was used to produce such excellent covers?
6. How large was the concern?

Good news about sticky labels
I received a very nice telephone call this afternoon, during which a mapseller placed an order, and then mentioned that after reading my thoughts on sticky labels, a soft pencil had been purchased for use on Ordnance Survey maps, and sticky labels were a thing of the past in one shop at least. Great rejoicing amongst OS map collectors.

Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside
Can somebody explain why anyone travelling by train from London to Glasgow is said to use the West Coast Main Line? Any passenger hoping to spend hours looking out of the window at the sea would be most disappointed, as the route is basically inland. Perhaps, if it went to the west of the Lake District, via Whitehaven and Workington, it might be considered coastal. But not via Kendal and Penrith.

The East Coast Main Line probably has a better claim to be beside the seaside.

The Great Sort Out
In the early days of my map collecting, a mapseller said that he had a boxful of a particular map series, but could not find the box. Hence, when I became a mapseller, I vowed that this would never happen to me. I would know exactly what I had, and where it was. Well, we have spent a good part of the summer sorting out boxes, looking in drawers and generally discovering things we had no idea we possessed, and if we did, had no idea where they were.

Some really nice individual items have been found amongst a box of ordinary post-war maps, but nothing as spectacular as when we once opened a box and found about 120 Popular Edition maps in wonderful condition, and had absolutely no recollection of ever having seen them before. Neither of us.

The opposite sort of thing has happened once or twice over the years, as we found 'lost' maps which we remembered as being wonderful, only to see that they were in fact slightly sad. Which is why they were shunted aside in the first place.

Probably the nicest maps to have re-surfaced have been a variety of unusual flat sheets tucked away in plan chests, of which I think we have eighteen. But I cannot get into most of the drawers in four of them, as there is so much weight on top that upper surface has dropped, making the drawers stick solid.

Last week I spent a day sorting outline and contour sheets, contour and water and Fifth Relief, Physical Features alone versions. The first group, for those who have not seen any, have had just the black outline and the brown contour plate printed. The second group have only the brown contours and blue water plates showing, whilst the Fifth Relief, Physical Features versions have only the wonderful relief features printed ( blue water, grey hill shading, brown contours and hachures), and are absolutely impossible to find your way around. Even if you have lived in the area all your life. Stunning indeed. And quite scarce, frequently with print runs of only 100 and 200 copies.

And I came across five identical sheets which had a white margin all round, but were all blue with a blue print code in the lower left corner. Just to confirm it, a solid blue rectangle, about 38" wide by 26" high, with a blue print code beneath it. Any ideas? If they had a bold black cross on them, they could have been Popeye's map showing where the treasure was buried, X marks the spot. If you remember, following his map, he sailed out to sea, water all around, and found a bold black cross floating on the water, just as his map showed.

Rare Ordnance Survey maps
This is probably the first time 'in print', that I have used the word rare when describing old Ordnance Survey maps. I usually say that something is unusual or not common, and just cannot bring myself to use the word rare. Rare sounds so final, so certain, and with Ordnance Survey maps there are just so many things that we do not know.

I have just been sorting some 1908 Scottish half-inch sheets, and have come across a printing that we have never had before. The sheet is not particularly unusual, yet we have not had a copy of this printing in twenty four years. We keep a note of all such things, and can tell.

So, should it be termed rare or not? Ask me to find a second copy and I could not, but ask me to find copies of far older and far more expensive maps by Speed or Blaeu and after a couple of telephone calls, I would probably have located what was sought. I would put money on my Scottish half-inch map existing in fewer copies than many Speed maps. Yet the later are thought of as rare in the public mind, hence the prices they command.

Thematic maps
Wikipedia starts with "A thematic map is designed to serve some special purpose or to illustrate a particular subject."

I have three or four Ordnance Survey 1:2500 (twenty-five inches to one mile) plans, on which are marked all the pubs and off-licences within a certain radius of one address. Such maps were (and still are?) required as part of an application for a licence to sell alcohol, and presumably if the licensing authorities thought there were too many, or that they were too concentrated, then the application would be refused.

In such a way, maps are wonderful ways of displaying complex information very clearly. Just as Bartholomew's 1:100,000 maps are excellent for showing cyclists the hills and flat land on a journey, so a thematic map can home in on one aspect and show the information without any other clutter.

