OS Graffiti

I've not been at my best today so I've been on the sofa reading more of Mike Parker's Map Addict and in it he talks about how the cartographers occasionally like to leave their own tags on the map, just like graffiti artists.

The OS 1:50,000 Isle of Wight map contains some examples. Take a look at this map on our mapping site¹. There's two waypoint markers on the map. Just to the right of the western one in the cliff hatchings is the word "TREV" or "REV" and to the right of the eastern one is the word "BIRSE" or similar.

"OK" I can hear you saying "but it's a bit indistinct, are you sure that's really words?".

And I'd tend to agree with you, if that was all there was I'd be dubious too. But take a look at this one. You can then clearly see the name of the cartographer sloping down south east from the waypoint marker.

I'm sure there's more of these around ...

1. My apologies for not simply putting the relevant bits of these maps straight onto this page but given that I work with OS data and had to sign my life away before I was given the DVDs with all their mapping on I must be whiter than white when publishing maps.