A new seven week Zoom class will be starting on Monday 29 September, 2025 – on the topic of a history of Britain in maps. I’ve started planning the classes in readiness to advertise them by the end of next week and have side tracked myself with Matthew Paris, the thirteenth century monk from St Albans, who I usually write about in terms of his chronicles of English history – the Chronica Majora and Historia Anglorum. I

Paris, who seems to have done his own illustrations, included a self portrait in the Historia Anglorum and for the purposes of the forthcoming class – a map that located more than 250 places. He also showed rivers, Hadrian’s Wall and the Antonine Wall. It’s thought that the monk may have used an earlier Roman map as an example. He also created a map to guide pilgrims from England to the Holy Land. Inevitably the journey started in London which was drawn with the Tower of London and St Paul’s Cathedral as well as London Bridge.

The map of Britain, dating from about 1250, can be found at the British Library but there’s a rather wonderful online annotated version that provides additional information. Now all I have to do is to decide what I should include in the seven weeks – obviously the Hereford Mappa Mundi and the Gough Map of Britain, John Stow, Henry VIII’s coastal defence map, inevitably Gerald of Wales gets in on the act and then there’re John Ogilby’s road maps – actually I think strip maps of the kind that Ogilby made will be one session in their own right – Matthew Paris will appear alongside Ogilby, The Antonine Itinerary and Matthew Simons guidance for travellers dating to 1635.

Autumn’s class should be live for booking by the beginning of next week. There will also be a solitary Christmas class on Monday 1 December – A Bronte Christmas which I am rather excited about.