00:00The first Ordnance Survey map, which covered Kent, is being celebrated 225 years after it was published.
00:08The Royal Engineers Museum in Gillingham marks the anniversary with a special display,
00:13including modern technology used for navigation today.
00:16This is the original map of Kent that was produced in 1801.
00:21It was primarily designed for military use, but its sands of accuracy were so well done
00:26that it actually became the benchmark for maps across Britain.
00:30It was created more than 200 years ago and changed the way maps were made forever.
00:35But why was the map created in the first place? And why was Kent chosen as the starting point?
00:41The country was worried about Napoleonic invasion.
00:45And because of Kent's proximity to France, they started there,
00:50and then they basically worked along the south coast.
00:51So it was really that threat of Napoleonic invasion that led them to start in Kent
00:55and then work around the coast.
00:57It then took them almost another 100 years to build up the map for the rest of the country.
01:01Imagine that, you know, you're starting your work,
01:05that even during your working lifetime you won't actually ever see the project completed.
01:09That's like building a cathedral, yeah? That's what building a map of Britain's like.
01:12At the time, existing maps did not provide enough detail
01:16to help soldiers plan their movements or military attacks.
01:19Without modern technology, soldiers spent 10 years creating the map.
01:24In terms of the primitive tools that they had at their disposal,
01:27you know, some of them were dragging measuring chains along the ground.
01:31Some of them were having to measure lines on site.
01:35You know, incredible skills that we don't have anymore working with your hands.
01:38When you see that 1801 map and you see how beautiful it is and how detailed it is,
01:45you know, it's this magisterial, very romantic piece of cartography.
01:50Yes, it's a military map, but it looks stunning.
01:53You can't help but have an enormous amount of admiration for those guys.
01:57You know, they set the standard with that first OS map
02:01for what would then be replicated around all of Britain.
02:04After the Kent map was completed, it took until 1870 for the rest of England
02:09to be mapped to the same standard, meaning Kent was the county
02:13that set the coordinates for the future.
02:16Mazie Walker for KMTV, Gillingham.
