Artist creates Lord of the Rings-style map of Hertfordshire

Chris Birse is on a mission to create a fantasy-style map of every county in the UK, a labour of love that started five years ago.

He explains: "I was writing a fantasy novel and needed to draw a map for it. That inspired me to make a map of Teesside, which I posted online to a great response and it kind of spiralled from there, leading to me embarking on this quest."

After completing his map of nearby Bedfordshire last month, Chris received requests on social media to tackle Hertfordshire next.

Chris recently completed this map of Bedfordshire. (Image: Chris Birse) He duly obliged and says he is about 60 per cent of the way to completing his latest project.

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On the progress made so far, he said: "There's a lot of Roman heritage on the map, including the Six Hills Barrows in Stevenage.

"I've learnt a lot about Hertfordshire. The biggest thing has been the Roman heritage across the county. It's maybe the most dense map I've done so far."

The map of Hertfordshire is currently a work in progress. (Image: Chris Birse) Explaining how his fantasy map differs to a traditional map, he said: "Without trying to rip off Tolkien's work, I've gone for a classic fantasy aesthetic to highlight a lot of Hertfordshire's hidden history, the stuff that doesn't come up on Google. 

"I want to showcase the parts of Hertfordshire that people around the country don't get to see."

The 37-year-old quit his job managing an Aldi branch to focus on making and selling his art full-time, having initially done the project as a side hustle.

With Hertfordshire close to completion, Chris will now turn his attention to England's remaining counties before taking on Scotland and Wales. 

He jokes that once it's all done, he could move on to mapping out the USA.