A Hand Coloured Replica map

It became obvious that with my family commitments and a very limited budget I was not going to be able to afford the 'real thing'. So I looked at the alternatives available.

I bought three or four reproductions on so called 'parchment' paper, which were on a brown greaseproof type paper, smelled of vinegar and were folded many times. Which meant that when framed, the creases were still very visible and looked a poor 'second best'. However they were very detailed and fuelled my interest (and my frustration) even more! I also bought colour printed copies, which, athough perhaps better,  the colouring was too precise and uniform. They too, looked 'cheap' when framed.

So in 1987 I started scouring the country for good examples of John Speed maps which had not already been coloured. (Virtually impossible now!). I then made high resolution scans (with the permission and hefty payment to the various owners to reproduce them) and succeeded in obtaining several scans in my first year. Encouraged by these early successes, I continued my quest with renewed enthusiasm, not realising then that to complete my task would take another two decades!!

The next step was to have them printed onto good quality cream vellum 120gsm paper. I have been adding more maps consistently ever since and now 20 odd years later I am able to offer most of John Speed maps and all of John Ogilby's road maps.

 I also now have some free copies of all of the information originally supplied with these maps in the 17th Century, which is a must for anyone with an interest in local history or genealogy. Please email for details of how to obtain these and their availability at enquiries@oldmaps.co.uk Alternatively you can contact me at my registered address or phone me on 0116 2620500 (If no reply, leave your name and phone number and I will ring you back as soon as I am in the office again).

I registered the domain name www.oldmaps.co.uk in December 1999 and started to sell the maps I was now reproducing, after, first enlisting the help of a fine artist to hand colour them for me. Although very experienced, the time taken to colour the average map is over three hours! Each one being unique. In 2002 I started to sell these maps on eBay, enabling the majority of people to enjoy what previously had only been available to the very wealthy few!

I have, over the years, also collected original 19th century coloured, woodblock engravings of British and Irish Stately Homes and Castles, the duplicates of which I am now selling on eBay and elsewhere.