Cartographic Editor

Giles Darkes

Giles Darkes is a cartographer specialising in thematic mapping.

Formerly a senior lecturer in cartography at Oxford Brookes University, he has worked with the Historic Towns Trust supervising the mapping and publishing side of the Trust's work since 2009. He has worked on many other mapping projects including the Atlas of the World's Languages and An Historical Atlas of Oxfordshire.

Making Bristol Medieval

wth Professor Helen Fulton and Giles Darkes

The research project ‘Making Bristol Medieval’, funded by the University of Bristol, aims to re-position Bristol as a medieval city, bringing to light its architectural, topographical, and documentary legacies in ways that appeal to the city’s residents and its many tourists. One important outcome of the project has been the Map of Bristol in 1480, created by a team of local historians and archaeologists and published by the Historic Towns Trust.

In this lecture, project leader and fellow Trustee Professor Helen Fulton, explains the reasons why medieval Bristol was one of the most important cities in Britain in the late Middle Ages. Alongside her in this lecture, the Trust's Cartographic Editor Giles Darkes, cartographer for the map, discusses the challenges of capturing medieval Bristol in the form of a map.

Layers of London Webinar: Creating historical maps

with Giles Darkes

In this webinar, Giles Darkes walks us through the process behind creating historical maps, having created many historical maps of different UK cities, including the Medieval and Tudor maps of London for the Historic Towns Trust.

Who We Are

The Trustees of the Historic Towns Trust form the governing body of the charity and meet four times a year. They include:

The Trust's Cartographic Editor, Giles Darkes is a specialist in thematic mapping. Formerly a senior lecturer in cartography at Oxford Brookes University, he has worked with the Historic Towns Trust supervising the mapping and publishing side of the Trust's work since 2009. He has also worked on many other mapping projects including the Atlas of the World's Languages and An Historical Atlas of Oxfordshire.

The day-to-day business of the charity is co-ordinated by an Executive Steering Committe which meets about six times a year and reports to the Trustees. Current members include:

To find out about more about the Committee's terms of reference, please see our section on the Trust's Governance.

The P&P Committee co-ordinates the current projects being undertaken by the Trust and investigates new projects. It liases with the local committees responsible for each project and advises on procedures. Current members include:

In addition, the Trust's Cartographic Editor is also a co-opted member of the committee.

The COM Committee co-ordinates the public face of the Trust. It is responsible for the website, for launching our publications, for lectures and other public engagement. Current members include:

In addition, the Trust's Cartographic Editor is also a co-opted member of the committee.

The Historic Towns Trust has developed a long-standing successful arrangement of working with partner organisations to create the British Historic Towns Atlas and Town & City Historical Maps. To continue to build on this 50-year track record of publishing, the Trust welcomes new partnerships with organisations that share the Trust’s vision and mission. Find out more about the role of our Partners including how to become a Trust Partner in Our Partnerships.