MAPA
THE GREAT POLISH
MAP OF
Project to restore
General Maczek’s
GREAT POLISH MAP OF
The Great Polish Map of
Aerial image of the Great Map from Virtual Earth
Our campaign to restore the
Great Polish Map of
On Sunday 25 April 2010 at
a public meeting and open day at Barony Castle, Eddleston,
we formally inaugurated the Mapa Scotland project,
its objects and organisation as set out in its detailed constitution here
Background to the Great Map
of
We are applying to national
and local bodies for financial and other support, and suggestions are
gratefully received. In spite of recent Polish and BBC TV coverage, we remain a
small (though enthusiastic) group.
Membership subscriptions are an important source of funding - please
join us with as many friends and colleagues as you can.
Membership
form here. For more about membership
and project logistics, contact the Secretary, Keith Burns at mapascotland@gmail.com
For more about the history
and background of the Great Map, contact Roger Kelly at roger@kosmoid.net
Conceived by General Maczek and his Polish companions as a permanent
three-dimensional reminder of their part in
Progress since we held our
formation meeting on April 25th:
1. Grant application submitted (and being assessed)
for assistance from Landfill Communities Fund.
2. Grant application submitted to Scottish
Borders Council Community Grants Scheme.
3. Letters of support received from 18 local
and regional bodies with an interest in the restoration of the map as a
community facility and a heritage site with national and international
importance.
4. Visit hosted to map by Polish Consul
General in
5. Bank account set up to hold membership
subscriptions and donations. Donations
and subscriptions received from as far away as
6. Nine project meetings held since the
Steering Group was formed.
7. Press and media coverage achieved on BBC
Scotland TV radio, TV Polonia, Polish National Press,
Royal Scottish Geographical Society magazine.
8. Minute of Agreement signed with landowners
for co-operation with the project aims and assuring open access to public.
9. Meetings and visits to map hosted for
potential sponsors.
10. Talks given to
interested groups.
11. Exhibition in Penicuik
on 5 June
12. Coverage in forthcoming
book to be published on “Scottish Oddities” by Hamish Brown.
13. Clearance work in
progress on map to prepare for start of repair work when grant aid secured.
14. Project costing
completed for phase 1 and quotations secured for specialist contractor work.
15. Specialist advice
obtained on surface reconstruction, rebuild, protection etc.
16. Preliminary design of
hydraulics system completed.
August
2010 - Clean-up starts.
In warm afternoon
sunshine,
21 May 2008: David Cameron,
Elizabeth Laudenslager and Roger Kelly discuss
restoration
General Stanisław Maczek
(March 31, 1892 – December 11, 1994) was the most accomplished Polish tank
commander of the Second World War. A
veteran of the First World War. the Polish-Ukrainian
and Polish-Bolshevik Wars,
he commanded Poland's only major armoured formation during the September 1939
campaign, led a Polish armoured formation in France in 1940, and was commander
of the famous First Polish
Armoured Division, and later of the First Polish Army
Corps under Allied Command in 1942–1945. Of Croatian extraction, Stanisław
Władysław Maczek was born in
Lwów in 1892 in Austro-Hungarian Galicia. Graduating from grammar school at Drohobycz
he attended the philosophy faculty of Lwów University where he studied Polish literature and language. After the outbreak of the Great War, Maczek interrupted
his studies hoping to join Piłsudski's Polish
Legions, but instead was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian Army.
Assigned to the Italian front, he rose to become the only Polish battalion
commander in Austria-Hungary's Alpine regiments. At the war’s end he joined the
Polish Army and took part in its later Ukranian and Bolshevik campaigns. His experience in speedy movement and rapid
response led -after military college, colonelship and a series of infantry commands-
to his taking charge of Poland’s first fully motorised formation during the 1938 Munich crisis.
When Poland was attacked in force in 1939 Maczek led the only Polish units
not to lose a single battle. His forces made a dogged defence under Blitzkreig attack
but these efforts became eclipsed when Russia invaded from the rear. Appreciated by his superiors and respected by
enemy commanders, Maczek was loved by his soldiers, who called him “Baca”, a
Galician name for a shepherd like the Scots gaelic “Buachaille”. Ordered to take his brigade over the
Hungarian border, he made his way to lead some of the Polish forces in France
at the end of 1939, but French commanders left unopened Maczek’s detailed
reports on the Blitzkreig tactics they should prepare for. After the fall of France Maczek and many of
his men made their way through Africa and Portugal to London, and formed the
nucleus of a Polish armoured unit based in Scotland for four years. Trained at Blairgowrie and equipped with the
latest Churchill and Sherman tanks, the Poles took up the defence of the
Scottish shoreline between Montrose and Dundee.
