Quick Links
Examples
of different scales of OS maps
Guide
to Large Scale OS Maps in the British Library
25"
County Series Editions List
5',
25" and 6" London Editions List
Guide
to Small Scale OS Maps in the British Library
Guide
to large scale Ordnance Survey maps of Ireland
Cartographic
sources for rights of way evidence in England and Wales
Cartographic
sources for dating houses in England and Wales
Introduction
The Ordnance Survey is the national mapping agency of Great Britain.
The Map Library holds the most comprehensive, publicly accessible
collection of Ordnance Survey maps in the world. We also hold Ordnance
Survey of Northern Ireland (OSNI) and Ordnance Survey of Ireland
Maps (OSI).
Pre-war Large Scale Editions (5', 25" and 6" to the
mile)
The most frequently consulted items are the large scale plans,
which began to be published in the mid nineteenth century as the
25 and 6 inches to the mile County Series (c.1:2500 and 1:10,560),
and town plans at larger scales. They show the landscape in great
detail. These are organised by county then sheet number. For a comprehensive
guide go to:
Guide
to large scale Ordnance Survey maps of Great Britain
Guide
to large scale Ordnance Survey maps of Ireland
These tables give information on the dates of each edition for
a particular area, and also if they exist in microfiche/film. The
advantage of microfiche/film is that it is easy to take copies from.
List
of 25" County Editions for England and Wales, Excluding London
List
of 6", 25" and 5' London Editions with Index Maps
Post-war Large Scale Editions
Since the war the modern equivalent of county series mapping has
been the National Grid series at scales of 1:10,000 for rural and
moorland areas, 1:2,500 and 1:1250 for urban areas (c. 6 inches
to 1 mile, c. 25 inches to 1 mile and c. 50 inches to 1 mile). The
National Grid is a single grid system covering Great Britain. From
about 1946 until about 1975 the maps are on paper sheets; after
about 1975 and until 1999 the maps were supplied on microfiche.
Since 1997 Ordnance Survey has supplied the Legal Deposit Libraries
with digital mapping, namely the Ordance Survey LandLine® Data,
but the grid has remained the same.
To determine the grid refererence for the map you require use the
county indexes available in the Maps Reading Room or go to the 'Get-a
map' service on the the Ordnance
Survey Website. Type in a placename or postcode and a 2 letter,
6 digit grid reference will display eg. TQ 324412. To get a 1:2500
sheet number remove the 3rd and 6th digits eg TQ3241.
Small Scale (2" to the mile, 1" to the mile or 1:50,000)
Ordnance Survey
The first small scale maps are the Ordnance Surveyors Drawings
between 1789 and 1840. They are generally made at 2" to the
mile and cover England and Wales as far north as a line from Preston
to Hull. They were followed by the 1" to the mile survey which
later became the 1:50,000 series, on national grid lines. For a
comprehensive guide go to:
Guide
to Small Scale OS Maps
Ordnance Survey Resources for Environmental Site Researchers
Site researchers into the incidence of contaminated land etc.
are very welcome to visit the Maps Reading Room. Resources available
include a comprehensive collection of large scale Ordnance Survey
plans for Great Britain and Ireland dating back to the mid-nineteenth
century. This includes post World War 2 National Grid paper sheets
until the 1980s, microfilm aperture cards from the 1980s until
1997 and a digital data terminal from 1997 onwards. Large scale
OS plans are also available for Northern Ireland and Eire.
The Maps Reading room has a rapid copy service tailored to the
needs of site researchers. For Ordnance Survey maps in copyright,
ie published less than 50 years ago, one A4 from each tile or sheet
can be supplied without permission from the Ordnance Survey. Up
to 50 copies can be produced within 45 minutes. A4 sheets from
microfiche or film of Pre - WW2 large scale county Series maps
and National Grid sheets on aperture cards can be obtained instantly
from self-service reader-printers. There is no restriction on the
quantity of A4 sheets for Ordnance Survey maps published more than
50 years ago. We regret that printouts from digital data are not
available to commercial users for copyright reasons. Forthcoming
national legislation will also restrict the copying of extracts
from all Ordnance Survey maps that are in copyright to non-commercial
users and the British Library reserves the right to refuse copies
of any Ordnance Survey maps that are less than 50 years old to
commercial users who cannot demonstrate they have permission to
copy from Ordnance Survey.
Related Websites:
Ordnance
Survey (Great Britain)
Ordnance
Survey of Northern Ireland
Ordnance
Survey of Ireland
Charles
Close Society - A society dedicated to the study of OS mapping
Old-maps
19th century, 25" and 6" OS maps. Place name search to 1:50,000.
David
Archer Maps Map dealer specialising in old OS maps.
