Maps and plans for historians

Most of this information is drawn from the following source and forms a basic guide to maps for historians.
Oliver, Richard (2005) Ordnance survey maps: a concise guide for historians. 2nd ed., rev. London, Charles Close Society
There are two main classes of historical sources: primary and secondary. The terms ‘primary’ and ‘secondary’ instead OS uses the terms ‘basic’ and ‘derived’. A basic scale map is at the same scale as when it was surveyed and a derived map is usually at a smaller scale.

Ordnance Survey Maps
County Series	Maps at 1:10,560, 1:2500 (25.344 inches to one mile), 1:1250 (50.688 inches to one mile), 1:1056 (60 inches to one mile), 1:528 (120 inches to 1 mile) and 1:500 (126.72 inches to one mile) published in sheets numbered by county, surveyed 1841-1944 and published 1846-1953
National Grid Series	Maps at 1:2500 1948-early 1980s – majority of maps produced by overhauling the old County Series to modern standards.
The Regular Edition	Maps at 1:10,560 and 1:10,000 derived from National Grid 1:1250 or 1:2500 published from 1954. After 1996 a print-on-demand service “Landplan” was derived from the large scale database.
Digital data	Nominal scales 1:1250, 1:2500, 1:10,000 a printout now represents the state of the OS database at the time of printing, so editions are now obsolete.
England and Wales: the ‘Old Series’	1805-1874 the whole of England and Wales (except the Scilly Isles) was covered by the ‘Old Series’. Sheets 1-90 covered the country south of a line from Preston to Hull and based on unpublished material known as Ordnance Surveyors’ Drawings. Sheets 91-110 were based on post 1840 1:10,560 and larger scale surveys.
Great Britain: the ‘New Series’ family and the one-inch of Scotland to 1914	All the 1:63,360 maps published from 1847 onwards were based ultimately on the 1:10,560 and larger scale surveys of 1841-1888. England and Wales derived mapping was on the Cassini projection and is known as the ‘New Series’. In Scotland mapping was on the Bonne projection and published in a 131 sheet layout.
Great Britain: one inch mapping 1914-1976	After 1914 there were two revisions of Great Britain and two piecemeal revisions. In 1912 work began on a one inch ‘Popular Edition’. Most of the sheets (England and Wales) were reprinted with road revision, and some incorporate piecemeal revision of urban areas. The most useful sheets are the first printings, as records of urban growth.
1:50,000 (‘Landranger’)map	1974-1976 the Seventh Series of one inch mapping was replaced by the 1:50,000 map named the Landranger Series in 1979. Second Series was published 1974-1988 based on a revision of 1971-1986. It incorporates simplifications e.g. the abolition of the distinction between single and multiple railways. Reprints incorporate piecemeal revisions and may be best avoided as historical sources. OS policy is to produce the Landranger map directly from large-scale digital data, so this makes its use as a historical source less useful.
Wartime (Second World War)	1928-1939 work was begun on a Fifth Edition which was abandoned. 1938-1947 a New Popular Edition eventually covered England and Wales. 1940-1943 War Revision (all of Scotland, most of England and Wales) and Second War Revision (most of England, Wales, two Scottish sheets). “As records of the landscape that are not more useful than the New Popular Edition and those seeking sites of airfields and other more ephemeral defence infrastructure will not find them. They carry the War Office Cassini Grid and so can be important in locating incidents reported using this system.” (Oliver, 2005) During the war fragmentary 1:100,000 cover of Britain was produced by photo enlargement of 1:126,720 material - it is of no interest as a landscape record.
Area books	From 1855-mid 1880s the 1:2500 maps were accompanied by area books, parish area books or books of reference. They gave and acreage of each parcel and its land use. From 1884-5 onwards the usual practice was to print the acreage of each parcel on the map. The land use information was gathered when the manuscript work was being examined in the field and therefore its accuracy depended on the skill of the examiners and surveyors.
Aviation mapping	1921- a series of aviation maps at 1:250,000 and smaller scales, includes airfields and landing grounds.
Ordnance Surveyors’ Drawings	A collection of approximately 350 irregular shaped drawings made between 1784-1837 and now held in the BL Map Library. Mostly at 1:31,680 and original prepared for military use and used as the basis for publication of the ‘Old Series’.
Period Maps	Since 1924 OS has published a number of period maps –all have the objective of showing features related to a particular period e.g. Ancient Britain 1:25, 000 (1969) Britain in the Dark Ages 1:1,000,000 1st ed. (two sheets 1935, 1938) 2nd ed. (one sheet, 1965) Roman and Anglian York 1:2500 (1988)
Planning Maps	These are at 1:625,000 – most cover the whole of Great Britain, some are useful historical sources. E.g. Coal and Iron (1946), Population density (1931)
Town and County Maps	Some towns are mapped at a scale of 1:2500 and some other county towns have been mapped at 1:10,560. There is a comprehensive list in Oliver, Richard (2005) Ordnance survey maps: a concise guide for historians.