By the end of our last walk in the New Forest my much used and loved OS Lesiure map of the New Forest (OL22 mapfans) was a soggy mess and in a very fragile state, much like Felix and me!
As carefully as possible I opened it out on the suraface of the dining table, delicately unfolding it so it could dry as a single flat sheet. There were several tears where the worn creases in the folds had soaked through and rubbed themselves into a faint memory, and it had detatched itself from the orange rag that was once it’s cover.
A couple of days later (it was *very* wet) the map had dried nicely, though it was apparent that it wouldn’t stand up to any more days out.
And so…
From giant maps, little badges grow
…I decided to turn the New Forest stage of Walk2012 into a set of badges. Many badges:
Starting where we pick up the Castleman Trailway:
It goes through West Moors and Ringwood where we take…
…into the New Forest and onto Foxlease for a bit of a knees-up:
The next day we head north-west, hopefully pausing here:
The Royal Oak at Fritham
Then before you know it we are in No Man’s Land:
Then it’s out of the New Forest past Paulton’s Park and up The Test Way to Romsey. As I said, many badges!
The good news is that one of these unique and shiny pieces of badge joy can be yours. All I need is a good reason to send you one …so go on, tempt me 
Will perfectly complement the home-made pickles badge created by the awesome Knitsonik!
I can see you probably have an audience as large as mine for your blog. How do people dare not leave a comment by the hundreds or are they getting their way by other unlawful means? Anyway, I’ve been reading you via Felix Knitsonik blog (which I can’t sometimes make any sense of but then I don’t worry about making sense of things anymore!) and although I won’t be following the roads on your map anytime soon, I love maps and I’ll be glad to hear one of your wonderful badges on my knitting bag. Say hello to Felix for me!
Hi Maria,
Obviously some (do you know Wazz at needled / textisles ) have become blogworld gold medalists while the rest of us huff and puff a long way behind!
Thanks for your message! Encouraging people to leave comments is tricky isn’t it? We aren’t alone, I think it is the one area that all bloggers are paranoid about
I love and share your decision not to worry about Felix making sense – she just takes bigger steps than most of us so isn’t always easy to follow, but it’s well worth trying to catch up!
If you send me your address I will happily pop a badge in the post for your knitting bag
Cheers, Mark
Pickles eh? I’ll get a badge in the post to you Knit Nurse! Am v jealous of your mackerel pate – remonds me when I took Felix fishing in Tenby and we came back with a dozen mackerel – result! Is the photo in your blog the smokehouse?
Cheers, Mark
These are gorgeous and I especially like the idea that they have been from a map that has such a commendable provenance. I’ve been a big fan of ordnance survey maps* since I was first introduced to them at secondary school, doing that thing where you do a cross section and convert contours into a profile of the land.
* I don’t think I ever replied to your question about which map to use for Walk2012. OS, of course.
I am rather late to this post, but I have to confess to truly coveting the ‘Mouse’s Cupboard’ badge… I’m in the final, tortuous stages of my PhD on containers and enclosed spaces in early modern literary culture, and stumbling across this badge on a bad day made me smile!
Lucy,
Very best wishes with your PhD, Mouses cupboard sounds most appropriate. If you email me your address (and I can find the right badge) then I’ll pop it in the post.
Cheers, Mark
These are great, I am very attached to that particular map. We have been running the New Forest Horsedrawn Omnibus from Crow, just outside ringwood, through and around the new forest and castleman trailway, but my business partner is now terminally ill. If you had the one of crow where Barrack Lane joins Crow Lane (just below Smugglers Road) it would be something I would cherish, our home for the last 4 years.
Hi Mo, thanks for your comment, and I love the sound of the omnibus. I cannot find the bit of the map you mean – possibly because it has lots of round holes in it now! Is Crow part of the walk2012 route? It isn’t a name I recognise.
Mark