Maps for Local StudiesLocScot Dayschool and AGM - National Library of

ScotlandWeds 24 April 2013

10.00 Welcome and introduction (CILIP)

10.15 Maps for local history (Chris). An overview of historical maps of Scotland, their purposes, audiences, content and value for local studies.

11.00 Cataloguing, metadata, and finding aids (Paula).

11.45 AGM (CILIP)

12.15 Lunch

13.30 Split into two groups: 1. Storage, map stacks, classification, and conservation (Paula)

2. Hands-on viewing of specific maps and finding aids (Chris)

(Groups swap around after half an hour)

14.30 Digital mapping and online resources (Chris). Including a brief look at map scanning, online delivery and georeferencing, and then primarily looking at the best online sources of maps and related info (NLS Map Images, Old Maps Online, ScotlandsPlaces, Map Curators' Toolbox)

15.30 Questions and wrap-up discussion

16.00 Finish

Maps for Local History

Rural Maps: County Maps

Estate MapsEnclosure / CommontyLegal disputes

Town PlansMilitary MapsCoastal chartsTransportation Maps -

Canals / railways / roadsOrdnance Survey :

HistoryCounty SeriesNational GridScales, map contents and editionsLegends and abbreviations

Air photos

General principles. Copyright

Pont – ca. 1583-1614

Hondius – ca. 1610 

Hondius – ca. 1610 

Adair, 1682

Adair, 1682

William Forrest, Map of Haddingtonshire, 1802

Sharp, Greenwood & Fowler, Map of the counties of Fife and Kinross, 1828

John Rocque, A Plan of ye Garden Plantation of Drumlangrig [sic] in Scotland, the Seat of his Grace the Duke of Queensburry (1739)

John Home, ‘The Farms of Knockneach, Culach and Inverchirkag’ from Survey of Assynt (1774)

Stobie – ca. 1784 

Henry Buist, Plan of the Common Muir of Methven (1792)

Geddie? – ca. 1580 

Wood – 1822 

Wood – 1823 

Great Reform Act, Stirling (1832)

Robert Johnson, A Plan of Fort William with the Country ajasent (1710)

Petit - Perth, 1715

Roy Military Survey of Scotland, detail around Kenmore, ca. 1747-52

Roy Military Survey of Scotland, ca. 1747-52

Roy Military Survey of Scotland, ca. 1747-52

Roy Military Survey of Scotland, ca. 1747-52

A Survey of the Road... to the Spittle of Glen-Shee, 1749, by the military engineer, John Archer, distinguishing between the completed road, the “road to be made”, dry stone walls and back drains.

Slezer, 1693

Admiralty Chart: Survey of the Frith of Forth, by George Thomas... in 1815  

The Minchmoor drove road from Traquair in the Tweed valley going south-east to the Yarrow valley, from John Thomson's Selkirkshire,

1820

Taylor & Skinner, 1776-7

Brown, 1898

Stevenson / Lizars – Union Bridge, Paxton, 1820

R. Kirkwood, This plan of the City of Edinburgh and its environs… 1817

West Highland Railway, 1888

Ordnance Survey

1.History2.County Series3.National Grid4.Scales, map contents and editions5.Legends and abbreviations

Ordnance Survey

1. History

Roy Military Survey of Scotland, 1747-17551791 - Purchase of Jesse Ramsden theodoliteSouthern England (from 1790s), Ireland (from

1820s), and then Scotland (from 1840s)Battle of the Scales - 1850sCompletion of survey of Scotland - 1880sBooks of Reference and OS Name Books

OS Book of Reference

…from 1855 to the mid-1880s for 1:2,500 maps. Parcel number, acreage

and land-use.

Can be consulted in NLS and on Internet Archive

website:http://archive.org/details/osbooksofreferenc

e

OS Object Name Books

Available in the National Archives of Scotlandand on ScotlandsPlaces website through a £15 subscription

Ordnance Survey

2. County Series

Original mapping up to the Second World War based on counties

Sheet referencing by County:OS 6” to the mile / 1:10,560 Aberdeenshire VIII (4 x 6 miles)OS 6” to the mile / 1:10,560 Aberdeenshire IXOS 6” to the mile / 1:10,560 Aberdeenshire X

OS 25” to the mile / 1:2,500 Aberdeenshire VIII.1-16 OS 25” to the mile / 1:2,500 Aberdeenshire VIII.4 (1 mile x 1.5

miles)

Revision by county - all or part of the county revised at particular points in time.

25 inch to the mile coverage

1st edition - 1855-1882 2nd and later editions – 1892-

Origins of the OS county meridians for large scale mapping

Survey and Revision Dates for County Series Mapping

Online at: http://maps.nls.uk/os/county_series_list.html

Ordnance Survey

3.National Grid

• Davidson Committee from late 1930s recommended the recasting onto a new projection for the whole of Great Britain, the National Grid: a Transverse Mercator projection with a central North-South meridian, and a point of origin based west of the Scilly Isles. New metric grid based on 100 Km squares.

