This item is in mature support and will be retired in September 2022. Please use the new version instead in your maps and apps. This map is the one inch to the mile "hills" edition made by the Ordnance Survey in the period 1885-1903. It has been kindly provided by the National Library of Scotland. More information about this map series can be found here: https://maps.nls.uk/os/introduction.html

Colourful and easy to use, Bartholomew’s maps became a trademark series. The maps were popular and influential, especially for recreation, and the series sold well, particularly with cyclists and tourists. To begin with, Bartholomew printed their half-inch maps in Scotland as stand-alone sheets known as 'District Sheets' and by 1886 the whole of Scotland was covered. They then revised the maps into an ordered set of 29 sheets covering Scotland in a regular format. This was first published under the title Bartholomew’s Reduced Ordnance Survey of Scotland. The half-inch maps of Scotland formed the principal content for Bartholomew's Survey Atlas of Scotland published in 1895. Bartholomew then moved south of the Border to the more lucrative but competitive market in England and Wales, whilst continuing to revise the Scottish sheets. This Bartholomew series at half-inch to the mile, covered Great Britain in 62 sheets in the 1940s, Bartholomew’s first to cover Great Britain at this scale (their previous series covering Scotland and then England and Wales). The series provides an attractive and useful snapshot of 1940s Britain. By this time, Bartholomew had altered the range of information on their maps compared to the 1900s. There were more categories of roads, Ministry of Transport road numbers were added, and new recreational features such as Youth Hostels and Golf Courses. Bartholomew’s topographic information was gathered partly from original Ordnance Survey maps, and partly from information sent in to Bartholomew from map users. One important user community for Bartholomew were cyclists. From the 1890s, Bartholomew entered into a formal relationship with the Cyclists’ Touring Club, then numbering around 60,500 cyclists, proposing that club members supplied Bartholomew with up-to-date information. In return, Bartholomew provided the CTC with discounted half-inch maps. The relationship worked very well, turning CTC members into an unofficial surveying army, feeding back reliable and accurate topographical information which Bartholomew would then use to update their maps. You can read more about this and see selected letters from cyclists at: http://digital.nls.uk/bartholomew/duncan-street-explorer/cyclists-touring-club.html.

Usually Bartholomew made revisions the sheets right up to the time of publication, so the date of publication is the best guide to the approximate date of the features shown on the map. You can view the dates of publication for the series at: https://maps.nls.uk/series/bart_half_great_britain.html

The dataset comprises scanned images of maps and aerial photographs of the Falkland Islands. The original maps are printers films and final paper printed originals of Falkland Islands OS maps, compiled for the Falkland Islands Government and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office by the Overseas Directorate of the Ordnance Survey. The Falkland Islands Government retains copyright interest in the maps. There are no access or usage constraints for BGS staff for BGS purposes. The field slips of geological maps were compiled by BGS under contract to the Falkland Islands Government. Copyright remains with the Falkland Islands Government , but there are no access or usage constraints for BGS staff for BGS purposes. Access to both datasets are restricted to BGS staff.

You, a colleague or student cant see Ordnance Survey maps in your ArcGIS Online acount. This StoryMap will help you find out why and get everyone seeing beautiful OS maps!Open the Basemap Gallery and look for "OS Maps for Schools" or "Ordnance Survey maps"Not there? Scroll on for trouble shooting steps....

This dataset comprises 2 collections of maps. The facsmile collection contains all the marginalia information from the original map as well as the map itself, while the georectified collection contains just the map with an associated index for locating them. Each collection comprises approximately 101 000 monochrome images at 6-inch (1:10560) scale. Each image is supplied in .tiff format with appropriate ArcView and MapInfo world files, and shows the topography for all areas of England, Wales and Scotland as either quarter or, in some cases, full sheets. The images will cover the approximate epochs 1880's, 1900's, 1910's, 1920's and 1930's, but note that coverage is not countrywide for each epoch. The data was purchased by BGS from Sitescope, who obtained it from three sources - Royal Geographical Society, Trinity College Dublin and the Ordnance Survey. The data is for internal use by BGS staff on projects, and is available via a customised application created for the network GDI enabling users to search for and load the maps of their choice. The dataset will have many uses across all the geoscientific disciplines across which BGS operates, and should be viewed as a valuable addition to the BGS archive. There has been a considerable amount of work done during 2005, 2006 and 2007 to improve the accuracy of the OS Historic Map Collection. All maps should now be located to +- 50m or better. This is the best that can be achieved cost effectively. There are a number of reasons why the maps are inaccurate. Firstly, the original maps are paper and many are over 100 years old. They have not been stored in perfect condition. The paper has become distorted to varying degrees over time. The maps were therefore not accurate before scanning. Secondly, different generations of maps will have used different surveying methods and different spatial referencing systems. The same geographical object will not necessarily be in the same spatial location on subsequent editions. Thirdly, we are discussing maps, not plans. There will be cartographic generalisations which will affect the spatial representation and location of geographic objects. Finally, the georectification was not done in BGS but by the company from whom we purchased the maps. The company no longer exists. We do not know the methodology used for georectification.

