Off On a Tangent...

Every once in a while, you stumble across something in your travels that just makes you sit back and go 'huh???', and that's exactly what happened to me today.

I was trawling through the historic mapping evidence for Paisley.  Not a likely source of excitement, I hear you say, but well, on this occasion you'd be wrong.  There, amongst the Ordnance Survey Town Plans and various 18th century maps, was something which was intriguingly titled 'The Scout Map'.  It wasn't very old- it dates back to the 1930s.  But it was so bizarre and so off-the-wall that I just had to tell you all about it.

I've reproduced a chunk of it, just so you can see what it's all about:-
 

 

I presume what happened was a bunch of Boy Scouts were sent out to Saucel Hill (just off-screen on the bottom left hand corner) with a plane table and told to map their fair town.  The result is both bizarre and amusing!  Note, for instance, the smell lines around the skinned carcass on the excerpt above - at least, I assume that's what they are,  It seems to be shorthand for 'Here there be Tanneries...'  [Incidentally, the big building next to the tannery is the Anchor Mills which I photographed last week].

If you want to explore it further, then check out the link below:-

http://www.nls.uk/maps/towns/detail.cfm?id=2258

It's well worth a look! 

And for those of you out there who are a fan of a) Scotland, or b) historic mapping, or c) both, you should take a wee dander through the rest of the historic maps which are available to view on line.  Pont's a bit strange, but Blaeu's always worth a look.  And Roy's Military Survey of Scotland (just post-dating the '45) is a fascinating source, too.

 

Off On a Tangent...

Every once in a while, you stumble across something in your travels that just makes you sit back and go 'huh???', and that's exactly what happened to me today.

I was trawling through the historic mapping evidence for Paisley.  Not a likely source of excitement, I hear you say, but well, on this occasion you'd be wrong.  There, amongst the Ordnance Survey Town Plans and various 18th century maps, was something which was intriguingly titled 'The Scout Map'.  It wasn't very old- it dates back to the 1930s.  But it was so bizarre and so off-the-wall that I just had to tell you all about it.

I've reproduced a chunk of it, just so you can see what it's all about:-
 

 

I presume what happened was a bunch of Boy Scouts were sent out to Saucel Hill (just off-screen on the bottom left hand corner) with a plane table and told to map their fair town.  The result is both bizarre and amusing!  Note, for instance, the smell lines around the skinned carcass on the excerpt above - at least, I assume that's what they are,  It seems to be shorthand for 'Here there be Tanneries...'  [Incidentally, the big building next to the tannery is the Anchor Mills which I photographed last week].

If you want to explore it further, then check out the link below:-

http://www.nls.uk/maps/towns/detail.cfm?id=2258

It's well worth a look! 

And for those of you out there who are a fan of a) Scotland, or b) historic mapping, or c) both, you should take a wee dander through the rest of the historic maps which are available to view on line.  Pont's a bit strange, but Blaeu's always worth a look.  And Roy's Military Survey of Scotland (just post-dating the '45) is a fascinating source, too.