Old maps are a fun thing to pore over

I’ve had these tabs open for a while now, and I can’t remember how exactly I stumbled on to them, but check out, for example, the awesome map above, done in a “strip” style that reminds me of the old CAA “trip-tych” maps that you used to be able to get (they do GPS now). Rather than focusing on a specific sector of the world, this map follows a single road, from London north, noting all the crossroads and various things that a traveller would pass by. It’s apparently the UK’s oldest road map.

I found it at StrangeMaps.com, but I also got engrossed by the maps at PriddysHard.com, where (if you scroll down) you’ll find a number of cool old maps. There’s this one, for example, of Saxton in 1575. Out of curiosity, I went to the same location on Google Maps, and I found that there’s still a fair bit of overlap with regard to placenames. It was relieving to see that one of the main forests on the old map, called “New Forest”, is now a national park.