Other Scales of Rare Maps | The Charles Close Society

In 1923 the Ordnance Survey published their Ministry of Transport maps of England and Wales, and Scotland, at the half-inch (1:126,720) scale. These were outline maps with classified roads overprinted in red and green. As part of this programme a six-sheet map of the London area was published at the two-inch scale. The source map used was evidently this “not for public use” map printed in 1920 in grey outline, with water in blue and contours in brown. From copies in a private collection

55. GSGS 2748 1:20,000 artillery training map Stonehenge (CCSA 218A/36)

56. GSGS 2748 1:20,000 artillery training map Tilshead (CCSA 218A/37)

57. GSGS 2748 1:20,000 artillery training map Kilmarnock (CCSA 218A/38/1)

Nearly two hundred artillery training maps were published during the First World War. With few exceptions they were at a standard scale of 1:20,000, and were district maps photo-reduced from County Series six-inch (1:10,560) maps. Standard sheet coverage was 17,500 by 10,950 yards (effectively 16 by 10 km); most maps were printed in black with contours at 5 metre intervals in brown. They were originally classified GSGS 2742a (the number reserved for the 1:20,000 Western Front maps, the suffix “a” implying the overprinted squaring system), then allocated their own number, GSGS 2748. Most of the known surviving artillery training maps are in the two-volume set in the British Library (Maps 150.d.14). These volumes largely comprise late printings, and earlier ones, such as these three, are very rare indeed. From copies in the University Library, Glasgow

67. GSGS 3775 1:20,000 Grantown-on-Spey (CCSA 218B/43/1)

The standard 1:20,000 military map of Great Britain was GSGS 2748, begun in 1918, and was constructed on Cassini’s Projection on the origin of Dunnose. Nearly one hundred series sheets were in print by 1930 when the decision was taken to alter the scale from 1:20,000 to 1:25,000, the grid from the British system to the Modified British system, A new GSGS number was allocated, 3906. The true origin of the grid was the same as the map, at Dunnose on the Isle of Wight. GSGS 3775 'Grantown-on-Spey' was a special 1:20,000 mapped in the style of the GSGS 2748 regular edition. The principal point of distinction between this and the national map is that this one was constructed on the county meridian for Elginshire, Findlay Seat. It was overprinted in purple at 1000 yard intervals. The reason for the use of this local grid is at present unknown; the map may have been made for a local military exercise in 1925. From a copy in a private collection

81. GSGS (Air) 112 International aeronautical maps of the world, conventional signs for the basic maps (CCSA 218B/47/3)

82. GSGS (Air) 111a International aeronautical maps of the world, conventional signs for aerial information (black) plates, plate I (CCSA 218B/47/4)

83. GSGS (Air) 111b International aeronautical maps of the world, conventional signs for aerial information (black) plates, plate II (CCSA 218B/47/5)

84. GSGS (Air) 111c International aeronautical maps of the world, conventional signs for aerial information (black) plates, plate III (CCSA 218B/47/6)

85. GSGS (Air) 111d International aeronautical maps of the world, amendment sheet (CCSA 218B/47/7)

86. GSGS (Air) 111e International aeronautical maps of the world, elaboration sheet (CCSA 218B/47/8)

The GSGS (Air) series was established at the end of the First World War, the earliest known publications appearing in 1920. The series was numbered from 100 only as far as 136, totalling between 45 and 50 published items, and comprising maps, indexes, conventional sign charts, wavelength charts, air routes and a few other items. Several of these have yet to be recorded in even a single copy. A War Office version of the new quarter-inch map of England and Wales was to have played its part, and proof copies of sheets 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 were printed between 1920 and 1923. However none reached publication. The most commonly found survivors of the GSGS (Air) series are the International General Aeronautical Maps, a collaborative effort with foreign military authorities, including French and South African. Seven sheets extending from Eastern Europe and across the Middle East and into Africa were published by the War Office as part of this series, and in addition a special sheet entitled 'Britain'. Presented here are the conventional sign charts for this series; of particular interest are the manuscript annotations incorporated as the specification for the series developed. The GSGS (Air) series seems to have survived only until 1925: later issues of its maps were allocated numbers in the standard GSGS series, and the final item in the list, the 1:1 million 'Aerodrome location map – British Isles', GSGS (Air) 136, was published as GSGS 3787, in 1926. From copies in the Map Department, Cambridge University Library