It would be interesting, nay horrifying, to see a thematic map of small shops in 1960 and 2015 in rural areas. Why, because the large supermarkets are coming in and destroying the small shops.

An article by George Monbiot, published in the Guardian, 10th August 2009 sets out the case against the supermarkets with clarity, using Machynlleth as an example. And the same thing is happening in Newtown and elsewhere. A few extracts will sum up.

"In 1998, the government commissioned a study of the impact of big stores on market towns. It found that when a large supermarket is built on the edge of the centre, other food shops lose between 13 and 50% of their trade. The result is “the closure of some town centre food retailers; increases in vacancy levels; and a general decline in the quality of the environment of the centre.” Towns are hit especially hard where supermarkets “are disproportionately large compared with the size of the centre”. In these cases the superstore becomes the new town centre, leaving the high street to shrivel."

"But in seeking to oppose its application, we find ourselves fighting bound and gagged.
Tesco launched its campaign with an exhibition and “consultation”, which seemed to me to be wildly biased in favour of the development. I asked its PR man whether the consultation would be independently audited. The answer was no. Tesco announced that the great majority of residents were in favour of the store. A door-to-door survey by local people discovered the opposite, but I think you can guess which study made the headlines."

"To compound the unfairness, there is no legal requirement for the developer to ensure that the claims it makes are accurate."

"Tesco maintains that it will buy local produce “wherever possible”. But when its representatives were challenged on this point, they said that local suppliers would have to sell their produce to the company as a whole. It would be trucked to the nearest distribution centre - now 120 miles away in Avonmouth - and then trucked back across Wales to Machynlleth."

"But the real issue is this: if the county council turns it down, Tesco can appeal. The cost to the council would be astronomical. As John Sweeney, leader of North Norfolk District Council observed, Tesco “are too big and powerful for us. If we try and deny them they will appeal, and we cannot afford to fight a planning appeal and lose. If they got costs it would bankrupt us.” Hardly any local authority is prepared to take this risk."

"Once the store is built, we will quickly be deprived of choice. As the first wave of customers peels off and the income of the independent stores declines, the quality and range of their produce falls, driving more people into Tesco’s arms. From that point on, the collapse becomes unstoppable."

The full article can be read on-line.

The Charles Close Society for the study of Ordnance Survey maps
Last week, Issue 85 of Sheetlines the journal/newsletter of the Charles Close Society arrived. Spot on time, exceedingly well produced and full of information for anyone who is interested in Ordnance Survey maps. The society is very well run and the £10 annual subscription is money well spent. For it, as standard, one receives three issues of Sheetlines, the last three having 64 pages each, free access to society meetings and visits to map related concerns (not only OS map related concerns). Plus the Almanack and the friendship of approaching 600 other members.

For the past two years, a free coloured map has been produced for members in the new Map from the past series. Society publications are produced to a very high standard, and sold at a discount to members, as are back issues of Sheetlines. A new CCS website is being developed and although not an official society site, the ordnancemaps email discussion forum is essential reading.

If you know of the society and are not a member, then you are not really interested in OS maps as far as I am concerned.

Walking books
I was talking to a neighbour yesterday, and we got around to books of walks. Twenty family walks around your town. He had recently done one in a hilly area, and failed to find a small bridge. On taking out the Ordnance Survey map, he saw that he had missed a fork in the path and had continued on the wrong way.

If I ever come across a suggested walk of this sort, I always get out an OS map (well, we have so many), and check the walk. And like my friend, I always take the map with me, which surely means that I do not fully trust the instructions, and that I am confident that the OS map will sort out any problems. In fact, I usually leave the book and just take the map. In this way, if a variation looks interesting, one can follow it and have the map as a guide, which is not possible with just a limited sketch map in a book.

I must admit, that having decided to go to an area for a short break, I study the local map for possible walks, and when we get there, find that I have already spotted most of the suggestions in the local walks book.

Taking up far too much shelf space, we have a book of 1001 best UK walks, or something similar. Very nicely produced maps, held in a ring binder so that only a sheet has to be carried around and so on. The only problem is that the maps have been drawn with north being in any direction. Why, oh why? An OS map is essential to help sort things out with these, if only to know which way one is supposed to leave the car park (not very green, eh?).

