MAPPING THE WINDMILL

The Ordnance Survey in England, Bill Bignell, 2013. 307 pages, hardback.

A unique study of how the OS has mapped a particular feature. 

The book covers the whole two hundred years and more of windmills on published OS maps, in dazzling detail. The illustrations dazzle too: there are 16 pages of plates, of both maps and mills, and many more illustrations in the text. Some of these illustrations do things with OS maps that have never been done before.
Even those for whom hitherto windmills have been just another type of building will find here an absorbing study of quirkiness, inconsistency and shades of meaning that few can have expected. Though it is widely accepted nowadays that maps are not just maps, Mapping the Windmill breaks new ground in treating a facet of map depiction in minute detail. It is worth the attention of anyone who is interested in maps.Book