Old Map of Gloucestershire in 1575 by Christopher Saxton - Tewkesbury, Cirencester, Berkeley

This reproduction print is based on Christopher Saxton's 1575 map of Gloucestershire, part of the pioneering county atlas that made Saxton, often called the father of English cartography, a household name in Elizabethan England. It was among the first printed maps to survey the county in real detail, placing Gloucester and its cathedral at the centre, with Tewkesbury to the north and Cirencester to the southeast both clearly marked.

Saxton's survey captures a Gloucestershire that once extended further than its modern boundaries, before South Gloucestershire and Bristol were split away and its northern edge passed into Warwickshire. The map traces the Cotswold hills, recorded in their old spelling as the Cotes Wowlde, alongside the Forest of Dean to the west, the wool town of Stroud, and smaller settlements including Berkeley, on its ancient river crossing, and Chipping Campden in the northern Cotswolds. Cheltenham, then still a modest village rather than the spa town it would later become, also appears within the survey, offering a rare glimpse of the county nearly two and a half centuries before its Georgian expansion.

This map suits a study, hallway or sitting room particularly well, and its age and rarity make it a genuinely memorable gift. It's often chosen as a retirement gift for someone who has spent a lifetime in Gloucestershire, a birthday or Christmas present for a Cotswolds enthusiast, or an anniversary gift for a couple married near Tewkesbury or Berkeley. It also makes a considered housewarming gift for someone moving into the Cotswolds for the first time, standing on its own as a genuinely distinctive piece of wall art.