One of the books of national walks has a route passing out gate, and frequently we hear the merry sound of a group of walkers chatting away to each other as they pass. A good few years ago, I met someone who ran walking holidays, where the walkers walked, and the luggage was taken from site to site for them. He told me that at one time, he was so annoyed that he made his 'paying guests' walk in total silence for the first hour on the first day. What annoyed him? The fact that they were walking through really beautiful countryside, and the walkers were chatting away, describing the wonders of the last walk they had been on. And appearing not to notice where they were now. Perhaps, he thought, if they walk in silence, they might appreciate their current surroundings. Doesn't this usually happen if we go out to a new restaurant? The initial conversation, as we ignore the first course being eaten, is always about the last wonderful meal we had out.

Rudeness, maps and the Internet
(This will be a bit of a rant, but does mention maps, so skip it if you want only to read about maps.)

So, the head of the Roman Catholic church in England thinks that social networking sites are bad for children and young people. Not that it will make the BBC News, but I think that the Internet is bad for many of their parents as well.

I can now see why older people have always used the phrase "in the old days", or even " in the good old days". In the old days, when someone wanted a map, they would have to write a letter (remember that?) or pick up the telephone, think about what they wanted and ask me for it. It took some effort to do these things, and if they rang, I could ask exactly what they wanted.

Not today.

Receiving letters and telephone calls are almost a thing of the past for us. Email rules. Except that any rules for politeness have vanished, as far as a great many people are concerned. I have this vision of everyone having access to the Internet on their desk at work, and in an idle moment (when nobody is looking) sending me an email of something they have just thought of. We, being silly, treat everything as a serious enquiry and put work into sorting something out and offering it in a reply. Increasingly, we get no response. Not even a refusal, or sorry but I have found something elsewhere. Rudeness rules, and these are the same people that are supposed to bring children up to say "please" and "thank you".

And while I am at it, I am also very aware that many of the requests that come through are just so vague. No time is spent thinking of just what they might want, no, they dash off an email with some vague request. "Do you have a map of Durham?", "I saw a really a large map a few years ago, lovely colours, but cannot remember anything else about it except that I would like one. Is there any possibility that you might know what it was?" I joke not.

Have you noticed that everything is being dished up, in smaller and smaller pieces? Look an any magazine or newspaper and there are snippets of information in boxes. Far, far more than there ever used to be (in the old days).Very soon the whole of a newspaper will look like the classified columns section, everything in little boxes and nobody with the ability to write a good decent article, even if there was anyone with the concentration to read it. I am sure that cutting everything down to small pieces, is the reason why people cannot ask for what they want in the way of mapping.

Little boxes containing one or two facts on a subject. Such, does not encourage the following of an argument, which is probably why some people cannot think through what they require in the way of maps. First it was the supermarkets, who provided more and more checkouts, so that we do not have to wait. Shoppers are impatient. With the Internet, if a website does not load at once, we quickly move on. Surfers are impatient. Now, with reading, if we cannot get the facts within seconds, we become impatient (having been trained in supermarkets and the Internet), so facts are highlighted in boxes, or a brief summary at the beginning.

Ah, that feels better. I have shared it with the world, something it would have been impossible to do in the old days.

Charity shops
Last week, somebody rang and offered me six Bartholomew's maps, and then a similar call offered twenty odd one-inch Seventh Series in average condition. I did not want the maps, and said that a charity shop would appreciate them. But, I said, in my experience, not all charity shops react in the same way to maps and books.

The 'high street chains' such as Cancer UK, Red Cross and Barnardos, generally seem only to have a bay of nice clean paperbacks and new hardback fiction. Take them some good, clean but used Ordnance Survey maps or 1960s Penguin books and they are never seen in the shop. They vanish. Unlike Oxfam, with specialised Oxfam bookshops, other major charities just do not display the sort of good used stock seen in second-hand bookshops.

So, what happens to them? "We have a man that buys our older books" said the lady in a local charity shop this morning when I offered some older books, but asked what they would do with them, given they were not the sort of things on their shelves. I have heard someone in the same shop say that any jewellery is shown to the local jeweller on receipt, and have always wondered why one never really finds good CDs in charity shops.

