Thursday 3 March 2022

Mappa Mundi Revisited

On a recent visit to Herefordshire I just couldn't resist the opportunity to re-visit the most wonderful thing ever in Hereford Cathedral.

For cartophiles this holds one of the most wondrous maps ever, the Mappa Mundi.  It is the largest known T in O map dating back to the 12th Century: the rivers Don and Nile are the top of the T, and the Mediterranean is the stem, East is 'up' and the O holds the heavens.  This is the third time I've visited it and each time I am awestruck by its size and magnificence.

The chained library is also fascinating to visit and holds books dating back to 800 AD and is the oldest known surviving chained library in the world.  Hereford Cathedral rocks.  

I also did a few walks and managed to find a few perfect distractions, this one on top of Coles Tump (Tump being a local name for a small hill) TP5235.  

Whilst traversing part of the Black and White villages of Herefordshire I managed to espy a drive-by-trig between the villages of Weobly and Eardisland.  It was a short hop over a fence into a muddy field, and a hello to TP5307.  Nothing like a trig or two to make a perfect trip!

Sunday 10 October 2021

Luxembourg and German Survey Markers

On my recent travels I've done my usual and, nose down to pavement, have picked up a few little beauties as I've walked around.

The first seven are from random pavements in Luxembourg.

And a height marker in Luxembourg City.











Just across the border in Trier, Germany, there is more of the same. 

And then when I was down by the Mousel, on the Luxembourg side, I found not only a marker but a whole trig pillar!
 



Sunday 11 April 2021

Uzbek Benchmarks

I visited Uzbekistan in 2019 and espied numerous height markers on some fantastic buildings.  I wasn't really looking for them (honest) but they just jumped out at me at every mosque/madrassah.  I saw markers in walls at Khiva, Bukhara and Samarkand.  The survey marks had Russian text as expected, as the USSR had significant influence in Uzbekistan from the 19th Century until its independence in 1991.

A Russian translator has told me that the script on the markers is a truncated form of the word for ‘level’ followed by the abbreviation GUGK, which in Soviet days stood for the Main Administration for Geodesy and Cartography, which came under the USSR Council of Ministers (ie. Government), and which has now become the Russian Federal Agency for Geodesy and Cartography.  The rest of the numbers are no doubt unique to each bench mark.  

Saturday 2 March 2019

Route 38

In a moment of madness I decided that driving the A38 was a challenge I needed to undertake.  It's a local road to me, living in Devon, but I realised it headed far north, nearly to where my daughter is at university.  Driving it became irresistible.

So after visiting her in Sheffield the other Sunday, my friend and I drove to Mansfield to start the big drive south.  This is the first sign we saw.
It doesn't get much more exciting than that. 

I have since found out that I chose to drive the longest double figure A road in the UK.  It is a glorious 470 km plod from Nottinghamshire through the Midlands, the Severn reaches and down to Bodmin in Cornwall.

Sunday afternoon/evening must be one of the best times to drive this.  It trundles through all the big cities on the way south.  Birmingham was quiet, which was a relief, and familiar territory as my other daughter had lived there for 4 years, some of it on Bristol Road (the old A38 as it turns out).
Bristol was a fiddle and I think we lost it at one stage.  Once through this I was on home turf: Bridgwater, Taunton and Wellington.  And then it completely disappeared at Tiverton!  So it was a run down the M5 to Exeter.

Last weekend I finished if off driving from Exeter down to Bodmin.  I always love driving over the Tamar bridge.
And there's even a route 38 cafe to mark this iconic road.
I think next time I drive back from Sheffield, though, I'll stick to the motorways.

Wednesday 21 November 2018

Astronomical Clocks of Southwest England

On a roof tour of Exeter Cathedral over the summer I did my usual and swung by the magnificent astronomical clock on my way out.
20180811 Exeter astro clock
Then, in a random conversation with someone, I discovered that Ottery St Mary had one, so off I trogged.
20180923 Ottery astro
I then discovered that there were four of these 14th-16th Century beauties in the south west and, as I'd already found two, it seemed churlish not to bag the other two.  So a month ago I visited Wells Cathedral.This clock dates between 1386 and 1392.
20181013 Wells Cathedral 14.36.07
And then last weekend I finished the set with Wimborne Minster.
20181117 Wimborne Minster 14.23.19
What wonderful creations of art and science these are!  Added to that I had the joy experiencing such amazing architecture of these cathedrals/minsters/churches, such as this unique archway in Wells.
20181013 Wells Cathedral 14.32.20
And this stunning ceiling in Wimborne Minster.
20181117 Wimborne Minster 14.28.07
I listened to a lecture recently about building these cathedrals and I'm in awe at what people achieved without a fraction of the equipment and technology we now have. The reason we still have these ancient buildings is that they are continually maintained.  Being places of worship, they have been cared for over the centuries, unlike castles which sit in ruin.

