Arransian Cartography

Arransia can today make a strong claim to be the most intensively mapped country in the world, and has evolved a highly distinctive national style of cartography.

In the 1650s, Admiral John Brodie, conscious that several valuable naval ships had been wrecked on uncharted shoals around the coast of Arransia, set up the Royal Hydrographical Survey Board with the aim of making accurate charts of the entire coastline. This was given new emphasis by Admiral Nathaniel Hume in the mid-18th century, who also, where he could get permission, encouraged surveying the coasts of Brunswick and Mayenne. In the wars of the the 1790-1815 period, the Arransian navy had better coastal charts than anyone else, and on more than one occasion Arransian warships were able to gain the advantage over adversaries through better knowledge of the location of rocks and shoals.

However, various invasion scares highlighted the comparatively poor state of inland mapping, which until then had entirely been done by private individuals. It is noticeable that contemporary maps of Arransia tend to depict the country as being strung out along the north-eastern coast of Brunswick, and downplay what is now recognised as its distinctive inverted L-shape. In 1801 the government created the Royal Topographical Survey Board as a counterpart to the RHS, and the first of its distinctive one inch to the mile scale maps, of the border area south of Ince, was published in 1804. By 1815 the entire country had been covered. The RTS set up trigonometric points on many of Arransia’s hills, and these remain a distinctive feature of the country’s landscape, often now with plates showing significant sights visible from that viewpoint. The original one-inch maps, with their italic placenames and contour shading, are now valuable collectors’ items, and reproductions adorn the walls of many Arransian pubs and hotels.

The RTS maps continued to develop throughout the 19th century, most notably recording the spreading urbanisation, as Arransia’s population more than doubled from 5 million to 11 million during the century, and the growth of the railway network. In the 1880s they adopted a new style including contour lines, which was still in black and white but presaged the colour mapping of the 20th century. Regional maps at a scale of four miles to the inch were also introduced.

Motorised road transport began to take off in Arransia in the 1920s, leading to the creation of the Arransian Motorists’ Association. The current road numbering system was introduced in 1924. However, the RTS missed a trick by first allowing the AMA to produce regional motoring maps under licence and then, in 1926, sanctioning the production of the first AMA Motoring Atlas of Arransia, at a scale of three miles to the inch. This relationship has continued to the present day, and it must be said both parties benefit from it, but it is clear that with more commercial leadership the RTS could have obtained a dominant position in the production of road maps.

The AMA 3-inch Motoring Atlas, with its comprehensive index and extensive town plan section, has continued to be an Arransian staple to the present day. Contour shading was introduced in the late 1930s, but apart from that the general appearance of the maps was little changed until the 1990s, by which time it was widely perceived as being very old-fashioned. However, a thorough computer-generated revamp in 1993 was criticised as being modernistic for the sake of it and losing some useful detail. In 1997, while retaining the computerised database, the AMA reverted to a more traditional appearance, including the return of serif fonts, and this design has gone from strength to strength. Significantly, it includes detailed layouts for all grade-separated junctions. A further distinctive feature is that the 3-inch maps show tidelines and depth contours in the sea at intervals of 10 fathoms.

Before the Great War, each country mapped its own territory and ignored the other. However, in the 1950s it became general for road atlases of Brunswick to include a few pages covering Arransia. Arransians often mocked the errors and lack of understanding of Arransian roads shown on these maps, but nevertheless they were a significant factor in encouraging Brunswickians to visit Arransia. Arransians heading the other way started to complain that Brunswickian maps, with distances in kilometres, were confusing, and in 1962 the AMA struck a landmark deal with the Brunswickian national mapping agency that allowed them to produce the AMA Motoring Atlas of Arransia and Brunswick, with Arransia at third-inch scale and Brunswick at sixth-inch scale, with more detailed maps of the major conurbations.