It appears that they 'have a man, (or woman)' for most interests. With books, it is almost certainly a local bookseller, yet if one reads the second-hand book trade press, it is constantly full of moans about charity shops getting all the good material. Rubbish. Good books enter these shops and quickly pass to the trade in most cases, usually the local trade. I know, as over the years booksellers have offered me maps that they have just got from a charity shop in this way. Indeed, charity shops themselves ring me and offer me maps rather than putting them in the shop. Any that I do not want, I am happy to suggest prices for.

No, when I suggest offering maps to a charity shop, I always say to find a local charity, a shop that looks more like a bric-a-brac shop than a fashion shop. Any donation stands more chance of being on the shelves within days, than it would with a 'chain charity'. But even shops such as these must have 'contacts', who get to see and pick over recent donations before anyone else.

Once the general public realise what is going on, I am sure that fewer people will go into charity shops hoping to find something nice for their collection. Which means the shops will have a reduced number of customers, less sales and so on. Less will be given to them as well. We have seen this with second-hand bookshops who put their stock on the internet. Many have their internet stock, the interesting material, in the back room and only the junk out front. Which means that I have virtually stopped going into bookshops. If I do, I always ask whether their internet stock is in the shop or not, and only stay if the answer is "yes". Unless you have the chance of finding something unexpected, you give up going to a particular shop, of any sort. And if you think our site is predictable, well, we are starting to add some very strange/interesting material, if you look for it.

Geological maps
Whilst preparing a website section for geological maps, both in covers and flat sheets, I have just had a quick look at the British Geological Survey site to see what they have been up to recently. Big changes in terminology it appears. But less confusing? Not from what appears on the website.

The BGS introductory page for 1:50,000 maps has a nice explanation of new terminology.

1:50 000 Geological Maps
Geological maps show the nature, extent and relative stratigraphical age of the different rocks within a district.
Maps are normally available in both flat and folded formats.

Map versions
In the past, our geological maps have been published in different editions, for example ‘Solid’, ‘Drift’, ‘Solid & Drift’ and ‘Solid with Drift’, although not all editions have been available for any one district. Since 2003, new maps and new editions of older maps have been be described as ‘Bedrock’ (replacing ‘Solid’), ‘Superficial Deposits’ (replacing ‘Drift’), and the combined map as ‘Bedrock & Superficial Deposits’ or, occasionally 'Superficial Deposits and Simplified Bedrock' (see below). Until this replacement is complete, all the existing maps will be available in their current editions.

New map versions
Bedrock maps (formerly ‘Solid’) show the bedrock (pre-Quaternary) geology, as it would appear if the superficial deposits were removed.
Bedrock and Superficial Deposits maps show the "underfoot geology". Equal emphasis is given to the bedrock and superficial geology: comprehensive information on concealed bedrock formations is also shown.
Superficial Deposits and Simplified Bedrock. For map sheets areas containing complex superficial deposits overlying complex bedrock, a map classification of 'Superficial Deposits and Simplified Bedrock ' may apply. On these maps, the bedrock is shown simplified to Group or sub-Group level (i.e. individual geological formations are not generally shown). This is to allow clarity, maximum understanding and interpretation of the Superficial Deposits. Maps in this classification thus show bedrock simplified to a greater degree than shown on 'Bedrock and Superficial Deposits' maps.
Superficial Deposits maps (formerly ‘Solid & Drift’) show the bedrock and superficial deposits with equal emphasis. These maps give the best picture of the ‘underfoot’ geology.

Questions
I note that they still do not explain the difference between 'Solid and Drift' and 'Solid with Drift' maps. Does anyone know the answer?

From the above, can anyone explain the difference between a 'Bedrock and Superficial Deposits' map and a 'Superficial Deposits' map?

Geological maps at one-inch and 1:50,000 scales

What do you mean?
Last week, a man rang wanting maps of the Lleyn peninsula for his wife, "she's going to Llaniestyn, west of the ferry". Well, we know Llaniestyn quite well, and are familiar with a lot of the peninsula, but could not place the ferry. Boat trips yes, but no ferry.

