In his prefatory remarks to the first annual report of the Ordnance Survey, Lieutenant-Colonel Henry James, Superintendent since 1854, wrote to the Inspector-General of Fortifications:
“In obedience to the orders of the Right Honourable Lord Panmure, K.C.B., Secretary of State for War…....I beg to submit the following Report of the progress of the Ordnance Survey of the United Kingdom up to the present time, and during the past year,………to which I have added some remarks upon the different branches of the work, and the methods of conducting the operations of the survey, in the desire of giving the fullest information upon every point.”
This first report, signed off on 10 December 1856, covered the year 1855-6, but it was only printed in late June or July 1857, following an adverse vote in the House of Commons. It was followed by a similar report for 1858, since when the publication of annual reports has continued without interruption to the present day, only the years of the second world war and its immediate aftermath being excepted. Until 1921 they appeared as parliamentary papers, with additional copies being available on sale to the public.
The Charles Close Society is presenting this list as one of a series in which it is intended that comprehensive details of all the serial publications of the Ordnance Survey will be permanently available to anyone who requires access to this information.