NICHOLAS CRANE is a world map expert and one of Britain’s foremost adventurers. In Map Man, a brand new series exclusive to BBC Two, he explores eight of the most ingenious, revolutionary and exciting maps in British cartographic history. In this engaging series, Nicholas Crane reminds us of a time when our knowledge of maps was far from commonplace as we go from the earliest and most mysterious map in the series, from the time of Chaucer, through to what has been described as ‘the most outstandingly successful practical map of all time’ - The London Underground Map.
Armed with a combination of ancient drawings, modern carto-technology, and of course his trusty umbrella walking stick, Nick uses the tools of his trade to discover how mapmakers have charted mountains, shrunk oceans to measurable drops and reduced sprawling cities to navigable diagrams. Covering the whole of Britain by foot, horseback, four-wheel drive, bicycle, tube train, motorbike, canal-boat and sailing ketch, Nick circumnavigates Wales, treks Scottish peaks and Norfolk fens, tramps the Pennines, meanders through the West Country and burrows deep beneath London’s City streets.
Nicholas Crane is a rare combination: he’s an expert cartographer and an international explorer with a charisma that brings his personal obsession alive. In 1986 he was part of a two-man team which identified for the first time the geographical Pole of Inaccessibility in Central Asia. In 1992-3 he walked alone for 18 months along the entire mountain watershed of Europe, describing this epic adventure in his award-winning book Clear Waters Rising. His next book, Two Degrees West, was an account of his walk down Britain’s central meridian, and was published to great acclaim in 1999. Nicholas’ most recent book was his biography of the world’s first modern, scientific cartographer, the Flemish-born, 16th-century genius Gerard Mercator. Mercator: The Man Who Mapped the Planet, was published in 2002.
"The wider philosophy of mapmaking gives Crane and his series their unique appeal. And to do so in the space of just 30 minutes; now that, too, is a thing of wonder."
Gerard O'Donovan - Daily Telegraph
分集介紹:
season 1
1x1: William Roy’s Military Survey of Scotland (1747-53)
After the Battle of Culloden in 1746, the British Army decided it desperately needed an accurate map if it was to govern the rebellious Scottish Highlands. They gave a young military engineer, William Roy, the job. With the help of army volunteers, Nick Crane tests out the accuracy of Roy’s methods (using 18th century chain traversing) and then follows one of Roy’s mapped roads across some of the most dangerous and exposed terrain in Scotland. He even beds down for the night under a 17th Century bridge at the top of the infamous Corrieyairick
Pass, a place marked as “snug burrow” on Roy’s map. He ends up at Rannoch Moor, where Roy’s road appears to run out, or does it? Can modern explorer, Nick Crane, travel across William Roy’s pioneering military map of 18th Century Scotland, and use it to lead him safely through some of the wildest Highland landscapes of today?
1x2: John Ogilby’s Britannia (1675)
Nick’s next mission is the first ever road atlas, published in 1675. By mountain bike, in mid-winter, he tries to follow Ogilby’s strip map route from York to Lancaster. He tries his hand at 17th Century dimensuration (road surveying) and discovers along the way that old roads may fade away but, if you know what you’re looking for, they never disappear.
1x3: Harry Beck’s London Underground Map (1933)
It’s an icon of London, a design classic printed on everything from tee shirts to baseball caps, but the Underground Map started with one man working in his bedroom. Harry Beck was an electrical engineer and in 1931 he had a fit of genius when he realised that his circuit diagrams were a perfect model for a new map of the underground network. Nick Crane travels the tube to discover how he did it. Why did he exclude everything at street level? What dictated his choice of colour for each line? Is it the world’s favourite subway guide? Modern explorer, Nick Crane, deciphers Harry Beck’s revolutionary Underground Map of London, and explains why it changed the face of underground mapping, and travel, forever. Modern day designers of the map create a personal ‘Crane’ line for Nick and are even able to make the Thames disappear at the flick of a switch.
1x4: The Gough Map of 1360
The most original and accurate map of Britain. Created in the time of Geoffrey Chaucer, the Gough Map is both a real mystery and a landmark in map-making. It was still in use two hundred years after it was drawn. Who was the mapmaker and why was it made? Nick explores the mysterious red lines along the coast and questions why there is a massive green wilderness dominating the centre of the country. Can modern explorer Nick Crane decipher the mysterious symbols of the medieval Gough map and use them to lead him safely through some of the wildest Welsh landscapes of today?
1x5: William Collins’ Coasting Pilot (1693)
The first systematic survey of British coasts. Before the late 1700s no sailor could fix his exact position on open sea. Instead ships sailed close to land, which gave them landmarks to recognise, but, in turn unfortunately increased their risk of shipwreck. Collins’ charts of the British coastline, published in 1693, saved hundreds of ships and lives. Nick Crane takes a journey on a square-rigger of the period to try and re-discover what Collins did. Is it possible today to use Collins’ chart to sail into a Cornish harbour? And can Nick navigate his way across treacherous open sea to Eddystone Rock, using only 17th century equipment and techniques?