To begin with, Bartholomew printed their half-inch maps in Scotland as stand-alone sheets known as 'District Sheets' and by 1886 the whole of Scotland was covered. They then revised the maps into an ordered set of 29 sheets covering Scotland in a regular format. This was first pubilshed under the title Bartholomew’s Reduced Ordnance Survey of Scotland. The half-inch maps formed the principal content for Bartholomew's Survey Atlas of Scotland published in 1895. Bartholomew then moved south of the Border to the more lucrative but competitive market in England and Wales, whilst continuing to revise the Scottish sheets. The first complete coverage of Great Britain at the half-inch scale was achieved by 1903 with 67 individual half-inch sheets. Generally at this time, the English sheets sold three times more quickly, at three times the volume of the Scottish sheets. As for Scotland, Bartholomew used their half-inch sheets of England and Wales in the Survey Atlas of England and Wales published in 1903. From 1901, following a copyright complaint from Ordnance Survey, Bartholomew was forced to drop 'Ordnance' from their map titles. The series was initially renamed 'Bartholomew's Reduced Survey', and by 1903 'Bartholomew's half inch to the mile map'.Bartholomew revised the most popular half-inch sheets every couple of years, ensuring that their maps were more up to date than their main rival, Ordnance Survey. Popular sheets had print runs of several tens of thousands per edition, involving nearly 20 different layer colour plates for hillier areas with more colour.More information: http://geo.nls.uk/maps/bartholomew/great_britain/further_info.html

This dataset is wholly owned by Ordnance Survey (OS) and licenced for use by Natural Resources Wales (NRW) via an open data licence issued by OS. OS open data products (OS OpenData) are a set of free digital maps of Great Britain, available for anyone to use, for any purpose. The maps include data on roads, rivers and boundaries. This dataset includes layers derived from those available from OS.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

This research project aimed to fill a major lacuna militating against the effective exploitation of many post-medieval to mid-Victorian historical sources collected by local administrative areas: the lack of information on the boundaries of those administrative areas, the so-called 'historic' or 'ancient' parishes of England and Wales. It is known that these districts came into being during the Middle Ages, that the map of these ecclesiastical parishes was essentially complete by the fifteenth century, that these ecclesiastical boundaries were adopted during the early modern period for secular and judicial purposes, and that boundaries remained essentially unchanged until a number of reforms from the mid-nineteenth century onwards reorganised the local administrative geography of the country. The project aimed to reconstruct those boundaries as they were before the post-nineteenth century changes.
Main Topics:

The digitised maps cover the whole of England and Wales, and are organised by Ordnance Survey Sheet number. The maps contain a scanned bitmap image of the Ordnance Survey one inch to one mile (1:63,360) New Popular Edition maps (1945-8) with National Grid. They contain the boundaries of some 18,233 places, and are arranged as three electronic 'layers'. The first is a scan of the Ordnance Survey maps stored as grey tone sheet images. This enables Ordnance Survey physical, cultural and place-name content to be readily visible in the background for orientation and general location purposes, while not obscuring the added boundary and reference number material. The second layer consists of the boundaries, stored as solid red lines; and the third layer contains the reference numbers that link places on the map to the gazetteer/metadata dataset that accompanies the maps.

The maps are available on CD-ROM in Adobe Illustrator (ISBN:0-9540032-2-5) or Adobe Acrobat (ISBN:0-9540032-1-7) PDF formats. We recommend using the Adobe Illustrator format if you already have the software (as it enables you to edit the maps and select the layers to view). However, the Adobe Acrobat PDF format is perfectly suitable for viewing the maps, and we will supply the necessary reader software.

An accompanying book Historic Parishes of England and Wales: An Electronic Map of Boundaries before 1850 with a Gazetteer and Metadata by Roger Kain and Richard Oliver (ISBN:0-9540032-0-9) provides an introduction to the provenance of the maps. It also includes an abbreviated version of the gazetteer/metadata dataset, and a discussion of historical boundaries.

This unique combination publication is set to become a standard reference resource and is an invaluable tool for all those interested in plotting local area-based data from the past (population, agricultural, statistics, tax data etc.) from the fourteenth to the nineteenth centuries.

Please note: this study does not include information on named individuals and would therefore not be useful for personal family history research.

