0:00:02 > 0:00:04This is Norfolk - MY county.
0:00:04 > 0:00:08I live in London, but my roots are here in Norfolk soil.
0:00:08 > 0:00:11Most of us, in some way or other, identify with a county.
0:00:11 > 0:00:13But it wasn't always so.
0:00:16 > 0:00:18Before Elizabeth I,
0:00:18 > 0:00:22people didn't know much about the county they lived in.
0:00:22 > 0:00:24There's a good reason for that.
0:00:24 > 0:00:27Hardly anyone had seen a map which showed them what a county was,
0:00:27 > 0:00:31what it looked like or where its borders were.
0:00:38 > 0:00:41Then, in 1579,
0:00:41 > 0:00:45Christopher Saxton published his county by county atlas.
0:00:45 > 0:00:48It changed this country, it changed English map-making
0:00:48 > 0:00:52and it changed our sense of who we are and where we come from.
0:00:54 > 0:00:56But why was this atlas made?
0:00:56 > 0:00:59In those dangerous and rebellious times,
0:00:59 > 0:01:03could these great maps have been a powerful tool
0:01:03 > 0:01:07for Queen Elizabeth to control her unruly country?
0:01:07 > 0:01:08What I'd like to find out
0:01:08 > 0:01:12is what part Saxton and his maps played
0:01:12 > 0:01:14in policing Elizabethan England.
0:01:42 > 0:01:46Saxton's atlas looks like perfect propaganda
0:01:46 > 0:01:49for Elizabeth I's golden age.
0:01:49 > 0:01:54Never before had there been maps of all 52 counties of England and Wales.
0:01:54 > 0:01:59For the first time, the country appears organised and peaceful.
0:02:00 > 0:02:02The reality, however, was different.
0:02:02 > 0:02:06When Saxton began his survey in the early 1570s,
0:02:06 > 0:02:09Elizabeth, a Protestant queen,
0:02:09 > 0:02:13was living in fear of Catholic plots to take her throne.
0:02:13 > 0:02:16Saxton hoped his magnificent maps
0:02:16 > 0:02:20would help his queen to neutralise the Catholic threat.
0:02:20 > 0:02:25He started his ground-breaking survey with Norfolk.
0:02:25 > 0:02:30Saxton must have seen Norfolk as an incredible commercial opportunity.
0:02:30 > 0:02:35It was wealthy, but it was also a great worry to the governing classes.
0:02:35 > 0:02:39The government needed to locate the market towns,
0:02:39 > 0:02:42where troublemakers, rumour-mongers congregated.
0:02:42 > 0:02:45The government also needed to isolate the homes
0:02:45 > 0:02:48of another type of troublemaker - the dissident Catholic.
0:02:48 > 0:02:53But above all, the government needed to protect Norwich.
0:02:53 > 0:02:56Norwich wasn't just the county town of Norfolk,
0:02:56 > 0:02:58it was the second city in the kingdom.
0:02:58 > 0:03:00A map would help bring order
0:03:00 > 0:03:04to a very difficult and absolutely crucial county.
0:03:06 > 0:03:08On MY journey across Norfolk,
0:03:08 > 0:03:11I'm travelling
0:03:11 > 0:03:13from the border with Suffolk
0:03:13 > 0:03:15to the north coast.
0:03:15 > 0:03:18I want to know why this piece of Elizabethan England
0:03:18 > 0:03:23was so important to the country's wealth and defences,
0:03:23 > 0:03:26and why it was SO rebellious.
0:03:28 > 0:03:31We don't know much about Christopher Saxton.
0:03:31 > 0:03:34He was born in Yorkshire
0:03:34 > 0:03:38around 1542 or 1544. He wasn't sure himself.
0:03:38 > 0:03:43And, although he wasn't rich, he probably funded his map of Norfolk.
0:03:43 > 0:03:48First off, he needed to establish where the county border was.
0:03:48 > 0:03:50Simple enough, you'd think.
0:03:50 > 0:03:55But on the copy of Saxton's map that I have, the border is wrong.