This is another publication that has proved very popular and has now become the Motoring Atlas of Sabrantia, including Denhulme, and showing Serenity Island at third-inch scale. In the 1990s the AMA did a further deal with Brunswick which allowed them to produce a third-inch atlas of the whole of Sabrantia, in the distinctive style of their mapping of the home country. This is a substantial tome, running to over 300 large-format pages of maps, but nevertheless has proved surprisingly popular, and obviously is a must-have for the Sabrantian road enthusiast. Brunswickians often express surprise in seeing their home country mapped in detail to look like Arransia. The AMA have made very sure that every single detail of grade-separated junctions is shown correctly. In general, Brunswickian maps have failed to sell in Arransia, despite their often clearer style, because they show distances in kilometres. No Brunswickian mapmaker has grasped the nettle and produced an atlas with distances in miles.

The RTS were not idle, of course, and continued to develop their one-inch maps to meet the growing demand of people who wanted to explore Arransia in detail. Colouring was introduced in the 1920s, and by the early 30s had settled into the now familiar pattern of A-roads in red, B-roads in brown and unclassified motorable roads in yellow. For a brief period in the 1950s, contour colouring was introduced, but negative feedback led to it being withdrawn. The contour coloured maps are now collectors’ items. One distinctive element that was copied on the AMA maps was showing Expressways in alternate red and blue colouring.

Progressively, various new features have been introduced providing more information for tourists, but the format has never been totally changed. The result is that the maps now have an almost retro appearance, with their dignified upright serif typefaces, but provide an unrivalled level of detail. Travellers are very appreciative of their meticulous recording of both public houses and public conveniences in rural areas. They also distinguish between multiple and single track railways, and identify electrified lines. Brunswickians often joke about how these maps identify churches by whether they have a tower, a spire, or neither. The one-inch maps each cover an area of 720 square miles – 30 miles across and 24 miles high – and cover the country in 48 sheets. They have a horizontal folding pattern in contrast to the corresponding Brunswickian 1:50 000 maps which have a vertical fold. They are readily identified by their bright green covers and are found at all bookshops and expressway service areas. Serenity Island is also covered in two sheets, which is regarded as the definitive local mapping. In the 1990s the RTS introduced a large-format, spiral-bound one-inch atlas of Arransia which has proved amazingly popular.

The RTS also produce even more detailed maps at two-inch and six-inch scales, the former being particularly popular with ramblers. Some of Arransia’s older urban areas are so dense and complex that a two-inch map is needed to resolve the detail. The availability of online mapping and aerial photography sites has not led to any noticeable decline in the sale of paper maps.

In the 1930s, the AMA produced a Gazetteer of Arransia, listing all major settlements and giving a brief description. In the 1950s, this was expanded into the AMA Touring Guide to Arransia, detailing all the country’s historic attractions, and incorporating many town plans and the third-inch atlas. This rapidly became very popular with both Arransians wishing to explore their own country, and Brunswickian visitors who found Arransia a rewarding tourist destination. The 1950s editions, with their pen and ink line drawings and limited number of half-tone plates, have become collectors’ items. The lack of cars on the early 1950s photographs is noticeable – nowadays, many picturesque historical sights are blighted by indiscriminate parking.

The modern Touring Guide, with its computer-generated appearance and extensive colour photography, is a less distinctive item, but nevertheless a recent edition will be found in most middle-class Arransian homes, and many Brunswickian ones too. It has sometimes been criticised for seeing the country through rose-tinted spectacles, but the editors respond that their aim is to point out items of interest rather than to make value judgments. If they say of Headlam “A busy town which is Arransia’s biggest port in terms of tonnage. It has an extensive system of docks and piers and is home to major oil refining and petrochemical industries” it is an entirely factual statement, and leaves the reader in little doubt as to what the town is like.

In the 1950s, the AMA established a network of “appointed” hotels in most Arransian towns. However, it was shown in the 1980s that a strong element of corruption had been involved in this, and the AMA has since withdrawn from producing hotel guides. Various commercial organisations both in Brunswick and Arransia produce guides to hotels and places to eat, of which perhaps the most impartial is that of the Sabrantian Independent Travellers’ Association. The Arransian Motorcycle Guild also produce a Sabrantia-wide guide to biker-friendly hotels, pubs and restaurants, which enjoys a wide sale beyond the motorcycling fraternity. Arransia has the Arransian Beer Union, which has over 50,000 members and promotes the country’s distinctive brewing tradition, but does not produce general pub guides in the way that CAMRA does in the UK.

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