West Bilney Maps

Those people who attended the Open Weekend at St Cecilia Church, West Bilney, in the summer of 2013, may remember seeing two large scale maps of Bilney on display.

The maps were on loan from Nick Velzeboer to whom we are grateful; the maps have now been photographed to a high degree of resolution. The photographic work involved a great deal of effort and attention to detail by Paul Damen;  matching up and seamlessly stitching together a large number of separate images took a good deal of time. We are very grateful to Paul for what he has done.

It can be seen that the older of the maps has suffered from water damage at some time in the last 260 years. It is hoped that instead of handling the actual maps, using the photographs will ensure that the originals are better preserved.

The original maps are of the order of 3 metres long and the computer file size is between 1.5 and 1.8 Gb.

High resolution copies of the maps are available, on DVD, to purchase, cost to be determined at time of order.

We can also arrange for A2 copies (A2 = 594 x 420mm = 23.4in x 16.5in) to be made for you for the cost of the materials used. Exact cost will be determined at the time.

On display here are medium resolution copies of 4 to 7Mb.

To view a map in detail, click on the link adjacent to the image. - NOT the image itself. This will show the map in another window. Click on the image. It may take a moment or two to resolve the image. There you will see a magnifier - you may then select a further degree of magnification using the slider, or the mouse scroll wheel,  zooming into the picture. You may then scroll around the photograph to inspect it. Note that as before it may take a moment or two to resolve completely when scrolling around the image.

The map of the West Bilney Estate is from an 1859 survey. The inscription on this map reads:

This plan of the West Bilney estate was constructed by William Browne,  Surveyor Norwich from an actual survey made by him in the Year 1859 

See enlargement here

A map of The Manor Of Bilney is from a 1750 survey. The inscription on the map reads:

A map of the Manor of Bilney in the county of Norfolk belonging to Fra. Dalton  Gent

Survey'd in the year 1750.