0:03:55 > 0:03:57Places that are actually in Norfolk
0:03:57 > 0:03:59appear to be in Suffolk.
0:04:03 > 0:04:07Norfolk's boundaries are clearly defined by water,
0:04:07 > 0:04:10so there shouldn't have been any confusion.
0:04:10 > 0:04:13There's the sea to the north and east,
0:04:13 > 0:04:17and a network of rivers marks out the western and southern borders.
0:04:17 > 0:04:20It's almost an island.
0:04:20 > 0:04:24So why does this Saxton map ignore the natural geography?
0:04:25 > 0:04:29Well, something has gone seriously wrong around here.
0:04:29 > 0:04:32The colouring on this copy of Saxton's map
0:04:32 > 0:04:36shows the whole of this area to be Suffolk.
0:04:36 > 0:04:40And one of the maddest buildings to put in Suffolk is this one here.
0:04:40 > 0:04:43This is Kenninghall Palace, or the last remaining wing of it,
0:04:43 > 0:04:47and it belonged to the Duke of Norfolk.
0:04:47 > 0:04:51One of the Duke of Norfolk's houses in Suffolk?! Impossible, surely.
0:04:51 > 0:04:55But the 4th Duke of Norfolk was a Catholic who'd been beheaded
0:04:55 > 0:04:58just before Saxton began his survey.
0:04:58 > 0:05:02He'd been accused of being the brains behind the Rodolfi plot,
0:05:02 > 0:05:07an international Catholic conspiracy to overthrow the Protestant throne.
0:05:07 > 0:05:12So, was this error over the border not a mistake at all but deliberate?
0:05:14 > 0:05:16Once Saxton had finished his work,
0:05:16 > 0:05:20artists often coloured the maps by hand to make them more beautiful.
0:05:20 > 0:05:24But whether or not the colouring improved the map
0:05:24 > 0:05:28or made it more difficult to read depended on the skill of the artist.
0:05:28 > 0:05:32In this case, the artist has painted the border too far north.
0:05:32 > 0:05:36Perhaps he didn't know where the border lay
0:05:36 > 0:05:41or perhaps he was anti-Catholic and painted it as a snub to the duke.
0:05:41 > 0:05:46Either way, he's turned Saxton's survey into a border dispute.
0:05:48 > 0:05:50Whatever deception went on here,
0:05:50 > 0:05:53I've now crossed over county lines
0:05:53 > 0:05:56both on Saxton's map and for real,
0:05:56 > 0:06:01and I'm heading into the political heartland of 16th-century England.
0:06:03 > 0:06:08I've come to one of the grandest Catholic houses in Norfolk
0:06:08 > 0:06:13to find out what it meant to one of the disloyal Catholic families
0:06:13 > 0:06:15to be put on Saxton's map.
0:06:17 > 0:06:20This is Oxborough Hall.
0:06:21 > 0:06:27Oxborough was one of the most notorious Catholic strongholds in Norfolk. It's on Saxton's map
0:06:27 > 0:06:32and, ever since the 15th century, has been home to the Bedingfeld family.
0:06:32 > 0:06:37In Saxton's time, the owner of Oxborough was Sir Henry Bedingfeld.
0:06:37 > 0:06:39During the reign of Catholic Queen Mary,
0:06:39 > 0:06:42he had been Elizabeth's jailor.
0:06:42 > 0:06:44As an unrepentant Catholic,
0:06:44 > 0:06:48he may not have relished the idea of Saxton's map.
0:06:48 > 0:06:52But today, his descendant, also called Henry,
0:06:52 > 0:06:55looks on maps much more favourably.
0:06:56 > 0:07:00What about this magnificent map?! It's enormous.
0:07:00 > 0:07:04It's wonderful, isn't it? It's the Sheldon tapestry map of 1647,
0:07:04 > 0:07:08- showing the county of Oxfordshire. - It looks like a Saxton map
0:07:08 > 0:07:13writ large on your wall. It's got the same small trees,
0:07:13 > 0:07:17the same hills, the same towns and villages, the same county boundaries.