88. Ordnance Survey Characteristic Sheet for the Six Inch and One Inch Plans (CCSA 218B/47/10)

This characteristic sheet, for many years untitled, is recorded in printings back at least to 1852, and there is a strong possibility that the earliest versions would have been engraved without the altitude and geological information added by then. It is one of a pair with one showing 'Examples for the Characters of the Writing to the Ordnance Map of the Scale of 6 Inches to a Mile'. It would appear that the title was added to the present sheet by 1881, and there is a copy in the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. with an embossed printing date stamp of July 1882 that appears to be the same as the present example in all aspects except that the symbol for fort is present there, and lacking here. Other points of chronological interest are the presence of the term “main road”, formally introduced in 1878, footpaths represented by double dotted lines, which were superseded by single line pecks by 1886, and the presence of the new single line with crossbars symbol for tramways, replacing the earlier narrowly spaced parallel lines on the one-inch in 1886. From a copy in a private collection

95. Four-inch Sketch of the Curragh of Kildare (CCSA 218B/49/6)

County Kildare had been surveyed by the Ordnance Survey in 1837-8, with publication of the six-inch map of the county following in 1839. A permanent military camp for 10,000 infantry at the Curragh, proposed in January 1855, was built with such speed that there was already accommodation available for 5000 men by July the same year. A new survey of the encampment and contours was undertaken by Ordnance surveyors in 1855, and revised in 1866. Both resulted in engravings of outline and hachured editions of a special six-inch map, The Curragh Sheet. The four-inch sketch map reproduced here is undated. A copy of an earlier state is in the Bodleian Library, Oxford (C19:22(3)), made during the 1860s when Berdoe Wilkinson was still a Captain and Henry James a Colonel. Their promotion respectively to Lieutenant Colonel and Major General in April 1870 and the Topographical Department War Office accession date of 27 January 1874 provide terminal dates for this edition. The neatlines of the map are slightly within those of the six-inch special map, and administrative boundaries and names, field boundaries, area values and ornament of the original have either been deleted altogether or are greatly simplified. Form lines are used to depict the hills, with heights at the summits (not present on the engraved six-inch map) measured in feet. All names have been redrawn, with several named added of features which were presumably of particular significance to the military. The map is coloured, with the Curragh in green, water in blue, built up areas and road names in carmine, the roads themselves in sienna. From a copy in the Map Department, Cambridge University Library, at Maps.aa.G.014.13

210. 1:1M of Great Britain with overprint showing catchment areas.

The base map is Sheet 2 of the 1:1M in the style of the International Map of the World (Hellyer, Indexes, 104A2). It shows catchment areas as defined under the 1930 Land Drainage Act. It had long been apparent that the multitude of small drainage authorities would be more cost-effective if they would combine their efforts to improve the main rivers into which their systems drained or were pumped, but hitherto there had been no statutory mechanism for this. The Act enabled River Boards to be set up within England & Wales which could define catchment areas within which they would exercise their powers. The Ordnance Survey marked these catchment areas on the six-inch. This 1:1M provides a useful overview at the date of the map - changes continued to occur as new statutory orders were made. The bottom half of the map is missing, along with the date, but it is thought to be about 1937. From a copy donated to the CCS which is to be lodged at Cambridge.

215. 1:6,000 Plan of Kew Gardens.

The later versions of this plan are fairly well known but those from the first decade of the century are rarer. This specimen is to be deposited at Cambridge.

234. 1:2,500 (25-inch) Lincs 86.14 map, marginalia example 1

235. 1:2,500 (25-inch) Lincs 86.15 map, marginalia example 2

These two maps are part of a set acquired by the vicar of Wellingore, within a year of their publication. They were ordered from Stanfords, possibly because he insisted on the uncoloured variant (even though for these sheets the coloured version was no more expensive). The sheets have been coloured to show the vicar's glebe; perhaps he thought that having coloured buildings and roads would confuse matters.