We found the maps and I telephoned. I told him the area covered, roughly Llanbedrog westwards, not as far east as Pwllheli. When I had finished, Alison had solved the problem, Pwllheli--the ferry. Simple.

London congestion charging zone
When we go to London, we usually stay in West Dulwich, south of the river, (like any sensible person, I could not sleep north of the river, but that is another story). My favourite route is leave the M40, drive straight on, up onto the West Way, and leave it at Paddington. Down the slope, straight on to the park, turn left to Marble Arch, down Park Lane, Victoria, over Vauxhall bridge, Stockwell, Brixton and end up at West Dulwich. A nice easy route, with no hold ups apart from Brixton.

Simple. Except that the Charging Zone was plonked across central London, so I started coming in from the M4, and skirting the zone. Not as good, by any means. However, I was looking at a leaflet on the scheme and saw that there was a north-south route across the middle of the zone which was not part of it. The zone is in fact two zones divided by a thin north-south road.

On closer inspection, most of this road is my favoured route across London. The only difference is that on leaving the West Way, one turns left at the first set of traffic lights and then right at the next set of lights in order to go around Paddington station, along Praed Street and then turn right down Edgware Road to Marble Arch, where one re-joins my old route. Five minutes.

So, the last time we went to London, we went that way, and it was all rather tension making, a bit like walking along a foot wide ridge on the top of a mountain chain. I was terrified in case I went off the route, and as I drove, so every turning left and right had the big congestion zone symbols on the road. Financial disaster if you cross them? Not really, more a big dent in my pride, having studied the map, knew where I wanted to go and was perfectly happy driving in that area. Of course, I did it, no problem and went that way again last weekend. No trouble. Easy. Good old maps win again.

Have a look at :
www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/roadusers/congestioncharge/whereandwhen/

Dissected maps
Some people just cannot get on with them, whilst others really like dissected maps. I like them, some more than others. 'Mounted in sections' and usually priced higher than a cloth backed map, dissected maps were the top of the range. Flat sheets were cut into sections and pasted onto a cloth backing, leaving a small gap between each section. Thus, the strips of cloth showing between the sections took and damage from folding and re-folding and the paper map sections did not lose any detail along the folds. One can easily follow a road or railway across the sections, but problems do occur when measuring anything from a dissected map.

However, it is not this aspect that attracts me to them. They are just nice to hold. A nice object, especially one-inch Thirds and half-inch maps in white covers, which are so satisfying to hold, regardless of the maps inside, or how grubby the cover is. Just close your eyes and hold the thing. New Populars are much larger but I have a soft spot for these as well. Popular Edition sheets are nothing special when dissected. No, the white covered maps win every time.

Trench maps
I thought that I had a basic idea of what trench maps involved, with the British trenches being coloured blue, and those of the Germans being red. But in 1918, the colours were swapped over. Simple, but probably confusing to users at the time.

I have just read that this was to bring the colours into line with French practice. Fair enough, but my source then goes on to say that the swap did not affect every map, and that German trenches remained red on some maps until the war ended. And in trying to verify this, I note that Wikipedia says that some trench maps had all the trenches the same colour. Got that? True or false?

Mid-Wales on the map
Have a look at a map of mid-Wales, and try to visualise the nice green hills, lots of new lambs and daffodils. We like it. We live here. But there are some who want to install a new breed of larger wind turbines, which will be of use for only a few years.

A major problem is getting the turbines and other material to the sites.

A recent report says of Powys (Montgomeryshire, Radnorshire and Brecknockshire):
.... the county's narrow country roads would have difficulty coping with the trucks needed for the structures, some standing at 400ft (122m).

Bespoke lorries measuring 180ft (55m) long, 16ft (5m) wide and weighing nearly 130 tonnes, would travel through the county five days a week for five years, making more than 3,000 journeys, the BBC reports.

What price?
I have a friend, who, when he decides to change his car, goes to WH Smith and buys a little book that gives the current values of thousands of cars, and which is used by all car salesmen. He then knows almost as much about prices as a second-hand car dealer. Cars, like old postage stamps, have a very organised and rigid price structure.

