This page describes a basic map of Kent intended to be accessible to users who want the minimum information which shows the location of towns within the county, and names of neighbouring counties. It is intended that the map is usable with no prior knowledge - there are no abbreviations. If viewed on screen using the free Adobe Acrobat 5 viewer there are bookmarks which help in going to the area of a map for a named town, or county. The map is based on a 1946 Ordnance Survey road map.
View map in Adobe Acrobat. (Large file, 370 kb, blank until fully loaded.)
Download the free Acrobat Reader
This is an outline map. It has county boundaries, and major towns. Numbers at the left and bottom are those of National Grid 10 km squares. The lettered National Grid 100 km squares are TQ for the left hand part of the map and TR for the right hand part. Neighbouring counties are shown, also the Thames Estuary and English Channel.
In using grid references, not that "TR15" and "TR1050" and "TR100500" are all the same place, as two-figure (10km), four-figure (1km) and six-figure (100 metre) references.
Town names and county names are given in full on this map. North is at the top of the map.
Click the top tab at the left of the screen to see the set of bookmarks. "County" displays the whole map to fit the window on screen. There are two other groups:
Note that clicking the + or - sign alongside these expands or contracts the group. The highlight in the column can be moved up and down with arrow keys, and the + or - keys expand or contract the highlighted bookmark. Pressing return or clicking on a bookmark moves to the indicated view of the map.
The area in view will depend on other settings and choices you make, and the size of the window in use; for example, the width of the window showing the list of bookmarks can be changed, and there is an option (click on the word "bookmarks" at the top of the list) to hide the list when a bookmark is chosen.
Note that pressing Z, then Shift and Z changes the screen pointer between a plus sign (zoom in) and a minus sign (zoom out). Dragging the pointer diagonally between opposite corners of a rectangle enlarges or reduces that rectangle. The Adobe Reader also has other ways of changing magnification, available from the view menu and toolbars. Some of the actions depend on the way Adobe reader has been set up and used on your computer.
Click on any placename to have it spoken. At present, the first time a name is selected it may sound disjointed, as the speech may start before the whole of it has been downloaded. Clicking on the name again should give a clearer sound.
Click the second tab at the left to see a reduced image of the map. The area currently on view is marked by a bold rectangle. If you click at a point within a thumbnail, the view changes to that point without changing magnification. You can also drag a corner of the thumbnail to change magnification. Note that the "Thumbnail" menu at the top of the panel of thumbnail displays has options "small thumbnails" or "large thumbnails".
to be added
Page by David Hawgood, 17 April 2003
For list of clear maps by David Hawgood see www.hawgood.co.uk/b/clear.htm