The vicar used the set to produce a Book of Reference for the parish, listing, for each OS parcel, its area (from the maps) its owner and its occupier. The book survives. (Lincolnshire Archives, Wellingore Par/ 23 /3 /4).

The two maps reproduced here show short-lived forms of the marginalia. By early 1887, the rather obvious note 'Every parcel is numbered thus ...' was added bottom right. Then in December 1887, the price statement, which had hitherto been the bottom-most of the notes at the centre of the lower margin, was moved to top-left, where the parish name had been prior to 1884. At the same time it was made more prominent, in upper-case. Lincs 86.14 provides an example of this style.

Incidentally, the only activity that can be dated to a particular month is the colouring of the initial batch of hand-coloured maps. So the assertion that something was done in December actually means it was done in time for maps to be delivered to the colourists in December.

There may have been an adverse reaction to having the price in such a location, because about the end of the year another change was made, and the new price statement was swapped with the 'Every parcel...' note. Lincs 86.15 is an example of the new arrangement. Some such sheets are found with colouring stamps of December 1887, but there are also specimens of the older style with stamps of January 1888. An then in February 1888 a further change was made by the addition of 'All Rights of Reproduction Reserved' below the bottom-centre items. So we have two styles of marginalia that only lasted a month!

236. 1:1,250 Dartmouth [Devon 127.16NE, part]

The Land Valuation revision of 1912 was a rush job, a partial revision of urban areas to provide a baseline for the taxation of gains in land values. Many of the sheets were never printed, and those that were printed were not placed on public sale so do not appear in the copyright libraries. Not only the revised sheets but also numerous unrevised sheets were photographically enlarged to 1:1250 to facilitate annotation.

Given OS's concerns about quality, it is perhaps surprising that it was willing to use this sheet for a 'special', printed for the Parochial History of Dartmouth - and possibly for other volumes issued by the Devonshire Association. What we have here is a composite formed by adding a narrow strip of 128.13 to extend the map to the shoreline. Just east of the 'N' of Newcomen Road, two-thirds of the way to the shore, one can see the vertical join, and also a horizontal join which probably arises from the 12-inch 'cards' used in the revision process. South of this, note the white (unfilled) houses added in the revision. It is instructive to compare them with the next full revision in 1936, when the northern few houses were redrawn in the more generalised manner then in force. Now look at the name 'DARTMOUTH' in large letters: next to the 'O', the area of parcel 241 has been repeated. This is something one might see at this date at the edge of a sheet, but there seems no reason why the vertical fold here on this map should ever have corresponded to a sheet edge. So this is a mystery.

237. Lincoln Town Planning 'Map No 2' [1925]

Town Planning was an important use of OS 25" maps in the inter-war years. In this era the maps were definitive, so needed to be accurate, and the regulations of 1910 advised that they should be updated locally to reflect recent changes. The OS were often commissioned to do this updating. Lincoln had asked for a special revision which was done in 1922. It stopped at the city boundary; it excluded the existing built-up area (outside the scope of the legislation) and also excluded a couple of areas which the city had not, it seems, intended to include within the Scheme.

Thus, the base map uses the Special Revision where it existed, and otherwise the previous sales edition. To this have been added occasional manuscript updates to 1925, when the map was issued. Over this, the Town Planning content has been drawn - explained by the key bottom right.

A couple of the sheets of the Special Revision have been found as delivered, but for most this composite provides the only specimen; users must take care to distinguish the printed map of 1922 from the MS updates. The composite is made up from 28 full 1:2500 sheets, so is about 14ft square. This may be exceptionally large, but Town Planning maps of this era tend to be unwieldy, which is perhaps why they are so little known. The image was assembled digitally from photographs of individual panels; some losses have occurred from creases at folds and alignment is not always perfect. But the original assembly of the map was less than satisfactory, especially the joins at the irregular boundary between Special Revision and sales copy. If one looks SW of HM Prison, just within the built-up area, one sees an area that is completely white; this is not a security deletion but is the County Hospital. Whoever assembled the map pasted down the Special Revision, but this corner of the Special Revision was left blank because it was within the built-up area. This example provides a reminder that the Special Revision sheetlines are unrelated to the normal ones - in fact they are portrait-format; they can be spotted by straight-line discontinuities on the composite.

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