0:07:17 > 0:07:21- It's more than Oxford, because there are several counties around it.- Yes.
0:07:21 > 0:07:25What would your ancestor have made, Henry,
0:07:25 > 0:07:28of a Protestant surveyor from Yorkshire
0:07:28 > 0:07:33knocking on the door of the gatehouse asking to survey his lands?
0:07:33 > 0:07:36Indeed. I think he would have been rather suspicious.
0:07:36 > 0:07:39- Do you?- Well, he was a Catholic
0:07:39 > 0:07:43and we had Catholic priests which we used to hide
0:07:43 > 0:07:45in the priest hiding hole,
0:07:45 > 0:07:48and he wouldn't want that to be discovered.
0:07:48 > 0:07:53So being a Catholic and having your home mapped for the first time
0:07:53 > 0:07:57- was a bit of a two-edged sword? - Well, it would've pinpointed a hotbed of Catholicism,
0:07:57 > 0:08:00which he'd be trying to avoid!
0:08:02 > 0:08:06Saxton would have needed a bird's-eye view from which to plan out his map,
0:08:06 > 0:08:09so he must have made use of Oxborough's tower.
0:08:09 > 0:08:12It's the highest thing around.
0:08:15 > 0:08:17The question is -
0:08:17 > 0:08:21how did this brilliant 30-year-old carry out his survey?
0:08:21 > 0:08:24GROANING
0:08:24 > 0:08:27Saxton probably used one of these.
0:08:27 > 0:08:30It's an angle-measuring device or a cross-staff.
0:08:30 > 0:08:34It's simple, it's lightweight and it's reasonably accurate.
0:08:34 > 0:08:37Three qualities Saxton absolutely had to have
0:08:37 > 0:08:41if he was going to map 52 counties in double-quick time.
0:08:41 > 0:08:44All you have to do is to climb a high point -
0:08:44 > 0:08:48I'm on top of a church tower - and look across the landscape
0:08:48 > 0:08:52for any towns or villages you might want to mark on your map.
0:08:52 > 0:08:55There's one over there, with the windmill sticking up above it.
0:08:55 > 0:08:59And one over there with a church tower.
0:08:59 > 0:09:02To measure the angle between them all I have to do
0:09:02 > 0:09:05is slide the cross-piece to and fro
0:09:05 > 0:09:10until the left-hand side of the cross-piece here
0:09:10 > 0:09:14is level with the windmill in that village...
0:09:14 > 0:09:18and the right-hand side of my cross-piece here
0:09:18 > 0:09:22is level with the church tower of my village over there,
0:09:22 > 0:09:26tighten up the nut, look down the cross-staff
0:09:26 > 0:09:30and read off the angle between that windmill and that church tower.
0:09:30 > 0:09:34The cross-staff describes a very simple triangle
0:09:34 > 0:09:37in which I am placed here,
0:09:37 > 0:09:39the windmill is here
0:09:39 > 0:09:41and the church tower is here.
0:09:41 > 0:09:46And the angle between the windmill and the church tower is this one.
0:09:46 > 0:09:50Now all I have to do is transfer that triangle onto my sheet of paper.
0:09:50 > 0:09:53I do that like this.
0:09:53 > 0:09:57I draw my church tower here, where I'm perched,
0:09:57 > 0:10:01I draw a line from my church tower to the village with the windmill...
0:10:03 > 0:10:07..I measure 42 degrees from my church...
0:10:07 > 0:10:11That's the angle my cross-staff has just given me.
0:10:13 > 0:10:17I then walk or ride my horse, as Saxton would have done,
0:10:17 > 0:10:20from my church tower to the village with the windmill,
0:10:20 > 0:10:26I measure the angle between my first church tower and the village with the other church tower
0:10:26 > 0:10:29and where it intersects with the first line...
0:10:29 > 0:10:33I have my second village with its church tower. I think...
