The beginnings of an idea for this project slipped into my mind many years ago, probably a few years before COVID, when me and my partner were in an antiques shop. One room held old paintings and maps. I walked through the wide entrance to the room, looked around to the right and there beside the entranceway in an old frame under glass was a printed plate of a ribbon map. It was one of John Ogilby’s from his 1675 masterpiece ‘Britannia’, framed and mounted, and an unaffordable few hundred pounds to buy. I had not seen a map like it before, and it immediately sparked interest and curiosity. What an idea to just show a road as it unfolds before you, rather than in the context of its much larger surroundings. In a rack to the side were more, unframed examples, some Ogilby and a few later copy-cats.
Who was John Ogilby?
John Ogilby (1600–1676) was a Scottish writer and cartographer, appointed Royal Cosmographer (which at this time meant the mapping of the cosmos, heavens, and Earth) by King Charles II in 1661. He is chiefly known for his proposal to create a detailed road atlas of Great Britain, comprising England and Wales. This volume, Britannia, was published in 1675 and contains 100 strip maps accompanied by a page of text explaining the map’s use. This map is of the King’s land – it excludes Scotland and known areas of dissention such as Liverpool. It includes many obscure routes rather than major trading roads – so it is thought to be a map of proposed military movements should civil war break out again.
The measurement of the roads was undertaken using a ‘way-wiser’ (a surveyor’s wheel) and the maps were plotted at one inch to the mile. Innovatively, the maps include major features found along the road, such as rivers, hills, towns, and other roads. Since the ribbon of the road cannot reveal direction, frequent compass roses are provided to indicate the bearing.
Ogilby, John, Britannia (1675); Wikimedia Commons
Why the Undercliffs?
I have always loved the Undercliff, a wild stretch of the South West Coast Path between my Devon home of Seaton and the Dorset town of Lyme Regis. In fact, the proximity to that path, which I had walked at least once a year on visits to the area before we moved here, was one of the main reasons we chose to move here at all. I go to the Undercliffs as regularly as I can manage – it features quite heavily in all my nature journals so far – and essentially I thought that a project would give an excellent excuse for going much more often. But I didn’t want the main focus of the project to be another book-form nature journal.
Blue = Extra Routes, Yellow = The Foreshore/beach
I decided to apply the Ogilby technique to the Undercliffs at the end of 2022 and spent much of 2023 exploring the Undercliffs and the foreshore. The majority of my exploration of the Undercliffs took the form of nature journaling, sketching, and photographing the wildlife. During 2023 and early 2024, I was out in some part of the Undercliffs at least twice per month and I saw some wonderful sights. Some of them you can see in my early project vlogs: Vlog 1 and Vlog 2.
To create the final maps, I took a sketchbook out with me on each Undercliffs walk, in which I drew the line of the path and recorded bearings, ascents and descents, and nature observations. Later, having no ‘way-wiser’ to hand, I needed to work out a way to get the ribbon maps as close to scale as realistically possible. To achieve this, I made notes of all the major landmarks in my sketchbook version. For each landmark, I took a photograph and a screenshot of my position on the Ordnance Survey map app. I then used these ‘position markers’ with the physical Ordnance Survey map to measure out the route. It was important to ensure that the distances between the landmarks was correctly scaled in the artwork. A very modern solution to an old-fashioned problem.
Creating the Artwork
The first step was to collect together all the information from the outdoor parts of the project (journal entries, my sketchbook map, the Ordnance Survey positions, and photographs) and scale the map strips according to the Ordnance Survey. Several first draft strips were needed to practice the method and design the eventual appearance of the map strips.
The photographs needed to be organised next, along with all the nature observations. I designed the drawings between the map strips based on the position of the landmarks and nature observations shown. Once I had decided the composition and features, the pencil lines were transformed into the fineliner drawing that underlays the coloured pencil work.
Hundreds of photographs were used in the creation of this project, every photo my own and taken during the 2023-2024 period in the Undercliffs or Seaton Wetlands. Using the photos as reference, I coloured the map strips and the drawings between them by hand using coloured pencil. This was the stage of the project that took the longest amount of time in the studio.
Making the Handheld Maps and Prints
Once the three original maps were complete, it was time to design the handheld maps. These were intended for anyone to take out and explore the South West Coast Path through the Undercliffs. The species included and details were checked by partners Axe Vale & District Conservation Society. My handwriting was removed in favour of a printed font for readability.
You can buy handheld versions of the maps in my webshop to take out into the Undercliffs and explore the South West Coast Path. If you would like a fine art print of one of the maps, they are available in two sizes in my print shop.
The maps are being exhibited at Lyme Regis Museum from 22nd July to 13th September 2024. Find out admission prices and opening information on the Museum Website.
