The Medieval Gough Map, Its Settlement Geography and the Inaccurate Representation of Wales

Abstract

ABSTRACTA detailed study was made of the distribution of settlements in England and Wales as shown on the medieval Gough map of Britain and of the accuracy of their placement. No evidence of clustering is found in the choice of settlements in England, which are more uniformly dispersed than expected even for a random distribution. This suggests that whoever constructed the map was aiming for a uniform distribution in order to make it easier to refer to localities not shown. Evidence is found that suggests that the map was constructed from a series of regional ‘surveys’, including maps, which were individually more accurate than the resultant map of England and Wales overall. The strange shape of Wales, and in particular the absence of any indication of Cardigan Bay, is attributed to an especially poor combination of three regional surveys, each of a similar accuracy to those of the regions of England. Lesser distortions of the outline of England can be partly attributed to similar errors in the assembly of the regional surveys. The possible methods of construction of the map are discussed in the light of these results. A number of misidentifications of settlements on the map came to light in the course of these investigations.