OS 6” to the mile / 1:10,560 NJ 45 NW (5 x 5 km area)OS 6” to the mile / 1:10,560 NJ 45 NE

OS 25” to the mile / 1:2,500 NJ 4254 (1 x 1 km area)OS 25” to the mile / 1:2,500 NJ 4255

• Following initial survey, sheets placed under continuous revision

The National Grid

Ordnance Survey

3. National Grid

• Davidson Committee from late 1930s recommended the recasting onto a new projection for the whole of Great Britain, the National Grid: a Transverse Mercator projection with a central North-South meridian, and a point of origin based west of the Scilly Isles. New metric grid based on 100 Km squares.

OS 6” to the mile / 1:10,560 NJ 45 NW (5 x 5 km area)OS 6” to the mile / 1:10,560 NJ 45 NE

OS 25” to the mile / 1:2,500 NJ 4254 (1 x 1 km area)OS 25” to the mile / 1:2,500 NJ 4255

• Following initial survey, sheets placed under continuous revision

Richard Oliver’s town lists

Chapter 6 ofOrdnance Survey Maps: a concise

guide for historians (London: Charles Close, 2005)

Richard Oliver’s County Listings

Chapter 7 ofOrdnance Survey Maps: a concise guide for historians (London: Charles Close, 2005)

Ordnance Survey4. Scales, Contents and Editions

Scale Area Number of sheets Per cent area

Basic-scale series

1:1,250 500m2 57,400 181:2,500 1-2 km2 163,400 521:10,000 25 km2 3,680 30

(All incorporated into OS MasterMap digital data)

Derived series

1:10,000 25 km2 6,480 1001:25,000 200 km2 1,374 1001:50,000 1,600 km2 204 1001:250,000 8 1001:625,000 GB 1 100

OS 1:1056, surveyed 1852

OS 1:2,500, surveyed 1857

OS 1:2,500, surveyed 1861-2

OS 1:10,560, surveyed 1852

OS 1:10,560, Perth, 1860

OS 1:10,560, published 1958

OS 1:10,560, published 1983

OS 1:63,360, 1850

One-inch to the mile County Series indexes

Ordnance Survey Maps One-inch "Popular" edition, 1925

OS 1:10,560 Air Photos, 1850

Ordnance Survey

“Ordnance Survey is Great Britain's national mapping agency, providing the most accurate and up-to-date geographic data, relied on by government,

business and individuals.”

Some recent issues:

Income generation and cost recovery Greater imbalances of surveying Greater costs of large-scale mapping Greater concern over copyright and IPR Focus on core mapping - provision contracted out to Partners and

Mapping and Data Centres. Greater liberty to vary prices locally around core parameters.

OS Opendata Disposal of historic mapping

Post-1963 1:2,500 and 1:1250 mapping

Symbols

…and Boundaries

Online at:

http://maps.nls.uk/os/abbrev

Beware…

• Dates• Accuracy• Purpose (e.g. plans)• Often not designed to be used in

isolation • Require accompanying terriers or documents• (there may not be a key…)

• Bias • the cartographers choices (what to include?)• political influence• your own bias

Ordnance Survey – 1872

Skinner – 1763

RAF – 1951

RAF – 1948

Copyright

Ordnance Survey maps are subject to Crown Copyright, which lasts for 50 years from the end of the year in which the map was published.

Most other commercially published maps are in copyright for 70 years from the end of the year in which the map was published.

Under fair dealing, OS allow “limited reproduction” (up to 4 identical A4-sized copies) of in copyright maps for non-commercial research or private study or Parliamentary or Judicial Proceedings

Licences

• OS have a wide range of licences for using in-copyright mapping, depending upon who you are, and what you wish to do with their mapping:• Paper Map Copying Licence• Publishing Licence• Framework Partner Licence• Internet Licence

• From April 2013, NLS has become an OS Licensed Partner and is able to supply full sheet copies of in-copyright maps

• Libraries also have rights over the onward publication of their maps. NLS requests that permission be requested for all publications of our maps. Usually there is no charge for non-commercial reproduction.

• NLS also has an annual permission licence (£100 per annum) allowing unlimited copying of NLS maps for unpublished reports for clients

Contact us…

Map LibraryNational Library of Scotland159 CausewaysideEdinburghEH9 1PH

0131 623 3970maps@nls.ukmaps.nls.uk

Digital Mapping

Raster Images.• Any historical mapping• Scanned maps from desktop or large-format scanners• Smaller-scale digital data from OS• Typical formats: TIFF, PNG, BNP, GIF• Usable by any picture editing software - Imaging, Paint, Photoshop, Illustrator. Also usable by

Geographical Information System (GIS) software• Can alter basic image parameters - crop, and add features as extra layers on top of base raster image• Relatively available and easy to use software.

Vector Images• Modern OS mapping• Typical formats: GML, DXF, NTF, ArcGIS Shapefile, MapInfo MID/MIF• Usable by any Geographical Information System (GIS) software• All topographic features coded into layers and presentation of features can be customised.• Much greater flexibility over presentation of image and integration with other data.• Greater complexity in availability and use of software.