This map of Sir William Hustler’s estates, painted on a huge sheet of sailcloth, is a piece of dynastic propaganda. At 13 feet square, it’s far too big to have been used as a tool for land management. This is for show.

The plan shows the extent and detail of the estates of the Lordship of Acklam, much of the area now occupied by the town of Middlesbrough. You can see the River Tees running through the centre and if you look really carefully you can make out individual houses and windmills. It was commissioned some time in the late 1600s and was touched up in the early 1700s, probably as the shape of the estate changed. 

For years the plan had languished in various library and archive stores, being too large to display. But it’s recently been conserved and restored, allowing it to go on show once again.