Maps 'R Me
Posted: March 8th, 2020, 10:50 pm
I'm not sure this is the correct board for this post, but I couldn't find any more relevant, I don't remember ever seeing a post about maps before, and the powers that be will move it if necessary. By maps, I mean those of course actually printed on a piece of paper.
I have been a cartographophile since I was in short trousers, I remember cutting out maps from wherever, whatever the region or scale and filing them away! Anyway, I happened to find a road map book of Europe today, under a pile of other maps. Its an in-house publication by Ciba Clayton, the result of Ciba Geigy taking over the local business of Clayton Aniline in the 1960s or so. The flysheet has the imprimatur of the company library and came from my dad's pal Tom Green, who worked there. Unfortunately Tom Green died young, in fact the same week as John Lennon was murdered, my dad was sole beneficiary, so I could have what I wanted from his belongings. That was nearly 40 years ago, for the uninitiated.
Anyway, the book, how old is it, I wonder? It shows the German autobahnen, so it can't be that old, I have older maps. It has the Russian and the German names for Königsberg, so its post-1946, but I'm disappointed to find it has lots of English motorways, so its definitely not old at all. M6 and M1 are not joined, I think that came in the early 70s. I remember driving down to college on a Sunday evening in my little Turner sports car, with its Austin Healey Sprite engine.The M6 finished at Penkridge in those days, then onto the A5 round Birmingham and right onto the A446 (I think) and south, eventually to my digs in Cowley Road. That was the very late 60s, about the date the book was published?
So, apart from 150 pages of lovely maps, and 44 town plans, (it even shows the church I attended as a nipper and my local railway station if Beeching hadn't closed it down and subsequent demolition) it reminds me of my time at college, my dad and his pal, The Beatles and even all the way to New York!
So if anybody is actually still with me on this rather self-indulgent, rambling meander, what wonderful things maps are! If I were going on a motoring tour of Europe tomorrow, I'd definitely take it with me. Just to make a final connection, Tom Green made the book shelves I found it in.
Has anybody else got a favourite map story?
All the best,
dp
I have been a cartographophile since I was in short trousers, I remember cutting out maps from wherever, whatever the region or scale and filing them away! Anyway, I happened to find a road map book of Europe today, under a pile of other maps. Its an in-house publication by Ciba Clayton, the result of Ciba Geigy taking over the local business of Clayton Aniline in the 1960s or so. The flysheet has the imprimatur of the company library and came from my dad's pal Tom Green, who worked there. Unfortunately Tom Green died young, in fact the same week as John Lennon was murdered, my dad was sole beneficiary, so I could have what I wanted from his belongings. That was nearly 40 years ago, for the uninitiated.
Anyway, the book, how old is it, I wonder? It shows the German autobahnen, so it can't be that old, I have older maps. It has the Russian and the German names for Königsberg, so its post-1946, but I'm disappointed to find it has lots of English motorways, so its definitely not old at all. M6 and M1 are not joined, I think that came in the early 70s. I remember driving down to college on a Sunday evening in my little Turner sports car, with its Austin Healey Sprite engine.The M6 finished at Penkridge in those days, then onto the A5 round Birmingham and right onto the A446 (I think) and south, eventually to my digs in Cowley Road. That was the very late 60s, about the date the book was published?
So, apart from 150 pages of lovely maps, and 44 town plans, (it even shows the church I attended as a nipper and my local railway station if Beeching hadn't closed it down and subsequent demolition) it reminds me of my time at college, my dad and his pal, The Beatles and even all the way to New York!
So if anybody is actually still with me on this rather self-indulgent, rambling meander, what wonderful things maps are! If I were going on a motoring tour of Europe tomorrow, I'd definitely take it with me. Just to make a final connection, Tom Green made the book shelves I found it in.
Has anybody else got a favourite map story?
All the best,
dp