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Historic Digimap Service FAQs

What is the origin of the historic maps?
What historic maps are available through Historic Digimap?
What does Historic Digimap provide?
How can I get access to Historic Digimap?
Where can I find the survey date for the historic map I am viewing?
Getting Further Information

What is the origin of the historic maps?

In October 1840 the Ordnance Survey decided to adopt the six-inch mapping scale (1:10,560) previously used in Ireland, and in September 1841 work began to survey Lancashire. In July 1854 rural 1:2,500 scale maps were commissioned and in 1880 this was accelerated to cover all areas of the country. England, Wales and Scotland were surveyed in the following years, and each county was subsequently revised three to five times. These sheets have become known as County Series, named as such because individual counties were surveyed separately from their neighbours, often on different origins.

In 1944-5 the mapping was transferred to the National Grid. Counties were now no longer surveyed on different origins: instead the whole country was mapped as a whole and a new map naming convention was used. The standard scales became 1:2,500, or 1:1,250, or 1:10,000 in moorland areas (although the imperial 1:10,560 scale was retained for some years). The Ordnance Survey now has one of the largest collections of this historical mapping in the UK, until recently held on paper.

A joint venture between Ordnance Survey and Landmark Information Group has undertaken the task of creating copies in digital form, both in its original map sheet format, and in processed format for use in a GIS. For example, the pre-National Grid County Series map sheets have been "cookie cut" to the National Grid to produce equivalents to the contemporary National Grid map tiles.

What historic maps are available through Historic Digimap?

Full product list for Historic Digimap

What does Historic Digimap provide?

The service provides the following:

• An easy to use interface to allow you to browse, view and print historic maps.
• Contemporary and historic search tools. For example, you could search for a location using contemporary postcodes, place names and National Grid References, or historic parish and county names and latitude and longitude.
• A facility for directly comparing two or four maps from different times but of the same location. As you pan and zoom one map, the others will follow. This allows comparisons of changes through time. If you have access to both the historic maps and contemporary OS maps through Digimap, then you will be able to directly compare contemporary Land-Line.Plus and historic maps.
• The ability to preview full map sheets [using the Preview Full Map Sheet tool button].
• A simple data download facility so that the maps you are viewing can be downloaded to your computer for use in a Geographic Information System (GIS) or image processing software. The map data is available in TIFF format with either TFW world files for ESRI GIS users or TAB files for MapInfo users.
• On-line help with using Historic Digimap, and understanding the historic maps and technical issues relating to their use in the service, GIS and image processing software.
• Two full chapters from the Charles Close Society publication "Ordnance Survey Maps: a concise guide for historians" by Dr Richard Oliver, will be available online from within Historic Digimap help pages. This book is considered the definitive guide to the historic Ordnance Survey maps of Great Britain. A revised edition is to be published in 2005 and this can be ordered from the Charles Close Society. EDINA and JISC wish to thank the Charles Close Society and Richard Oliver for allowing these extracts to be reproduced in Historic Digimap.

How can I get access to Historic Digimap?

Historic Digimap is available to all staff and students within a subscribing HE/FE institution. Institutions wanting access to the service are required to pay an annual subscription. This is separate from the subscription for access to other Digimap Collections, including the current contemporary Ordnance Survey maps and data. Subscription charges for Historic Digimap are available from the JISC web site.

Where can I find the survey date for the historic map I am viewing?

Currently EDINA do not have any survey dates for the maps in the Historic Digimap. Survey dates were not captured by Landmark Information Group when they digitised (scanned) the historic paper maps and no other digital resource currently exists which could provide this kind of information.

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Getting Further Information

If you want more information about Historic Digimap or have any queries about using the historic maps or the service interface, please email the EDINA helpdesk or telephone on 0131650 3302.

All Landmark historic maps are © Crown Copyright and Landmark Information Group Limited 2004. All rights reserved.