0:10:33 > 0:10:36that's how Saxton mapped Norfolk.
0:10:39 > 0:10:42For his mammoth project,
0:10:42 > 0:10:46Saxton would have obtained rough distances between places
0:10:46 > 0:10:48by consulting locals.
0:10:48 > 0:10:51He travelled from high point to high point,
0:10:51 > 0:10:55taking bearings with his cross-staff and making drafts of his maps,
0:10:55 > 0:10:59ready for the engraver to copy in exquisite detail.
0:11:05 > 0:11:10The atlas just glows with a sense of authority and ostentation.
0:11:10 > 0:11:14The panels in the corner are called cartouches.
0:11:14 > 0:11:18This cartouche carries the title of the map and the name of the engraver,
0:11:18 > 0:11:20Cornelius de Hooge.
0:11:20 > 0:11:23He was a brilliant engraver.
0:11:23 > 0:11:27This is no ordinary copperplate engraving. It's outstanding.
0:11:27 > 0:11:29The engraver has used
0:11:29 > 0:11:31italic handwriting.
0:11:31 > 0:11:35This was a state-of-the-art form for map labelling.
0:11:35 > 0:11:39You can get a large number of place names on a relatively small area,
0:11:39 > 0:11:42so you can get more detail on your map.
0:11:42 > 0:11:44There are no roads on this map.
0:11:44 > 0:11:46But there are rivers.
0:11:46 > 0:11:49Norfolk was a very important maritime county
0:11:49 > 0:11:52and the rivers are the networks for transport.
0:11:52 > 0:11:56We're got them running right round the county.
0:11:56 > 0:11:58From the centre here, at Norwich,
0:11:58 > 0:12:00they funnel down here to the sea,
0:12:00 > 0:12:05so you could bring ships inland from Great Yarmouth to Norwich.
0:12:05 > 0:12:09Norwich is at the focal point of this county map.
0:12:11 > 0:12:15This is a very systematic selection of geographical information.
0:12:15 > 0:12:17The settlements, for example.
0:12:17 > 0:12:20If you look at towns and villages,
0:12:20 > 0:12:24we've got a particular symbol of a church tower and perhaps a building
0:12:24 > 0:12:27to denote a town or a village.
0:12:27 > 0:12:29Then we have a bigger symbol,
0:12:29 > 0:12:33a taller tower with more roofs beside it,
0:12:33 > 0:12:36which is the main town in each hundred.
0:12:36 > 0:12:38The hundred was an administrative unit
0:12:38 > 0:12:41part way in size between a parish and a county.
0:12:41 > 0:12:46For the government, knowing where the hundreds were was very important.
0:12:46 > 0:12:50Some hundreds were known to be particularly rebellious, for example.
0:12:50 > 0:12:53Rather than clutter up the surface of Norfolk
0:12:53 > 0:12:56with the names of the hundreds,
0:12:56 > 0:13:00he's given each a little letter code and he's written them up here,
0:13:00 > 0:13:04in this cartouche, so that you don't clutter up the map.
0:13:04 > 0:13:09This is one of the things that makes this a work of pure genius.
0:13:09 > 0:13:12It's got a beautiful balance to it.
0:13:12 > 0:13:15You've got the cartouche in each corner,
0:13:15 > 0:13:17with the scale bar down here.
0:13:17 > 0:13:20This is a scale of one to 235,000.
0:13:20 > 0:13:24Interestingly, the same scale, pretty much, as a modern road atlas.
0:13:24 > 0:13:27The whole effect is very balanced, very beautiful
0:13:27 > 0:13:31and it's very systematic. It's a functioning decorative map.
0:13:40 > 0:13:45On to the next leg of my journey. I'm heading for Holton-sur-Mont,
0:13:45 > 0:13:48the only village Saxton depicts on a hill.
0:13:48 > 0:13:52There's a real mystery here. Norfolk is flat,
0:13:52 > 0:13:55so why did Saxton make his hill so big?
0:13:55 > 0:14:00And, according to my Ordnance Survey map, Holton-sur-Mont has disappeared.
