The Map That Changed the World : The Tale of William Smith and the Birth of a Science

In 1815 an extraordinary hand-painted map was published in London.

It presented England and Wales in a beguiling and unfamiliar mixture of lines and patches and stippled shapes.

For nearly twenty years, William Smith journeyed across Britain investigating and naming the layers of rock beneath his feet.

The map he produced was the first of its kind and transformed the way in which the world was understood.