Seven Ordnance Survey maps will feature the photography of an Ely graphic designer after he won a competition to have his work featured on new maps released this year.

Ely Standard: Andrew Sharpe from Ely had seven pictures selected for the front of the new Ordnance Survey Maps. Picture: Steve Williams.Andrew Sharpe from Ely had seven pictures selected for the front of the new Ordnance Survey Maps. Picture: Steve Williams. (Image: Archant)

Andrew Sharpe entered the competition last year but said he forgot all about it until the postman delivered the news.

“My wife and I always holiday around the UK, I like to take landscape shots wherever we go, so decided to enter some of my shots,” he said.

“Ordnance Survey have had a revamp so I entered my work on their website, but didn’t give it a thought until seven maps dropped through the door with my photos on them.”

The maps featuring his photographs are the Ely and Wisbech edition, Cambridge and Newmarket, Bury St Edmunds, Ipswich and the Naze, Minehead and Brendon Hills, York and Selby and Yeovil and Frome.

Ely Standard: Andrew Sharpe from Ely had seven pictures selected for the front of the new Ordnance Survey Maps. Picture: Steve Williams.Andrew Sharpe from Ely had seven pictures selected for the front of the new Ordnance Survey Maps. Picture: Steve Williams. (Image: Archant)

Mr Sharpe, whose graphic design business designs books for schools across the year groups ranging from primary to secondary schools, has worked covering weddings and portraiture photography and locally his work is set to feature on the 2017 Ely Cathedral calendar.

Ordnance Survey, Britain’s mapping agency, has its roots in military strategy, mapping the Scottish Highlands following rebellion in 1745.

Later, as the French Revolution rumbled on the other side of the English Channel, there were fears the bloodshed would sweep across to our shores.

The government ordered its defence ministry of the time – the Board of Ordnance – to begin a survey of England’s vulnerable southern coasts.

Ely Standard: Andrew Sharpe from Ely had seven pictures selected for the front of the new Ordnance Survey Maps. Picture: Steve Williams.Andrew Sharpe from Ely had seven pictures selected for the front of the new Ordnance Survey Maps. Picture: Steve Williams. (Image: Archant)

Until then, maps had lacked the detail required for moving troops and planning campaigns.

It was an innovative young engineer called William Roy who was tasked with the initial small-scale military survey of Scotland.

Starting in 1747, it took eight years to complete what was known as the Great Map at a scale of 1:36 000 (1.75 inches to a mile).

Roads, hills, rivers, types of land cover and settlements were recorded.

Today all 243,241 square kilometres of Great Britain are surveyed and up to 10,000 changes are put into the database daily.