In July 1944 the division transferred to Normandy, attached to the First
Canadian Army, and contributed decisively in the Battle of Falaise. General Maczek's
Division continued to spearhead the Allied drive across the battlefields of
France, Belgium, Netherlands, and finally Germany, where it captured the port
of Wilhelmshaven and accepted surrender of the garrison and 200 navy ships. After Germany capitulated, General Maczek
went on to become commanding officer of all Polish forces in the United Kingdom
until their demobilization in 1947.
General Maczek’s
Great Polish Map of Scotland stands in the grounds of
General Maczek
had been shown an impressive outdoor map of land and water in the
Set in the open air in the Peeeblesshire landscape at Eddleston,
General Maczek and his companions conceived The Great
Polish Map of Scotland as a permanent three-dimensional reminder of
General Maczek’s Great
Polish Map of Scotland
Aerial
image of the Great Map from Virtual Earth
General Maczek
died in 1994 aged 102 and is buried with comrades at
MAPA SCOTLAND
THE GREAT POLISH
MAP OF
and the campaign to restore General Maczek’s
GREAT POLISH MAP OF
SCOTLAND
Roger Kelly,
David Cameron and Elizabeth Laudenslager acknowledge
the help of Steven Sweeny, Deputy General Manager,
The project, the Great Map,
and General Maczek were the subject of fuller displays (click to open) for
Penicuik Community Development Trust in the Cowan Institute,
Further exhibitions in
Penicuik in 2010 on 17 and 24 April and 5 June have brought even more material
and individuals to the group.
The Campaign to restore the Great Map was started in 2008
by a small group including Roger Kelly (convener of the Royal Town Planning
Institute in Scotland and member of the Saltire
Society Council); David Cameron (former convener of the Saltire
Society and Edinburgh’s former Deputy City Planner, who worked with the late Kazimierz Trafas on urban
restoration in Cracow); Krystyna
Szumelukowa, Edinburgh’s former Director of Economic
Development; Keith Burns (Hydraulic engineer with a long-term interest in the
Map); and Alastair Nimmo
(Civil engineer and concrete specialist) and the initial interest of Elizabeth Laudenslager –USA, Diana Webster –Edinburgh, Jonathan Cosens -West Linton, Anne Hardie
–Penicuik, Alan Hardie –Penicuik, Mark Hutcheson
–Edinburgh, Peter de Vink –Edinburgh, Reuben Crook –Leadburn, Nick Macdonald –Edinburgh and George Futers –Eddleston. A meeting to review and report progress to Janusz Szewczuk (one of the Great
Map’s surviving cartographer-builders) was called by Keith Burns at Hillend on Tuesday 11 August 2009 with Roger Kelly, Barbara
Conboy, David Cameron, Dave Peck, Nick Macdonald and
James Barton. A study group on Saturday 12 September 2009 at Barony Castle,
onsite at the water intake and at the Great Map itself was hosted by George Futers with Keith Burns, Roger Kelly, David Cameron, Anne Hardie, Barbara Conboy, Krzysztof Chuchra, Krystyna Szumelukowa, Dave Peck,
Nigel Rose, Jim Barton and Adam Ward. A further meeting was held at
Contact Keith Burns, the project secretary, at mapascotland@gmail.com or Roger Kelly,
organiser of these campaign webpages, at roger@kosmoid.net
Szkocja
w Szkocji –the Great Map’s construction described in
Polish by Janusz Szewczuk
Scotland
in Scotland –translation of the above
Restoration
of the Great Map: Launch leaflet 2010
Polish
Road to Breda:
picture diary 1944 (shown
Before
and after pictures of the Map
Black
Barony Hotel grounds in 1940 (before the fall of
Polish Forces in Scotland in the Second World War
The Great Map
features in the Scottish Planner of June 2008 and in Cairt
–newsletter of the Scottish Maps Forum.
The Polish
Chamber Singers Affabre Concinui visited the Great Map while performing at the
2008 Edinburgh Festival Fringe Ż
The Murrays
of Elibank were also associated with Thomas Adams, the Carlops
farmer who became regional planner of
Other
displays in the COWAN INSTITUTE PENICUIK
Proud
supporters of the Mapa Scotland Project:
Penicuik Community Development Trust presents
PENICUIK CINEMA in
the TOWN HALL
Krzysztof Kieslowski’s THE DOUBLE
LIFE OF VERONIQUE (La double
vie de Véronique / Podwójne
życie Weroniki)
Irene
Jacob music by Zbigniew
Preisner
Cert 15 92
mins 1991
Past
and current film season here
GENERAL MACZEK’S GREAT POLISH MAP OF
MapaScotland has a new home page at http://www.mapascotland.makers.org.uk
NUMBER 1 of the
KOSMOID
& MAKERS
webpages