Mapping travel routes in the Middle Ages

All you need to do is pick up a paper map or use a mapping app to find travel routes and landmarks in England and Wales. But what if you want to delve into the depths of history and discover routes and landmarks from long ago?

We’ve recently printed Historic Ways: Road Map of England and Wales in the Late Middle Ages, a unique map that showcases the infrastructure and landmarks of the two countries in the period. We talk to David Harrison to find out more about his fascinating map.

What inspired you to create the map?

I was asked to present a paper at a conference about medieval travel. As I started work on this, I began to think that the most obvious way to show the information would be with a map of medieval roads. When you look at history books, they rarely show you these roads. I produced an outline map for the conference, that was then published in a book about medieval travel. I thought that it would be interesting for a wider audience, so I decided to create a larger scale, more in-depth map.

The map is a scholarly piece of work. Did you study history? And what led you to focus on roads and transport?

Yes. I did history at the University of Oxford and wrote a thesis on the bridges and roads of Medieval England, which I published as a book. Then I became a Clerk at the House of Commons, at one point with the Environment and Transport Committee. That sparked my professional interest. Now I’m retired, my focus is on the Road Map of England and Wales in the Late Middle Ages, alongside other projects.

Have you always been interested in maps?

Even as a boy, I was interested in maps. I would look over the Ordnance Survey ones we took on holiday in the 1960s. I became even more interested in retirement, when I co-founded a community interest company, Footways. We create walking maps showing quiet, attractive routes in London.

What’s the spec of your map?

It’s an 890 x 750mm folded map, so it’s large format but not unwieldy. It’s printed on one sheet and is double sided.

Tell us about the map’s design…

The map is inspired by the Gough Map, a surviving map from the Middle Ages, which you can see at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. I was particularly inspired by the colour green it uses for the sea. I think the colour works perfectly. I employed Cosmographics, a cartographic company, to do the design.

What were the highlights of making the map?

Reading travellers’ accounts to see where they were travelling in the Middle Ages. Their descriptions have lovely, human details. Also, visiting so many of the beautiful surviving medieval bridges; it’s a real pleasure to stand on the riverbank admiring these often superbly constructed structures.

Did you face any challenges?

Sometimes it could be difficult tracing the precise route of highways and wondering which alternative roads to feature. Another problem was searching for references to bridges. I was pretty certain there must be a bridge and got frustrated at times when I couldn’t find a reference, especially for the more remote parts of England and Wales. If I couldn’t find references, I left them out.

Tell me about the back of the map

I have included a series of illustrated essays on medieval roads and travel, as well as on the destinations, including castles and great houses, monasteries and inns. I’d been worried about fitting in too much information, so I was delighted when a retired Museum Director described the text as masterful in its conciseness and clarity.

Tell us about your experience working with Dennis Maps…

They’ve been excellent and given me good advice. I was really impressed by the quality of the finished product, which was superbly produced and printed. This applies both to the map itself and the coloured engraving and contemporary photos on the back.

Where is the map for sale?

You can buy it online or in person from Stanfords, Waterstones and Amazon. My distributor is working on getting it into other shops as well. There are also hard copies at St Bartholomew the Great in Smithfield, London, which is one of the illustrated buildings referred to on the back of the map.

Have you got any other exciting plans?

I might be tempted to do more detailed regional maps for the period, who knows?! One might almost describe my map as showing the motorways of the late fifteenth century, and of course there are lots of other smaller roads that were left out. They would have made the map look messy and there wasn’t space for them. If I created larger scale maps at a regional level, more of these smaller roads could be included.

We’ll also carry on producing Footways maps. A new one of London’s Smithfield and Clerkenwell should be coming out this September.

Dennis Maps is one of the leading map printers in the world, producing more than two million maps and charts every year. We offer comprehensive pre-press services, large format print solutions using both large format litho printing and large format digital print technologies, plus specialised map folding and map finishing techniques.