0:14:00 > 0:14:03A whole village gone?!
0:14:07 > 0:14:10What a wonderful old track!
0:14:10 > 0:14:14I can just imagine Saxton plodding his weary, determined way
0:14:14 > 0:14:18along a road that looked just like this in the Tudor age.
0:14:18 > 0:14:23And it's on a discernible hill. We are about 65 metres above sea level.
0:14:23 > 0:14:26So Norfolk's not entirely flat after all.
0:14:26 > 0:14:28Well, here's the church.
0:14:28 > 0:14:30But where's the village?
0:14:31 > 0:14:36It was here in 1574, because Saxton marked it on his map.
0:14:39 > 0:14:41No sign of the village.
0:14:41 > 0:14:44It's as if it's been wiped off the face of the earth.
0:14:44 > 0:14:47I'm going to have to go up that tower.
0:14:47 > 0:14:52If you want to find out the history of an old, vanished parish,
0:14:52 > 0:14:56one of the best people to ask is the church warden.
0:14:57 > 0:15:00Bob Davey fell in love with this church 12 years ago.
0:15:00 > 0:15:05It had fallen into ruin, so he single-handedly he took on its restoration.
0:15:05 > 0:15:08Note the steps. All in brick.
0:15:08 > 0:15:10Very unusual.
0:15:10 > 0:15:13Normally the treads are in stone.
0:15:13 > 0:15:17'I'll ask Bob if he knows about this long-lost village.'
0:15:17 > 0:15:22I was looking down in that field before we came up the tower,
0:15:22 > 0:15:26and there are all sorts of dips and ridges. Is that the old village site?
0:15:26 > 0:15:28It's part of the old village site.
0:15:28 > 0:15:31There were five cottages to the left.
0:15:31 > 0:15:34There were eight in the next field, 12 on the common
0:15:34 > 0:15:38and 14 to the east of the church, quite a large village.
0:15:38 > 0:15:40How many houses altogether?
0:15:40 > 0:15:42I haven't added them all up!
0:15:42 > 0:15:46- Roughly.- 14...20...25... 33 houses.
0:15:46 > 0:15:50So, standing up here on top of the church tower in Saxton's day,
0:15:50 > 0:15:55we'd have seen the roofs of the village running right across this semicircular view.
0:15:55 > 0:15:58Yes, and circling all round the church.
0:15:58 > 0:16:01And what was it that made the village disappear?
0:16:01 > 0:16:04It's as if it's just been rubbed off the map.
0:16:04 > 0:16:07Why did the villagers leave?
0:16:07 > 0:16:11It disappeared when sheep became more profitable than arable.
0:16:11 > 0:16:16For arable, in those days, you needed a lot of people. For sheep, you need very few.
0:16:16 > 0:16:20So you pull the houses down and turn the gardens into sheep runs.
0:16:20 > 0:16:23Do you know when that would have happened?
0:16:23 > 0:16:26Mainly in the late 1600s, early 1700s.
0:16:26 > 0:16:28The houses were just knocked down?
0:16:28 > 0:16:33Yes. They'd probably only have been wattle and daub anyway, which would've been easy to smash.
0:16:33 > 0:16:39- The weather would have done the rest. - If it was anything like today. - Yes. It's freezing, isn't it?
0:16:52 > 0:16:57Saxton's magnificent map is a snapshot of the 16th century -
0:16:57 > 0:16:59how the land looked then.
0:16:59 > 0:17:03It celebrates the county, sees Norfolk at peace.
0:17:03 > 0:17:06But the truth behind the map was very different.
0:17:06 > 0:17:09Besides the fear
0:17:09 > 0:17:12that the native Catholics might rise up against Elizabeth,
0:17:12 > 0:17:16there was also the terrifying possibility
0:17:16 > 0:17:20that they'd conspire with Britain's Catholic enemies abroad,
0:17:20 > 0:17:24and in the 1570s, Britain faced a new and powerful threat from Spain.