With Ordnance Survey maps things are less clear. Lots of different outlets sell them, with greatly varying degrees of knowledge about what they are selling. I was in Hay on Wye yesterday and most of the maps were the sort of things I put in the dustbin, but they were priced at £3-4 each. There were a handful of nice clean maps, but the shop had stuck large sticky price labels on them. On the internet, you can usually spot someone who knows nothing about what they are selling, by the frequent use of the word RARE. Yet even fairly seasoned map sellers have problems with pricing material.

How would you approach pricing a map that was published in 1900, a small sheet in excellent condition, mostly sea (i.e. white blank paper) with about two square inches of land in the top right corner? Two houses, a bit of road and the rest is cliff. Very few copies of this sheet would have been sold, so some would argue that it should be priced up for being a rare sheet. But it has very little, almost no information on it, so price it down, say others. Ah, but people wanting a set of these sheets will need it for completeness, and must have it, so price it up. But if you do this and they do not want it, it will be far too high for the average collector, so keep the price down, and if the completist buys a bargain, well good luck to them, and anyway, the chances are that they have spent a lot of money with you over the years.

Similar arguments hold for whether a set should have a bit extra added to the price, over and above the total of the individual maps. Should really common maps in a series be priced far lower than the others? If you have been pricing maps at £X, because that is what you think they are worth, and they make ten times that on eBay, should you up your prices, if you do not put things on eBay (which I do not)?

Ah, food for sleepless nights.
(And in case you are wondering, I usually ask a lower price for maps with virtually nothing on them, in the hope that they will indeed sell now. Otherwise, when I have sold nearly all of my stock, the only remaining maps will be those which have nothing on them. Not really a stock of maps, I would say.)

Sticky price labels can damage your maps
How often have you bought a really nice, non-laminated map with a white price label on it, tried to remove the label and the cover surface has been removed at the same time? Or have you refused to buy a map with obvious signs of a label having been removed?

Labels appear to fall into two groups. Old water-based ones and the really sticky chemical based versions. The water-based labels can be removed by dabbing cold water on them until they are fully soaked and just lift off. But do not apply too much water or it will damage the cover.

For the really sticky labels, I use lighter fuel, which is a solvent. A couple of drops will usually wet the whole label, and after a few seconds it will lift off. Some more fuel on a tissue will get rid of the remaining glue. Sometimes, after applying fuel, one has to lift a corner of the label with a knife and squirt fuel under the label, but it always works. The area will look dark and wet, but the fuel soon evaporates and all is well.

I am obviously only reporting my experience and cannot take any responsibility for any mishaps that anyone might have. Try the fuel on an old unwanted cover first, to see how much is needed and so on. Do not rush it, and if in doubt, apply more fuel. All the usual warnings of risk of fire, use in a well ventilated room and so on, also apply. Keep the fuel away from children and pets. I find it very sad to have to write all this on a website catering for intelligent adults.

Put your money into maps
Every economic downturn has a positive effect, somewhere, and we seem to feel it. In the downturn in the early 90s of the last century, when Mr Major, the ex-banker was at the helm, we had some really good customers come to us from the 'antiquarian map market'. Such people were/had been collectors of quite pricey county maps, but had decided that OS maps were greatly under-priced, very attractive and very collectable. Some are still with us as customers and have never resumed their bad habits.

In the present, banker led downturn, we seem to be benefiting from the weak pound against the dollar. After a long break, American universities have resumed placing orders for our publication by Roger Hellyer : Ordnance Survey small-scale maps : indexes 1801-1998. Not only does it contain over 100 index diagrams for all OS small scale maps, but with each diagram are listed all the map series using that diagram, and which sheets were issued in each series. The text details thousands of civil and military map series plus experimental maps, and much more. I refer to it at least three times a week. It is the book that I wanted when I first became interested in OS maps, and is now considered the standard reference work for small-scale maps.

Another fun website
As usual, I am probably the last person to have found the geograph website, which 'aims to collect geographically representative photographs and information for every square kilometre of Great Britain and Ireland'.

Go to http://www.geograph.org.uk/ and search for where you live. The pages do not appear always to have the same structure, but somewhere there will be a section of an OS map and a guide NW, N, NE... with the word GO in the middle. Use this to move to the adjacent square and a picture of something in that square will appear. Quite easy. I have yet to go deeper into it, but have seen familiar names having added photographs to the site. Sponsored by the Ordnance Survey.