Please note that this dataset is no longer maintained by Ordnance Survey. To access the latest OS Open Greenspace data please go to https://osdatahub.os.uk/.OS Open Greenspace depicts the location and extent of spaces such as parks and sports facilities that are likely to be accessible to the public. Where appropriate, it also includes access points to show how people get into these sites. Its primary purpose is to enable members of the public to find and access green spaces near them for exercise and recreation. Find out more about the uses and case studies surrounding Greenspace on the dedicated OS Open Greenspace webpage, and technical information about the greenspaces it contains and how to use them in our detailed specification.Who's using OS Open Greenspace?Innovators - Britain’s most comprehensive Open dataset of greenspaces underpins a range of apps, products and innovations - providing the foundation to help create greener and healthier communities.Public sector (Public Health England) - Incorporated as a layer into SHAPE, the dataset has been used alongside asset location data (GPs, pharmacies, schools) and indicator data (population and deprivation), to help inform and support the strategic planning of services and physical assets across the health economy.Emergency services - A vital tool in helping our emergency services, OS Open Greenspace includes site use and access points, making it quicker to get to emergency situations.FeedbackThink somewhere is missing from the data? Spot an inaccuracy in the attribution? Make us aware using the Error Reporting Tool on the OS DataHub! If you have any further questions about the product, or would like to get in contact with a member of our support team, please reach out via our website.Currency and update frequencyThe currency of the product is April 2022 and has a six-monthly update cycle (April and October).

This is a map of Worcester in a series of maps of England and Wales, shown at a 1:63,360 or one inch to one statute mile scale. This road map was created by the Great Britain Ordnance Survey.

This is a map of Anglesey in a series of maps of England and Wales, shown at a 1:63,360 or one inch to one statute mile scale. This road map was created by the Great Britain Ordnance Survey.

This dataset is published as Open Data.OS Terrain® 50 is an open height dataset of contours with spot heights, breaklines, coastline, lakes, ridges and formlines for Great Britain.What OS Terrain 50 provides you withModel wind direction and lines of sightMake better decisions about where to locate wind turbines and mobile phone masts. OS Terrain 50 lets you model wind direction and lines of sight at your desk, meaning fewer site visits.Plan landscape defencesGet the bigger picture about flood risk, soil erosion and pollution. By showing steep hillside gradients, OS Terrain 50 helps you plan flood defences and safeguard the landscape.More engaging mapsWith the contours version of OS Terrain 50, you can shade in hills to show their height. This extra sense of depth is ideal for walking maps and apps.Surface model entire landscapesGet an accurate, uncluttered view of the terrain with the grid version of OS Terrain 50. Its 50 metre post spacing gives you a surface model of the entire landscape, including major roads, large lakes and estuaries.Take account of tidesThe contours dataset also includes mean high and low water boundaries.

This dataset is about books and is filtered where the book is The complete guide to the battlefields of Britain : with Ordnance Survey maps, featuring 7 columns including author, BNB id, book, book publisher, and ISBN. The preview is ordered by publication date (descending).

Natural Resources Wales (NRW) holds copies of Ordnance Survey (OS) basemaps for the whole of Wales, in paper and digital format. NRW obtain much of it's OS data, initially, as part of the Public Sector Mapping Agreement (PSMA) and from 2020 as part of the Public Sector Geospatial Agreement (PSGA), which is a collective agreement between OS and the government.

Great Britain's (England, Scotland, Wales) cities (e.g. London, Birmingham, Edinburgh) named and represented as point features with an indicative bounding box. This data is often used for geocoding, service delivery and statistical analysis. OS Cities Data is available in a number of Ordnance Survey (OS) products: OS Open Names (bounding box and point geometry), OS Names API, MasterMap Topography Layer (point geometry), Vector Map Local (point geometry) and Vector Map District (point geometry). Small-scale cartographic representations are also available in OS cartographic products. All data is collected by Ordnance Survey as part of their role as the National Mapping Agency of Great Britain.

Use our election maps for Great Britain and Northern Ireland to find out the electoral geography of the UK.

You will find the web apps particularly useful if you are an elected representative, candidate or party worker, as they clearly show the electoral constituencies against various scales of mapping background.

You can choose from a variety of administrative and electoral boundaries that can be overlaid on the mapping.

Electoral boundaries shown for Great Britain and Northern Ireland are those in effect at 1 October 2020.

This dataset is published as Open DataOS Open Roads is a high-level view of the road network, from motorways to country lanes in Great Britain. The links represent an approximate central alignment of the road carriageway and include roads classified by the National or Local Highway authority.What OS Open Roads provides you withCapture answers to road questionsHow many miles of roads are there in the country? What and where’s within 10 miles of this location? OS Open Roads lets you answer questions like these.Work with definitive road informationBy underpinning your reporting tool with OS Open Roads, you’ll give highways teams a head-start on fixing issues like potholes.