0:17:26 > 0:17:30Norfolk offers a number of potential places to land an army.
0:17:30 > 0:17:34One is at Weybourne Hope. It's England's back door.
0:17:35 > 0:17:37So, did Saxton's map play any part
0:17:37 > 0:17:41in the military planning for the defence of the realm?
0:17:44 > 0:17:48There's been a military observation post at Weybourne Hope
0:17:48 > 0:17:50for over 400 years.
0:17:50 > 0:17:55Today, the site is occupied by a Royal Air Force radar station.
0:17:56 > 0:18:01These masts monitor air and sea activity across northern Europe.
0:18:01 > 0:18:04They watch for military invasion
0:18:04 > 0:18:08in much the same way that the Elizabethans watched and waited
0:18:08 > 0:18:11for an invading Spanish armada in the 1580s.
0:18:11 > 0:18:16But, in those days, they did their watching from THAT hill over there.
0:18:19 > 0:18:22This is Muckleburgh Hill,
0:18:22 > 0:18:24the highest point in these parts.
0:18:24 > 0:18:26In Saxton's day,
0:18:26 > 0:18:30this was one of a string of beacon sites along the Norfolk coast,
0:18:30 > 0:18:34an Elizabethan early-warning system and a very effective one, too.
0:18:34 > 0:18:37There were watches here around the clock
0:18:37 > 0:18:41and a sighting could spark a chain of fires from Norfolk to London.
0:18:45 > 0:18:48With danger from Spain increasing,
0:18:48 > 0:18:51the need for an accurate map of the coast was obvious.
0:18:51 > 0:18:56In theory, Saxton would provide exactly the information needed to plan an effective defence.
0:18:56 > 0:19:00But at this point, the map reveals another huge mystery.
0:19:02 > 0:19:07Today's coastal area doesn't look at all like Saxton's original.
0:19:07 > 0:19:09I'm going to try and find out why.
0:19:27 > 0:19:32Using Saxton's methods, taking bearings from high points like this,
0:19:32 > 0:19:34I'm going to conduct my own survey
0:19:34 > 0:19:39from Sea Palling to Winterton Ness, a distance of about 14 miles.
0:19:39 > 0:19:41Along the way, I'd like to solve
0:19:41 > 0:19:46a really puzzling problem posed by Saxton's map. Why did he leave off
0:19:46 > 0:19:51Norfolk's most prominent, and today most famous, geographical landmark,
0:19:51 > 0:19:53the Norfolk Broads?
0:19:54 > 0:19:58So, Saxton's coastal area, has several real oddities.
0:19:58 > 0:20:02The headland at Winterton, for instance, isn't even there today.
0:20:02 > 0:20:07I'm hoping my survey will sort out why the coastline changed.
0:20:08 > 0:20:13First stop, Sea Palling. This part of Norfolk is barely above sea level.
0:20:13 > 0:20:15In 1953, a terrible storm
0:20:15 > 0:20:20caused a huge surge of sea to crash through the sand dunes
0:20:20 > 0:20:25and flood the village of Sea Palling, tragically killing seven people.
0:20:25 > 0:20:29So they built this huge reef off-shore
0:20:29 > 0:20:32to hold back the wild tides.
0:20:37 > 0:20:39The first thing I'm going to do
0:20:39 > 0:20:44is measure the angle between the end of the reef and Happisburgh church
0:20:44 > 0:20:48then measure the angle between the end of the reef and Waxham church.
0:20:48 > 0:20:51Measuring the reefs gives me a thought -
0:20:51 > 0:20:55in the 1500s, this headland was called Winterton Ness.
0:20:55 > 0:20:58Ness means "nose" or "promontory"
0:20:58 > 0:21:02and the sailing charts of the day would have shown it as land
0:21:02 > 0:21:05projecting out into the sea to warn off ships.
0:21:05 > 0:21:09We know there were severe storms in this part shortly after Saxton,
0:21:09 > 0:21:11and the sea levels have risen.
