The Society’s 2018 heritage project was to design and install a new map for the Amersham Old Town. Keeping up with the tradition of producing maps and promoting walks in and around the town, the new map slogan reads: “Walk the paths and enjoy the town’s hidden corners”.
Below is Edward Copisarow’s report about the project and people involved from our January 2019 Newsletter. To download a printable copy of the map (PDF 2.1 MB) click here or on the image below.
NEW MAP FOR OLD TOWN
Whilst many old market towns nowadays have a town map posted for visitors and residents better to appreciate the local architecture and history, Peter and Marian Borrows noticed that Amersham had no such thing.
Peter soon persuaded the Committee of the Amersham Society that this omission should be remedied, and he ably took charge of a project that came to full fruition on Heritage Day in September 2018.
It was quickly resolved that Amersham’s map would major not so much on personalities or events in the history of the town but on the buildings themselves and a working group of Peter and three helpers set about the task of realising this vision.
Yes, the Tyrwhitt-Drakes and the Lollards would be mentioned but the plan was to show in drawings some of the town’s best-loved and most interesting old buildings.
One copy of the Map was to be sited at the front of the Memorial Garden and the other in the carpark and together they would enable those exploring the town on foot to discover not only the High Street but also the hidden corners of the old town.
In the first week of September a special Preview evening was held at Amersham Museum to enable members to come and see a proof of the map up close before the real thing was to be unveiled the following weekend. Over 130 members of the Society and Friends of the Museum accepted the invitation and several dozen long-standing residents took the opportunity to join in a pre-prandial guided walk to see their home town through the eyes of Museum volunteer guides, Gary Gotch, Martin Pounce and Stuart Jaggard. It was a warm evening and Peter Borrows stood on a chair in the Museum Garden to address the assembled throng.
He outlined the story of the map and, emphasising the little known treasures of the town to be discovered, he asked, “Who, before today had ever heard of Pondwicks Meadow or visited it just across the Misbourne from the Museum garden?” He went on to thank Martin Pounce, Geraldine Marshall-Andrew and Edward Copisarow for all their help with deciding the content and writing the copy, Michael Oakenfull, the project’s professional illustrator and designer, and the funders of the initiative, the charitable bequest of Dulcie Denison, represented on the evening by her trustees Ann and Peter Cutcliffe, The Chiltern Society, represented by their General Secretary David Abbis and his wife and lastly, Amersham Town Council represented by Town Clerk Steve Catanach whose team were installing the maps and stands and Town Mayor Caroline Jones who was set to unveil the finished article, colour printed on aluminium at the Memorial Garden at noon the following Sunday.
Edward Copisarow
January 2019 Newsletter