1x6: William Smith’s Geological Map of England & Wales (1815)
No one thought rocks were very important until they studied Smith’s revolutionary, multi-coloured geological map of Britain. Years before Darwin, Smith overturned all the existing ideas about mineral prospecting, fossils and the origins of the earth. He demonstrated that the world was far older than people had thought. Nick Crane takes us on a fascinating investigation into how Smith arrived at his ideas, how he discovered that coal is always found in the company of particular fossils and that layers of different rock confirm that creation was not one event but a multi-million year process. On this arduous journey Nick explores why this map is much more than simply a cartographic masterpiece.
1x7: Christopher Saxton’s Atlas of England & Wales (1577)
In just five summers, Saxton produced the first national atlas, providing Elizabethans with thirty-four beautifully engraved, hand-coloured county maps. But maps are created for all sorts of reasons and as Nick motorbikes across Norfolk (Saxton’s first map), he discovers that Saxton’s survey was as much about identifying possible political troublespots as rivers and windmills. Nick comes up with fascinating evidence that Norfolk was the heartland of Catholic conspiracy-making in the late 1500s. He also tries to solve the puzzle of Saxton’s amazing omission from his Norfolk map: the Norfolk Broads.
1x8: Martin Hotine’s Ordnance Survey (1935-1950)
The Ordnance Survey maps of the British Isles are famous for their extraordinary accuracy and detail. They’re a world leader. Today, they’re updated on a computer database daily, but the original surveys took over twenty years. Nick Crane journeys across the most dramatic and challenging terrain in Scotland, and explores the methods of the original surveyors back in the 1930s. He discovers how hard they worked, struggling up mountains with heavy surveying equipment. Nick attempts his own triangulation survey at night, just as they did years ago. Can he measure the angles between neighbouring peaks and reproduce the staggering accuracy required by the Ordnance Survey? He even enlists a modern RAF fighter jet to prove that the OS leads the world when it comes to modern cartography.
season 2
2x1 Bartholomew's Cycling Map of England and Wales (1897).
When cycling took off in Britain in the 1880s, the Victorians jumped on their bikes and headed for the countryside. John Bartholomew's pioneering cycling routes gave them the freedom to explore the land to the full. Using the innovative maps, Nick sets out on his mountain bike through the playground of the Victorian age, the Lake District.
2x2 Timothy Pont's Map of Scotland (1580's/90's).
Wolves roamed the highlands when Timothy Pont graduated in 1583, but he set off to survey Scotland nevertheless, and over 18 years he made 77 maps, with exceptional detail and information. His maps include 350 mountains, some of which have yet to be identified. Nicholas Crane follows in his footsteps.
2x3 Mackenzie's Chart of the Orkney Islands (1748).
To produce an accurate map of the treacherous waters around Orkney, schoolmaster Murdoch Mackenzie soon realised an exact chart of the land was needed. He duly created this using revolutionary methods, such as triangulation, and the best of instruments. Can Nicholas Crane effectively use the Orcadian's map to navigate through the wrecks of Scapa Flow?
2x4 John Speed's "Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine" (1611-12).
Can Nicholas Crane negotiate Northumberland using a map that has no roads marked on it?
John Speed's 17th-Century county map highlighted borders and hundreds for the first time, and was full of history and description - including Roman antiquities and the coats of arms of local earls - plus an exactly measured town plan. Can Crane find his way around Berwick using the innovative plan?
2x5 John Cary's "Inland Navigation" (1796).
By the end of the 18th century, canals traversed every part of Britain - and all of them had to be mapped.
John Cary's surveys were thorough and geographically precise, but the network they charted has now largely disappeared.
So when Nicholas Crane goes looking for Cary's routes in the Black Country, he faces some major detective work - not to mention serious walking.
2x6 William Mudge's Ordnance Survey lst Edition (1809).
The end of the 18th century was a bad time for Britain - the American colonies had just been lost and the French fleet was on standby to attack Britain. This threat of invasion resulted in the army employing 29-year-old Lieutenant William Mudge to map the country in an attempt to see where the French were likely to target. Nicholas Crane tries to reproduce the triangulation methods of Mudge's original survey, but will he come a cropper across the dangerous wilderness of Dartmoor?
2x7 Mrs P's A-Z (1936).
After getting lost in London, courtesy of a map that hadn't been updated since 1918, the bohemian writer Phyllis Pearsall decided to chart the city herself. The result was the first London A-Z, completed in 1936. Using Mrs P's original street-by-street maps, Nicholas Crane explores the Big Smoke.
2x8 Thomas Raven's Clandeboye Estate Maps (1625).
In the 1600's, Ireland attracted colonists seeking land and prosperity. Two wrangled for decades over a border between their lands. Can Nicholas Crane find the disputed border - and locate a lost village.