0:21:11 > 0:21:15So perhaps his promontory simply dissolved into the ocean.
0:21:15 > 0:21:20That would explain why today's coastline doesn't match Saxton's map.
0:21:26 > 0:21:29I'm at the top of Winterton church tower
0:21:29 > 0:21:33and I've taken bearings to all the other church towers that I can see
0:21:33 > 0:21:37and I've transferred those bearings onto my sketch map.
0:21:37 > 0:21:40I've drawn in the lines and, at last,
0:21:40 > 0:21:44I can mark the smooth, curving coast of Norfolk
0:21:44 > 0:21:47as it makes its way past Waxham,
0:21:47 > 0:21:50down towards Winterton Ness here.
0:21:50 > 0:21:53So, there's my Norfolk coastline.
0:21:53 > 0:21:55But I do have a huge void
0:21:55 > 0:21:58right in the middle of my map.
0:21:58 > 0:22:00That's where I'm going to next.
0:22:07 > 0:22:11Today we know that void is the Norfolk Broads.
0:22:11 > 0:22:15That's the second intriguing mystery of Saxton's coastal area.
0:22:15 > 0:22:19Why did he miss out Norfolk's best-known landmark?
0:22:23 > 0:22:28They're not particularly dangerous, the Broads, but you can get lost,
0:22:28 > 0:22:33so I've arranged to meet up with a Broads expert, John Blackburn,
0:22:33 > 0:22:37who's lived on Hickling Broad for seven years.
0:22:37 > 0:22:39John, until recently, it was thought
0:22:39 > 0:22:43- that the Broads were a natural geographical feature.- Yes.
0:22:43 > 0:22:46- It's not true, is it?- No. It's been found
0:22:46 > 0:22:50that the vast majority is just medieval peat digging
0:22:50 > 0:22:52that has flooded over time.
0:22:52 > 0:22:58- What chance would you have given a Yorkshire surveyor of finding his way around the Norfolk Broads?- Not much,
0:22:58 > 0:23:02- without a friendly local guide! - One thing that strikes me
0:23:02 > 0:23:06is how difficult it is to draw the outline of a broad,
0:23:06 > 0:23:09because it's waterlogged at the edge.
0:23:09 > 0:23:13- So how could Saxton have mapped the Broads?- It's very difficult,
0:23:13 > 0:23:19because the woodland that you see around here is a recent phenomenon.
0:23:19 > 0:23:21Apart from the small mills,
0:23:21 > 0:23:25it's difficult to get an elevated view. I don't know how he did it.
0:23:25 > 0:23:30- That could explain why Hickling Broad isn't on his map.- It could well be!
0:23:34 > 0:23:39Well, we're approaching a landing stage now and I'm rather excited
0:23:39 > 0:23:43because, at last, I'll be able to rise above this water land
0:23:43 > 0:23:46and get a view over Hickling Broad,
0:23:46 > 0:23:49get some idea of its geography from above.
0:23:49 > 0:23:53Somewhere in those trees, there's an observation tower,
0:23:53 > 0:23:56a very exotic kind of tree house.
0:23:57 > 0:23:59Perhaps it's no coincidence
0:23:59 > 0:24:04that the queen's only visit to Norfolk took place in 1578,
0:24:04 > 0:24:06shortly after Saxton's survey.
0:24:09 > 0:24:13Elizabeth was entering the Catholic heartland, the lion's den,
0:24:13 > 0:24:16and Saxton's map would have ensured
0:24:16 > 0:24:20that she didn't get lost or stray into dangerous places.
0:24:22 > 0:24:26The queen was clearly delighted with Saxton's work.
0:24:26 > 0:24:29She granted him lands in London and York
0:24:29 > 0:24:33and the right to exclusive publication of his maps for 10 years.
0:24:33 > 0:24:35It made him a fortune.
0:24:35 > 0:24:38Even if Christopher Saxton had been
0:24:38 > 0:24:41the best tree-climber in the 16th century,
0:24:41 > 0:24:44he wouldn't have been able to get this high up,
0:24:44 > 0:24:48because I'm on an observation platform 60 foot up.
