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.

Various data recorded by Historic England relating to aerial investigation and mapping projects. N.B. This is a dynamic dataset that is constantly evolving, not only with the addition of newly completed projects, but also with the reassessment of some earlier projects. See https://historicengland.org.uk/research/methods/airborne-remote-sensing/aerial-investigation/ for further details of Historic England's work with aerial sources.It's currently not possible to provide download access to the earlier hand drawn projects, which are only available as raster files, but these can be viewed via the Aerial Archaeology Mapping Explorer. We aim to create vector monument polygons for these features as the next phase of the project.More information and help with these the layers Detailed MappingThis layer shows the detailed mapping of archaeological features derived from aerial imagery; this includes photographic imagery from many decades taken specifically for archaeological purposes, as well as other photography taken for other reasons and airborne lidar. The data are symbolised initially based on their physical form i.e. cut/negative (e.g. pit, ditch etc) or built/positive (e.g. mound, bank etc) .

    Field name
    Field alias
    Description
    Mandatory Y/N


    LAYER
    LAYER
    The layer used for mapping
    Y


    PROJECT
    PROJECT
    Project name
    Y

    PERIOD
    PERIOD
    The presumed date/period assigned to the feature (terminology from FISH thesaurus)
    Y


    MONUMENT_TYPE
    MONUMENT_TYPE
    The presumed type/function assigned to the feature (terminology from FISH thesaurus)
    Y


    EVIDENCE_1
    EVIDENCE_1
    The primary evidence for the feature e.g. cropmark, earthwork etc (terminology from FISH thesaurus)
    Y


  SOURCE_1
    SOURCE_1
    The primary source for the feature e.g. aerial photo reference, documentary source etc
    Y


  EVIDENCE_2
    EVIDENCE_2
    Where available the latest evidence for the feature e.g. cropmark, earthwork etc (terminology from FISH thesaurus) N.B. This was the latest evidence seen and does not necessarily represent the current status of the feature.
    N


  SOURCE_2
    SOURCE_2
    Where available the latest source for the feature N.B. This was the latest evidence seen and does not necessarily represent the current status of the feature.
    N


    HE_UID
    HE_UID
    Composite of Unique identifier(s) used by Historic England
    Y

    HER_NO
    HER_NO
    Composite of Unique identifier(s) used by Historic Environment Records
    N

    DHEUID_1
    DHEUID_1
    Primary Unique identifier used by Historic England
    Y

    DHEUID_2
    DHEUID_2
    Secondary Unique identifier used by Historic England. Used where a feature may relate to more than one Historic England record
    N

    DHEUID_3 ~ 5
    DHEUID_3 ~ 5
    Additional Unique identifier used by Historic England. Used where a feature may relate to more than one Historic England record
    N


    HE_URL1
    HE_URL1
    URL link to the relevant Historic England record in Heritage Gateway
    Y

    HE_URL2
    HE_URL2
    URL link to the relevant Historic England record in Heritage Gateway
    N

    HE_URL3 ~ 5
    HE_URL3 ~ 5
    URL link to the relevant Historic England record in Heritage Gateway
    N


    DHERNO_1
    DHERNO_1
    Primary unique identifier used by the relevant Historic Environment Record (HER)
    Y


    DHERNO_2
    DHERNO_2
    Secondary unique identifier used by the relevant Historic Environment Record. Used where a feature may relate to more than one HER record
    N


    DHERNO_3 ~ 5
    DHERNO_3 ~ 5
    Tertiary unique identifier used by the relevant Historic Environment Record. Used where a feature may relate to more than one HER record
    N

    DHERPREF_1
    DHERPREF_1
    Primary alternative unique identifier used by the relevant Historic Environment Record. Some HERs use the same number for both the HER No. and the reference to link to the record; others use different numbers and give them different names e.g MonUID
    Y

    DHERPREF_2
    DHERPREF_2
    Secondary alternative unique identifier used by the relevant Historic Environment Record. Some HERs use the same number for both the HER No. and the reference to link to the record; others use different numbers and give them different names e.g MonUID Used where a feature may relate to more than one HER record
    N