American logic
Copied from an email group.
Republican California Assemblyman Joel Anderson has introduced a bill to censor online satellite imagery of public buildings. "His bill would restrict the images such Web sites could post online. Clear, detailed images of schools, hospitals, churches and all government buildings -what he calls soft terrorism targets - would not be allowed. His bill would make it illegal in California to post close-up images of such buildings. Instead, the images would have to be blurred." Note to terrorists: Everything blurred is worth bombing. And, since transportation infrastructure is also clearly a soft terrorist target, all imagery of roads should be blurred too.

Survey Review
Until the internet arrived, if one wanted an article from an old journal, the local library would usually get a copy from the British Library in Boston Spa. These days, several sites have been scanning back runs of journals and charging for a download of articles.

Tinho Da Cruz recently posted a note on ordnancemaps leading to free downloads which might be of interest to some readers. Click on the link, and Volume 1 is at the bottom of the screen.

Articles include:
O.G.S. Crawford : Primitive English Land-Marks and Maps,
A.J. Potter : The Earliest Geodetic Triangulation,
M.N. MacLeod : Survey in the Great War,
Charles Close : A Fifty-Years Retrospect,

They can be found at http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/maney/sre

1 : 25,000 Index diagrams
A lot of people, even map collectors, say that they do not have an index diagram to the 1:25,000 First Series (in blue covers of some sort), or Second Series (Pathfinders in green covers). We use a 1980s road atlas as a useful and detailed index to these series.

Look in the front of any road atlas, and if it mentions using the National Grid, then one small square on the page is one 1:25,000 First Series map.The maps are numbered using two letters, followed by two digits. Consider Haywards Heath, just north of Brighton. Somewhere on the page will be two large letters TQ.

Haywards Heath is in the centre of a square, and the map is TQ 32. The 3 is the digit for the vertical line forming the left edge of the square, and can be seen at the top and bottom of the line, on the edge of the page. The 2 is the digit for the horizontal line forming the bottom edge of the map, and can be seen on the left and right of the atlas pages.
If you already own a map from this series, compare it to a road atlas and things usually become clear.

When requesting maps, please give the sheet number and place shown on the map. If this is not possible, just be as specific as possible with regard to the area sought, and we will look things up for you.

Royal Mail
Ours is essentially a postal business, and Royal Mail have been excellent over the past 23 years or so. In recent years, since the new size related prices were introduced, our postal bill has gone down, which is excellent for our customers. The Royal Mail is said to be making a profit of £1,000,000 a day, despite having a lot of the cream given to other companies, and being limited in the financial arrangements it can undertake. So, why not let it raise the money it needs for modernisation, and give the taxpayers and users a good deal?

Why is it necessary to sell part of Royal Mail to a foreign company in order to modernise it? Why not hire people with the ability to do so, or have them as consultants, if one must? If Royal Mail can make a profit despite being shackled, just think what it could do given full freedom. Not that a service needs to make a profit. The figures involved with the pension fund are small in comparison to those used to support the wicked banks and bankers.

When David Rhind was appointed Director General of the Ordnance Survey, he undertook a major reorganisation using the existing staff. Good leadership and good management. Why is it assumed with Royal Mail that the existing staff are incapable, or that others cannot be found from within Britain?

If you want small postal businesses to continue, then support those who are against the sell off of Royal Mail. Please.

The Jumble Sale
Those who look at this site on a regular basis will see that it has yet another small change. 'The Jumble Sale' has replaced 'Special Offers' in yet another attempt to get some specific maps and books listed.

The structure of the site is finished, but we find it impossible to find time to catalogue and price maps to put beneath each heading. When something sells, it has to be taken off, whilst new stock needs adding. And all the while the actual maps need to be kept distinct from non-website stock. The sort of fiddly thing that I hate. So, I have conveniently not found time to do it.

The theory behind 'The Jumble Sale' is that I can just add the odd map or book as I see fit. An interesting map that I find in a box, some new stock or something at a bargain price. I will just keep them on shelves as listed, without having to fit them into any sequence. Nice and relaxed. Hmmmmm. Perhaps. Maybe. We will see.

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