Ordnance Survey Old Series one-inch map of England & Wales

The earliest one-inch Ordnance Survey map, known as the Old Series, began publication in 1805 with four sheets covering Essex. Publication progressed slowly, being completed in 1869. From 1831 new sheets were divided into quarters for publication.

The complete history and cartobibliography of the Old Series can be found in Hellyer and Oliver The First Ordnance Survey Map published by The Charles Close Society in 2015.

A brief summary is in Chris Higley Old Series to Explorer published by The Charles Close Society in 2011.

Scans of alternative versions of sheets 1 to 90, covering England & Wales south of a line from Preston to Hull, have been posted online by The National Library of Australia and by the Alexander Turnbull Library of the National Library of New Zealand. The former are generally of the 1830s, the pre-railway era, whilst the latter are generally 1860s editions.

These map images may be viewed, together with date and version identification by selecting from the Index Diagram. Alternatively, they can be found by place-name search using CCS Sheetfinder.

Old Series maps are also available to view and download at the Vision of Britain website