    DHERPREF_3 ~ 5
    DHERPREF_3 ~ 5
    Additional alternative unique identifier used by the relevant Historic Environment Record. Some HERs use the same number for both the HER No. and the reference to link to the record; others use different numbers and give them different names e.g MonUID Used where a feature may relate to more than one HER record
    N


    HER_LINK_1
    HER_LINK_1
    URL link to the relevant Historic Environment Record (HER) record in Heritage Gateway
    Y


    HER_LINK_2
    HER_LINK_2
    URL link to the relevant Historic Environment Record (HER) record in Heritage Gateway
    N


    HER_LINK_3 ~ 5
    HER_LINK_3 ~ 5
    URL link to the relevant Historic Environment Record (HER) record in Heritage Gateway
    N

The data are symbolised initially based on their physical form i.e. cut/negative (e.g. pit, ditch etc) or built/positive (e.g. mound, bank etc)

    Layer name
    Colour (Hex)
    Description

Bank #A50026 Used to outline banks, platforms, mounds and spoil heaps.

Ditch #313695 Used to outline cut features such as ditches, ponds, pits or hollow ways.

    Extent of Feature
    #FDAE61 (Dashes)
    Used to depict the extent of large area features such as airfields, military camps, or major extraction.


    Ridge and Furrow Alignment
    #74ADD1
    Line or arrow(s) (hand drawn not a symbol) depicting the direction of the rigs in a block of ridge and furrow.


    Ridge and Furrow Area
    #74ADD1 (Dots)
    Used to outline a block of ridge and furrow .


    Slope
    #4575B4
     The top of the “T” indicates the top of slope and the body indicates the length and direction of the slope. Used to depict scarps, edges of platforms and other large earthworks.

    Structure
    #F46D43
     Used to outline structures including stone, concrete, metal and timber constructions e.g., buildings, Nissen huts, tents, radio masts, camouflaged airfields, wrecks, fish traps, etc.

You can find instructions on how to create a QGIS style file (.qml) to recreate our mapping symbology in QGIS via our Open Data Downloads page under Aerial Investigation Mapping data.Monument ExtentsThis layer shows the general extent of the monuments, created from multiple sources, primarily aerial imagery, but referring to other sources such as earthwork surveys, documentary evidence and any information available from the relevant Historic Environment Record etc. This differs from the 'Detailed Mapping' layer, which shows the individual features as they appear on the ground.

    Field name
    Field alias
    Description
    Mandatory Y/N


    LAYER
    LAYER
    The layer used for mapping
    Y

    HE_UID
    HE_UID
    Composite of Unique identifier(s) used by Historic England
    Y

    HER_NO
    HER_NO
    Composite of Unique identifier(s) used by Historic Environement Records
    N


    HE_UID1
    HE_UID1
    Primary Unique identifier used by Historic England
    Y

    HE_UID2
    HE_UID2
    Secondary Unique identifier used by Historic England. Used where a feature may relate to more than one Historic England record
    N

    HE_UID3 ~ 5
    HE-UID3 ~ 5
    Additional Unique identifier used by Historic England. Used where a feature may relate to more than one Historic England record
    N


    HE_URL1
    HE_URL1
    URL link to the relevant Historic England record in Heritage Gateway
    Y

    HE_URL2
    HE_URL2
    URL link to the relevant Historic England record in Heritage Gateway
    N

    HE_URL3 ~ 5
    HE_URL3 ~ 5
    URL link to the relevant Historic England record in Heritage Gateway
    N


    HERNO_1
    HERNO_1
    Primary unique identifier used by the relevant Historic Environment Record (HER)
    Y


    HERNO_2
    HERNO_2
    Secondary unique identifier used by the relevant Historic Environment Record. Used where a feature may relate to more than one HER record
    N


    HERNO_3 ~ 25
    HERNO_3 ~ 25
    Tertiary unique identifier used by the relevant Historic Environment Record. Used where a feature may relate to more than one HER record
    N

    HERPREF_1
    HERPREF_1
    Primary alternative unique identifier used by the relevant Historic Environment Record. Some HERs use the same number for both the HER No. and the reference to link to the record; others use different numbers and give them different names e.g MonUID
    Y

