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Modern explorer Nicholas Crane travels across eight maps that changed the face of Britain.

Modern explorer Nicholas Crane travels across eight maps that changed the face of Britain in a series of geographical challenges through some of today's wildest landscapes.

Map Man: Series 2

Nicholas Crane

Richard Klein

Map Man: Series 2: Episode 6: William Mudge's Ordnance Survey

Episode 6

Episode 6: William Mudge's Ordnance Survey

Series 2

William Mudge's Ordnance Survey

BBC Two - Map Man, Series 2, William Mudge's Ordnance Survey

Nicholas Crane reproduces the triangulation methods of Mudge's original map.

Nicholas Crane travels across eight British historical maps. He reproduces the triangulation methods of Mudge's original Ordnance Survey map.

The first edition of the Ordnance Survey was the product of the most complete mapping study of Britain since the Tudors. For the first time, there were maps linking county to county, based on a scale of one inch to the mile. The end of the 18th century was a bad time for Britain. The American colonies had just been lost. Napoleon's forces were sweeping across Europe and the French fleet was on standby to attack Britain. Under threat of invasion, the army said the country had to be mapped to see where the French were likely to invade. In 1791, a 29-year-old lieutenant, William Mudge, was put in charge of this epic mapping survey. After the initial surveying of Kent and Essex to protect the capital, the survey quickly moved to Devon, where the British fleet at Plymouth was at risk. Can Nick reproduce the triangulation methods of Mudge's original survey, particularly across the dangerous wilderness of Dartmoor?

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Episode 6: William Mudge's Ordnance Survey

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