An autistic man with an extensive collection of Ordnance Survey maps has been reportedly staggered to learn that some people use these 2D stimming devices to navigate their environment.

Lloyd Didcot, 22, loves spending hours poring over the shapes of the coastlines and finding silly-sounding place names like Carlton Scroop, but until recently assumed they were nothing more than a whimsical curio. 

“I guess I just thought maps were basically decorative,” explained Didcot. “You look at them, you enjoy all the wiggly colourful lines and the names and shapes, and you stare at them until your brain makes a happy little purring noise and you realise it’s gone dark outside.”

“I’m just not sure how these drawings relate to the world. Right now, out of my window in Chiswick I can see a row of terraced houses, and if I really press my face up to the glass I can make out the corner shop,” he puzzled. “But this map shows Aberdeen.”

“Anyway, if this bit of paper is like the world outside, why aren’t motorways painted blue? Where are the gigantic line-art ducks at nature reserves? And frankly: why is everything from so high up – are maps for migratory swifts?”

“What are you supposed to do: take this 2D image of the earth from hundreds of metres up in the sky, and then translate it into a 3D guide to your surroundings, using only your mind? Come on, I’m not that gullible.”

Didcot added: “Ha! Look, this village is called Pishill.”

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