I love old maps – compass roses, dragons and fantastic beasts as well as miniature landmarks have always made me smile. Though I must admit to being very disappointed when told recently that no historic English map has ever carried the legend “here be dragons.” These days I especially like old maps if they have field names on and parish boundaries. And it’s so much easier to find your location as well thanks to the National Library of Scotland who have a free searchable database. Why not give it a go?
Old Maps Online www.oldmapsonline.org is a gateway to historic maps from around the world
Some counties have their own archive – https://www.cumbriacountyhistory.org.uk/resources is just an example and is really helpful for tracking down information, quite a lot of which is freely available. Time perhaps to do some desktop research.
A reminder to for those of you who are helping out with home schooling. Local history is an important part of the primary history curriculum – it’s always good to find out what once stood where the school did, or your house – have things stayed the same or have they changed? Having looked at some historic maps why not encourage the child to make a map of their own with the things that are important to them. It’s an example of where topic work in primary school learning covers more than one subject developing from historic maps and local history we’ve branched out into art work and for fans of Winnie the Pooh and The Hobbit into fiction and presenting information in different forms. Most of all – their maps can proudly carry the legend “Here be dragons!”