    HERPREF_2
    HERPREF_2
    Secondary alternative unique identifier used by the relevant Historic Environment Record. Some HERs use the same number for both the HER No. and the reference to link to the record; others use different numbers and give them different names e.g MonUID Used where a feature may relate to more than one HER record
    N

    HERPREF_3 ~ 25
    HERPREF_3 ~ 25
    Additional alternative unique identifier used by the relevant Historic Environment Record. Some HERs use the same number for both the HER No. and the reference to link to the record; others use different numbers and give them different names e.g MonUID Used where a feature may relate to more than one HER record
    N


    HER_LINK_1
    HER_LINK_1
    URL link to the relevant Historic Environment Record (HER) record in Heritage Gateway
    Y


    HER_LINK_2
    HER_LINK_2
    URL link to the relevant Historic Environment Record (HER) record in Heritage Gateway
    N


    HER_LINK_3 ~ 25
    HER_LINK_3 ~ 25
    URL link to the relevant Historic Environment Record (HER) record in Heritage Gateway
    N


    PROJECT
    project
    Project name
    Y

Project AreaThis layer shows the extent of the

National Library of Scotland Historic Maps APIHistorical Maps of Great Britain for use in mashups and ArcGIS Onlinehttps://nls.tileserver.com/https://maps.nls.uk/projects/api/index.htmlThis seamless historic map can be:embedded in your own websiteused for research purposesused as a backdrop for your own markers or geographic dataused to create derivative work (such as OpenStreetMap) from it.The mapping is based on out-of-copyright Ordnance Survey maps, dating from the 1920s to the 1940s.The map can be directly opened in a web browser by opening the Internet address: https://nls.tileserver.com/The map is ready for natural zooming and panning with finger pinching and dragging.How to embed the historic map in your websiteThe easiest way of embedding the historical map in your website is to copy < paste this HTML code into your website page. Simple embedding (try: hello.html):You can automatically position the historic map to open at a particular place or postal address by appending the name as a "q" parameter - for example: ?q=edinburgh Embedding with a zoom to a place (try: placename.html):You can automatically position the historic map to open at particular latitude and longitude coordinates: ?lat=51.5&lng=0&zoom=11. There are many ways of obtaining geographic coordinates. Embedding with a zoom to coordinates (try: coordinates.html):The map can also automatically detect the geographic location of the visitor to display the place where you are right now, with ?q=auto Embedding with a zoom to coordinates (try: auto.html):How to use the map in a mashupThe historic map can be used as a background map for your own data. You can place markers on top of it, or implement any functionality you want. We have prepared a simple to use JavaScript API to access to map from the popular APIs like Google Maps API, Microsoft Bing SDK or open-source OpenLayers or KHTML. To use our map in your mashups based on these tools you should include our API in your webpage: ... ...

This dataset contains summary data regarding historical (1930s-40s) land use and land-use change between 1930s and 2007 according to broad land-use categories. Data provided are summary values at the 10-km grid square 'hectad' level of the British National Grid, specifying the proportion and proportion of change in broad land-use categories.

Historical data are based on the first Land Utilisation Survey of Great Britain (Stamp 1931). For England and Wales, digitisation of the historical maps contains information supplied by Natural England, based on methods developed by Baily et al. (2011). For Scotland, map images were digitised using the R package HistMapR (Auffret et al. 2017). Both methods involve processing and classifying images based on the colour of the historical land-use map categories. Classified maps were then resampled to the 25m resolution of the modern UK Land Cover Map 2007 (Morton et al. 2011), and both historical and modern land-use categories were adjusted to produce broad categories of equivalent land use: Arable, Grassland, Urban, Woodland, Agriculturally-Improved Grassland and Surface Water. In Scotland, surface water from a modern map is used for the historical time period due to issues in classifying this category. Pixels within a 75m buffer of the modern road network were removed due to the disproportionate size of roads shown in the historical maps, and pixels falling into some coastal land-use categories in the modern maps were removed due to a lack of equivalent in the historical maps. The proportions of remaining pixels within each hectad, and the change in the proportion over time was then calculated. Full details of data creation and processing can be found in Suggitt et al. (2023), and more information on the data files can be found in the readme.

