View old Ordnance Survey maps

Historic Digimap allows you to find, view and download historic Ordnance Survey maps of Great Britain, dating from 1843 to the early 1990s.  Specifically, the database includes all available County Series maps at 1:2 500 and 1:10 560 scales published between 1843 and 1939; and all available National Grid maps at 1:1 250, 1:2 500 and 1:10 560/10 000 scales published from 1945 and before the introduction of the Ordnance Survey's digital Land-Line product. 

Creating a historic map

From the Digimap home page, log in to Digimap via Athens, then click on Historic Digimap. You will have a choice of Ancient Roam, Landuse Map Viewer or Historic Download (to use the digital data in a Geographical Information System).

To create a map, click on Ancient Roam.  From here you can search for a place name or postcode, or zoom into the interactive map.

 

Click on the timeline along the top to select a decade for which to view historical maps.  Use the zoom slider to zoom to the pre-defined map views.  Other controls give a drag and zoom option, provide information (including date surveyed) about the map view, and allow comparison of two maps side-by-side. 

Zooming in will change the map viewed from a more general scale to a more detailed one.

 

In some urban areas, very detailed maps are available (1:500 ,or approximately 127 inches to 1 mile), which show the internal divisions of public buildings.  The example below shows Reading station in 1879.

 

Getting help

The help pages in Historic Digimap are very useful, and include information about historic Ordnance Survey maps generally as well as using Historic Digimap in Geographical Information Systems and issues relating to digitisation of old maps.  Our Digimap page includes links to various guides and videos. Alternatively, contact Judith Fox, the Map Librarian, who is also the Digimap site representative. 

This is one of a series of tips to help you save time and effort finding information

This tip was written by Judith Fox, Map Librarian.

August 2011

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