Maps

[hanes teulu]

OS abbreviations

https://maps.nls.uk/os/abbrev/b.html

[Top-of-the-hill]

  Thank you both - it all makes sense now!

[MollyC]

I am adding the words Ordnance Survey to this thread, otherwise the essence of it will not be indexed.

[Ruskie]

There are different maps for different places and times, some more suitable than others - London for example.

If looking for a specific place it is sometimes even worth doing a simple internet search of place, date and add the word “map” and even “town plan” and the name of the town, and the appropriate decade or century. It’s surprising what can pop up in the results.

I’ve been using the excellent NLS map site for years and really like the side by side feature.

 “Old maps.co uk” used to be good too and had some different maps from those on the NLS site … It used to be free, then went to subscription, then closed down unfortunately.

[GR2]

If you are looking at Ordnance Survey maps of Scotland between 1845 and 1880, you might find the Name Books for the various parishes useful. Most are indexed, and contain all the names of places and objects mentioned on the maps along with a description of them and the the surveyors' sources of information.

This is what it says about the street in which I live:

This Street extends in a westerly direction from Paton's Brae, the houses are low and occupied by the poorer classes. 

Here is the link:

https://scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/digital-volumes/ordnance-survey-name-books

[MollyC]

I used OldMaps when free particularly because it included the first national grid editions of the 1:2500 scale which was the first to include house numbers.  These can often be related back to earlier editions, and house numbers in the census.

When copyright was generally extended by the EU, the OS chose to say that its copyright would remain at 50 years, so these started to come out of copyright around 2000 and OldMaps could publish them.

NLS has started to add them to the website, a huge task.  They have completed Scotland, London and SE England, with a note that 1972 maps were added during 2023 in those areas.  The NLS scans are better than OldMaps.

The online index is for three scales, house numbers are on the 1:2500 series.

Name Books for England and Wales are held by TNA, unscanned.  It appears Scotland has had a transcription project to index theirs.

[hanes teulu]

I used OldMaps when free particularly because it included the first national grid editions of the 1:2500 scale which was the first to include house numbers.  These can often be related back to earlier editions, and house numbers in the census.

Old Maps, when free, was a big loss.

[JenB]

Name Books for England and Wales are held by TNA, unscanned. 

Northumberland Name Books have been digitised and transcribed, available here https://namebooks.org.uk/

[MollyC]

[quote The online index is for three scales, house numbers are on the 1:2500 series.[/quote]

To expand on this, in the National Library of Scotland Map Finder the index is named
"1:1,250 to 1:10,560, 1944-1972"  which comprises:

1:1,250 so-called "50 inch" maps, only published for urban areas
1:2,500 "25 inch" maps, all areas except mountain & moorland
1:10,560, true 6-inch maps, which were enlarged to 1:10,000 from about 1972 onwards

The last group has been loaded across the whole country.
The other groups should be available from local libraries.  Not all house numbers are shown, but there are sufficient to interpolate the rest.