The extent of the data files: GB_LandUseChange_Data.csv - table containing summary data, 2802 rows and 15 columns GB_LandUseChange_LowlandGrasslandChange.csv - table containing data on lowland grassland change, 2802 rows and 10 columns

The file GB_LandUseChange_Raster.tif is a GeoTIFF file primarily intended to be used with the R script. It can also be opened using other GIS software.

If R is installed with required packages (see sessionInfo.txt), the file Rplots.pdf can be generated running: Rscript GB_LandUseChange_Code.R

References:

Auffret, A.G., Kimberley, A., Plue, J., Skånes, H., Jakobsson, S., Waldén, E., Wennbom, M., Wood, H., Bullock, J.M., Cousins, S.A.O., Gartz, M., Hooftman, D.A.P., Tränk, L., 2017, HistMapR: Rapid digitization of historical land-use maps in R, Methods in Ecology and Evolution 8: 1453-1457. https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.12788

Baily, B., Riley, M., Aucott, P. & Southall, H., 2011, Extracting digital data from the First Land Utilisation Survey of Great Britain – Methods, issues and potential, Applied Geography 31: 959-968. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2010.12.007

Morton, D., Rowland, C., Wood, C., Meek, L., Marston, C., Smith, G., Wadsworth, R., Simpson, I.C., 2011, Final Report for LCM2007 – the new UK Land Cover Map, Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Wallingford, UK. http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/14854

Stamp, D.L., 1931, The Land Utilisation Survey of Britain. Geographical Journal 78: 40-47. https://doi.org/10.2307/1784994

Suggitt, A.J., Wheatley, C.J., Aucott, P., Beale, C.M., Fox, R., Hill, J.K., Isaac, N.J.B., Martay, B., Southall, H., Thomas, C.D., Walker, K.J., Auffret, A.G., 2023, Linking climate warming and land conversion to species’ range changes across Great Britain, Nature Communications, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-42475-0

These maps are based on the Ordnance Survey 'Old Series' One-Inch maps of England and Wales. They were the first 1:63 360 geological map series produced by the Geological Survey in England and Wales. Sheets were initially published as full sheets, and later as quarter sheets (NW, NE, SW, SE). Earlier maps are hand-coloured, later maps are colour-printed. The maps show both solid and drift geology. The OS 'Old Series' maps extended as far north as a line drawn between Preston and the Humber. To the north of this, the maps use the same sheetlines as the 1:63 360 New Series, and carry two sheet numbers, which refer to the Old Series (91-110) and New Series (1-73) numbering. These maps are common to both series. A sheet that covers the Isle of Man is also included in the series. Geological maps represent a geologist's compiled interpretation of the geology of an area. A geologist will consider the data available at the time, including measurements and observations collected during field campaigns, as well as their knowledge of geological processes and the geological context to create a model of the geology of an area. This model is then fitted to a topographic basemap and drawn up at the appropriate scale, with generalization if necessary, to create a geological map, which is a representation of the geological model. Explanatory notes and vertical and horizontal cross sections may be published with the map. Geological maps may be created to show various aspects of the geology, or themes. These maps are hard-copy paper records stored in the National Geoscience Data Centre (NGDC) and are delivered as digital scans through the BGS website.

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.

An ARC GIS PRO shapefile mapping the turnpike roads in England and Wales for the 18th and early 19th century. The data includes details of the Turnpike Acts, years of operation, the quality of the road and the routes used by Mail coaches. The data forms the basis of the paper "Government, trusts, and the making of better roads in early nineteenth century England & Wales by Rosevear, Bogart & Shaw-Taylor.

This layer of the map based index (GeoIndex) shows the availability of 1:63360 scale geological maps. The maps are available for most of England and Wales and show early geological mapping covering the OS Old Series one inch map sheet areas.

The Historic Flood Map is a GIS layer showing the maximum extent of individual Recorded Flood Outlines from river, the sea and groundwater springs that meet a set criteria. It shows areas of land that have previously been subject to flooding in England. This excludes flooding from surface water, except in areas where it is impossible to determine whether the source is fluvial or surface water but the dominant source is fluvial.

