AT the October meeting held at Webheath Village Hall, members and visitors were treated to an intriguing insight into antique map collections by Rosie Blackburn, a map expert and dealer.

Rosie's preoccupation with old maps was instigated by her father, who is now one of the biggest map dealers in Norfolk.

His interest was kindled when an old map was given to him, which turned out to be a John Ogilby road map.

As a result he went on to collect antique maps of the county of Norfolk by all the different mapmakers.

Rosie is now following in his footsteps in Staffordshire, although her interest extends beyond the boundaries of this particular county.

She brought examples of her large collection, some of which were for sale, and slides showing the development of county map-making from that of Christopher Saxton in 1674 up until the 1800s.

Rosie's talk was peppered with amusing anecdotes.

One famous mistake is in Speed's map of Wiltshire where he had written, query with regard to a particular village.

The engraver copied everything faithfully and the map was published with a village called Query! Other mapmakers copied this mistake for another 150 years.

There was no standard spelling on maps at that time. Information was gained from locals, usually illiterate, and researchers just wrote down what they heard.

The next meeting of the society is on Thursday, November 8, at 7.45pm at Feckenham Village Hall when the speaker will be Capt D I Rhodes on the Lord Leycester Hospital in Warwick.