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This picture gives you a good idea of the size of the Mawdesley & Bispham Map.
It has been five years in preparation but Gerard Swarbrick has finally put down his pens and brushes on his latest map.
The Millennium Map of Mawdesley is the third such project and – just like those for Aughton and Swarbrick – is bound to delight and fascinate people with a connection to the area.
The product of 600 hours of intense concentration – and not a little inspiration – the map is now ready to go on sale as a limited edition print.
“In 1086 William the Norman ordered a complete record of the towns and villages of England, which we now call the Domesday Book. For 900 years we have had no such time capsule available, a bird’s eye view of the area in which we live at a given point in time,” he said.
Gerard’s maps capture the parishes exactly as they were in 2000. Mawdesley’s is bound to prove as popular as its predecessors, which have sold to local people and to those who have left the area and live abroad.
But they are not merely maps. They are works of art, full of fine drawings of local houses and landmarks, portraits of contemporary or historical personalities, topographical features and a little remembered history.
But the real feature of their fascination is the way Gerard has combined all this information to produce a work of art that will grace many a home for years to come. Reproductions of Saxton or Speed maps rarely show more detail than the names of towns and the odd road.
Gerard’s show houses, some drawn in detail or with the name of occupants, all the local road names and even illustrations of some of the birds, wildlife and flora to be found in the area.
Personal touches in handiwork.
There are some fine details contained in Gerard Swarbrick’s Millennium Map of Mawdesley. And some family history too.
He has a portrait of his relative Major Justin Cowley, who was commissioned in the Trenches and only died about 15 years ago, still tending his garden in Mawdesley.
Recalling many happy visits, he has painted the home of his grandfather Thomas Cowley, which the family always called Walmsley Fold but which is otherwise known as White Barn Door Farm.
His grandfather once kept 200 acres of willows in the village, and was Mawdesley’s largest grower. This association with basket-making is maintained in the map as Gerard has included a portrait of the village’s sole remaining basket-makers, Derek Noble.
Gerard, a Fellow of the British Cartographic Society and FRSA, began work on the Mawdesley map five years ago and finished by the end of November 2005.
To order your copy select Up from the left of your screen and select order form from the bottom of the first map page.