0:24:48 > 0:24:52It's an incredible panorama of broad land.
0:24:52 > 0:24:54I'm going to take three bearings
0:24:54 > 0:24:58to help me complete my survey. First, Hickling over here...
0:24:59 > 0:25:00OK.
0:25:00 > 0:25:05And I'm going to swing round and take the bearing to Sea Palling.
0:25:05 > 0:25:08They're 33 degrees apart.
0:25:08 > 0:25:11And the final bearing, towards West Somerton.
0:25:12 > 0:25:14Now, West Somerton is...
0:25:14 > 0:25:16100 degrees from Sea Palling.
0:25:16 > 0:25:21Well, that's all the information I need for MY survey.
0:25:21 > 0:25:24But I think that Saxton had an incredible problem
0:25:24 > 0:25:26when he came to this bit of Norfolk.
0:25:26 > 0:25:30It's a shifting, unstable network of reed beds and water.
0:25:30 > 0:25:34It's very mysterious and it's a map-maker's nightmare!
0:25:34 > 0:25:38He didn't put Hickling Broad on his map
0:25:38 > 0:25:40and I don't think he even came here.
0:25:42 > 0:25:47Saxton was defeated by the very thing he was trying to map -
0:25:47 > 0:25:53the geography. He simply ran out of high points to survey the land.
0:25:55 > 0:25:57Having done MY fieldwork,
0:25:57 > 0:26:01I just want to add in a few details of the landscape
0:26:01 > 0:26:05and then send it all off to my engraver in Norwich.
0:26:05 > 0:26:09He's been busy preparing a Saxton-style map
0:26:09 > 0:26:11of my bit of coastline.
0:26:28 > 0:26:32So, here we are. This is where Martin Mitchell's been engraving my map.
0:26:32 > 0:26:35Let's see what he's done with it.
0:26:47 > 0:26:50What a sense of expectation!
0:26:50 > 0:26:54This is the exciting bit. You still don't know exactly what's happened.
0:26:58 > 0:27:00Here we go!
0:27:06 > 0:27:08Incredible!
0:27:08 > 0:27:12You've turned my crude surveying sketch
0:27:12 > 0:27:14into a work of art and science.
0:27:16 > 0:27:18You can see the rivers, the coastline...
0:27:18 > 0:27:20the scale bar...
0:27:21 > 0:27:24..the Norfolk Broads right in the middle.
0:27:24 > 0:27:27It's absolutely beautiful.
0:27:28 > 0:27:32Thank you very much, Martin. It's absolutely wonderful.
0:27:35 > 0:27:37For me,
0:27:37 > 0:27:41this journey through 16th-century Norfolk has been a peaceful one.
0:27:41 > 0:27:45And that was the intention of Saxton's map hundreds of years ago -
0:27:45 > 0:27:48it helped keep the peace.
0:27:48 > 0:27:51The Spanish invasion never happened
0:27:51 > 0:27:55and Elizabeth held onto her throne, despite the Catholics.
0:27:56 > 0:27:59As for Christopher Saxton himself,
0:27:59 > 0:28:01he lived to a ripe old age,
0:28:01 > 0:28:05mapping his home county of Yorkshire well into his sixties.
0:28:05 > 0:28:07No gravestone, no monument,
0:28:07 > 0:28:11nothing to recall the man who first mapped the counties.
0:28:11 > 0:28:14Saxton mapped 52 counties in five years.
0:28:14 > 0:28:17His maps became symbols of county pride
0:28:17 > 0:28:21and his atlas, the first systematic survey of the kingdom,
0:28:21 > 0:28:27gave the governing classes a bird's-eye view of every town and village, coast and river.
0:28:27 > 0:28:31Christopher Saxton was and is the father of English map-making.
0:28:40 > 0:28:44Subtitles by Audrey Flynn BBC Broadcast 2004
0:28:44 > 0:28:47E-mail us at subtitling @bbc.co.uk