This dataset contains a sample of 10,000 (3.5%) out of a total of 285,846 text sequences extracted from the 1891–1896 Map of London by the Ordnance Survey (OS).

The methodology used for the automated recognition, linking, and sequencing of the text is detailed in the article Recognizing and Sequencing Multi-word Texts in Maps Using an Attentive Pointer by M. Zou et al., 2025.

Description of the content

The map is drawn at a scale of five-feet to the mile (c.a. 1:1,056). The text on the map is an invaluable source of information about the Greater London in the late Victorian period. It includes the names of streets, squares, parks, watercourses and even some estates ('Poplars', 'The Grange', 'Arbutus Lodge'). In addition, the map contains many details of the function of buildings and economic activity, such as factories ('Sweet Factory', 'Crown Linoleum Works', 'Imperial Flour Mills', 'Lion Brewery'), warehouses or commercial infrastructure ('Warehouse', 'Jamaica Wharf', 'Rag Store'), offices ('Offices'), etc. The map also mentions public buildings such as schools ('School Boys, Girls & Infants', 'Sunday School'), hospitals or clinics ('St. Saviour's Union Infirmary', 'Beulah Spa Hydropathic Establishment', 'South Western Fever Hospital'), railway stations ('Clapham Station'), post offices, banks, police stations, etc. Other social venues are also mentioned, such as public houses, i.e. pubs ('P.H.'), clubs, casinos, and recreational areas (e.g. 'Cricket Ground'). Special attention is given to churches, with a regular count of the number of seats (e.g. 'Baptist Chapel Seats for 600').

In addition, the map provides details that can be of great interest in the study of everyday life in London at the end of the 19th century. For example, there are numerous mentions of 'Stables', 'Drinking Fountain'[s] (or simply 'Fn.') or 'Urinal'[s]. Fire protection infrastructure is highlighted, e.g. fire plugs ('F.P.') and fire alarms ('F.A.'). The map also includes information on elevation (e.g. '11·6') and flood levels (e.g. 'High Water Mark of Ordinary Tides').

A list of abbreviations used in the Ordnance Survey maps, created by Richard Oliver [1], is made available by the National Library of Scotland (link).

Organization of the data

The data in 10k_text_london_OS_1890s.geojson is organized as a regular geojson file.

Example structure

{
"type": "FeatureCollection",
"features": [
{
"type": "Feature",
"geometry": {
"type": "MultiPolygon",
"coordinates": [[[ [x1, y1], [x2, y2], ...]]]
},
"properties": {
"label": "Oxford Circus",
}
},

... # Further text sequences


]
}

Image documents

The original map document consists of 729 separate sheets, digitized, georeferenced, and served as geographic tiles by the National Library of Scotland [2].

Descriptive statistics

Total Number of text sequences: 285,846
Sample size: 10,000
Total Area covered: 450 square km

Use and Citation

For any mention of this dataset, please cite :

@misc{text_london_OS_1890s,
author = {Zou, Mengjie and Petitpierre, R{\'{e}}mi and di Lenardo, Isabella},
title = {{London 1890s Ordnance Survey Text Layer}},
year = {2025},
publisher = {Zenodo},
url = {https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14982946}}

@article{recognizing_sequencing_2025,
author = {Zou, Mengjie and Dai, Tianhao and Petitpierre, R{\'{e}}mi and Vaienti, Beatrice and di Lenardo, Isabella},
title = {{Recognizing and Sequencing Multi-word Texts in Maps Using an Attentive Pointer}},
year = {2025}}

Corresponding author

Rémi PETITPIERRE - remi.petitpierre@epfl.ch - ORCID - Github - Scholar - ResearchGate

License

This project is licensed under the CC BY 4.0 License.

Liability

We do not assume any liability for the use of this dataset.

References

1. Oliver R. (2013). Ordnance Survey maps: A concise guide for historians. The Charles Close Society. London, UK. 3rd Ed. 320 pages
2. Ordnance Survey, London, five feet to the mile, 1893-1896 (1896), https://maps.nls.uk/os/townplans-england/london-1056-1890s.html, digitized by the National Library of Scotland (NLS)

Walking Paths/routes

This "unpublished data" record referred to Urban Paths, which has been published for a number of years, as part of ITN. See https://data.gov.uk/dataset/os-mastermap-integrated-transport-network-layer1

In addition, OS has published a detailed path network of public rights of way in national parks. Currently only available via partners, and as part of OS Maps (web, mobile): https://os.uk/business-and-government/products/os-detailed-path-network.html; https://osmaps.os.uk/

Integrated Access Mapping project - national composite dataset of Access layers, showing analysis of percentage or area coverage of access in England. Attribution statement: Contains, or is derived from, information supplied by Natural England and Ordnance Survey. © Crown copyright and database rights [insert year of supply]. Ordnance Survey 100022021.