By the way, if you ever want to see an up-side-down sundial, Wimborne is your place.
20181117 Wimborne Minster 14.45.26
And, oh dear me, I've just found a list of 18 wonderful astronomical clocks.  Exeter and Wells are there - but there are maybe 16 others I now need to find?!



Tuesday 20 March 2018

Career Lessons Learned: The Tripod of Experience, Qualifications and Networks

I have had a great surveying career and now, as I stand at another crossroads wondering in which direction my career will take me, I have been reflecting.  I have picked up lots of advice during my career but two things have stuck.

A.  Be careful with the impression you leave with others

Be kind and respectful to colleagues, clients and competitors.  One day they may be your competitors, colleagues and clients (note order switch) and we all remember how people have treated us over the years.  Dissing others will come back to bite us.  We have all bad days so be gracious to others when they do.  And hopefully they will to you too.  For sure there are those we hope to never work with again but, by and large, they are thankfully few and far between.

B.  Build a broad and stable career base

By this headline I mean more than just experience.  A colleague once said to me that one's CV is the most important item in your briefcase: you can lose your job and arguably your money, but with a solid CV and reputation you can pick yourself up, brush yourself down, and rebuild yourself.  Wise words indeed.

Your portfolio of experience is just one leg of the tripod to support your career.  Added to this one needs the pillars of professional qualifications and a network you can reach out to.  I worked for 25 years in a large, wonderful and successful organisation.  During that time I gained qualifications and networked extensively.  I was often asked why I bothered with external qualifications since I had a job for life.  Yes, indeed I did if I chose it, but I knew that if we ever parted company I needed a richer career platform.

So now I'm on the road again looking for a change of employment grateful that I have my trusty tripod to support me: my CV containing a wealth of experience, professional qualifications and a network of contacts who may be my future colleagues, competitors or clients.  Let's go and turn another corner.  This amazing career isn't over yet.

Tuesday 10 October 2017

The Progressive History of the UK Census

As part of my MSc I'm studying social applications of GIS and I read up on the history of the UK census recently.  The Office of National Statistics has a collation of census data taken over the years from its inception in 1801.  It took Britain a while to get into the swing of counting people, some fearing that Biblical plagues would rain on our heads cf King David, or that if our enemies knew how many (or rather few) residents we had they'd invade.  Fortunately, common sense prevailed and the need to know more about the population that they were administrating lead the government to start regular censuses.

Since then censuses (am I the only one that wants to call them 'censii'?)  have occurred every 10 years excepting 1941 when Britain was busy.

The first censuses were quite elementary, compared to the booklet one now has to complete, and undertaken by parish officials or similar due to the lack of literacy from many of the population.  It's interesting to note that in 1821 around half of the population was under the age of 20.  Little by little the census grew: residents became responsible for filling it out themselves although, by 'resident', one meant 'men' or, as the census called them 'Head of the Family'.

One of the key columns in the census during the 19th Century was the requirement to list people's infirmaties.  Initially the option was just 'deaf and/or blind' but over the decades 'imbecle/idiot' or 'lunatic' was added.  Although, as the Registrar noted in 1881

“It is against human nature to expect a mother to admit her young child to be an idiot, however much she may fear this to be true. To acknowledge the fact is to abandon all hope.”

Also in 1881 a woman creatively "gave her title as Maid of Allwork, her occupation as slave and a handicap as scarcity of money."

In 1911 census highlights included the suffragette Emily Wilding Davison hiding in a broom cupboard in the House of Commons, and the census confirmed her residence as such.

One man "...described an occupant of his house as ‘Peter Tabby’ and lists his occupation as ‘mouser’. His nationality is ‘Persian’. The enumerator has crossed out the entry with red ink and noted sternly: ‘This is a cat.’"

Throughout the first half of the 20th Century the census still asked for the Head and details of his wife ("how many times had she been married?" - no idea why that question wasn't relevant for men). No, it doesn't irk me...

In 1971 it appears to be a little more neutral with the questions being pretty generic for both sexes (although still the 'Head' and 'wife').  And, at last!, in 1981, there is no 'Head' just person 1 and person 2 etc.  1991 would have been the first census I completed and, if I'd got there before my husband, I've no doubt I'd have been person 1.  By this stage the census form had grown to 12 pages.

The length dropped to 8 pages for 2001 but was a bumper 24 in 2011.  I wonder what will be in the 2021 one?