The majority of records began in 1946 when predecessor bodies to the Environment Agency started collecting detailed information about flooding incidents, although we hold limited details about flooding incidents prior to this date.

If an area is not covered by the Historic Flood Map it does not mean that the area has never flooded, only that we do not currently have records of flooding in this area that meet the criteria for inclusion. It is also possible that the pattern of flooding in this area has changed and that this area would now flood or not flood under different circumstances. Outlines that don’t meet this criteria are stored in the Recorded Flood Outlines dataset.

The Historic Flood Map takes into account the presence of defences, structures, and other infrastructure where they existed at the time of flooding. It will include flood extents that may have been affected by overtopping, breaches or blockages.

Flooding is shown to the land and does not necessarily indicate that properties were flooded internally.

The aims of the project were :
to ascertain how many enclosure, parochial assessment, drainage and sanitary maps survive in England and Wales;
to analyse their cartographic characteristics, including scale, date and mapmaker;
to analyse the way in which central and local government and their agencies used maps as instruments with which to implement policy relating to the ownership, use and taxation of land;
to analyse regional and temporal variations in the coverage of England and Wales by various types of map;
to obtain data on historic parish and township boundaries in England and Wales.

This dataset is about books. It has 1 row and is filtered where the book is Historic towns : maps and plans of towns and cities in the British Isles, with historical commentaries, from earliest times to 1800. It features 7 columns including author, publication date, language, and book publisher.

The 1:63 360 / 1:50 000 scale map series are the most useful scale for most purposes. They provide almost complete coverage of onshore Great Britain. The BGS collection of 1:63 360 and 1:50 000 scale maps comprises two map series: - Geological Survey of England and Wales 1:63 360 / 1:50 000 Geological Map Series [New Series]. These maps are based on the Ordnance Survey One-inch New Series topographic basemaps and provide almost complete coverage of England and Wales, with the exception of sheet 180 (Knighton). The quarter-sheets of 1:63 360 Old Series sheets 91 to 110 coincide with sheets 1 to 73 of the New Series maps. These earlier maps often carry two sheet numbers which refer to the Old Series and the New Series. - Geological Survey of Scotland 1:63 360 / 1:50 000 Geological Map Series. These maps are based on the Ordnance Survey First, Second, Third and Fourth editions of the One-inch map of Scotland. The maps used the most recent topographic basemap available at the time. In the Western Isles, one-inch mapping was abandoned and replaced by maps at 1:100 000 scale, which are associated with this series. Sheets were traditionally issued at 1:63 360 scale, with the first 1:50 000 maps appearing in 1972. Sheets at 1:50 000 scale may be either facsimile enlargements of an existing 1:63 360 sheets, or may contain new geology and cartography. The latter bear the additional series designation '1:50 000 series'. Within the Scottish series, new mapping at 1:50 000 scale was split into east and west sheets. For example, the original one-inch sheet 32 became 1:50 000 sheets 32E and 32W. A number of irregular sheets were also introduced with the new 1:50 000 scale mapping. There are a number of irregular special sheets within both series. Geological maps represent a geologist's compiled interpretation of the geology of an area. A geologist will consider the data available at the time, including measurements and observations collected during field campaigns, as well as their knowledge of geological processes and the geological context to create a model of the geology of an area. This model is then fitted to a topographic basemap and drawn up at the appropriate scale, with generalization if necessary, to create a geological map, which is a representation of the geological model. Explanatory notes and vertical and horizontal cross sections may be published with the map. Geological maps may be created to show various aspects of the geology, or themes. The most common map themes held by BGS are solid (later referred to as bedrock) and drift (later referred to as superficial). These maps are, for the most part, hard-copy paper records stored in the National Geoscience Data Centre (NGDC) and are delivered as digital scans through the BGS website.

In the middle of 2001 Roger Kain and Richard Oliver, from the University of Exeter, published a substantial work entitled Historic Parishes of England and Wales: Electronic Map - Gazetteer- Metadata. This was the final product of a project aimed at locating and mapping the boundaries of parish and sub-parish units of the mid-nineteenth century. The authors published the results in a series of electronic maps supplied on CD-ROM. Each one of these 115 maps contain a scanned 1”:1 mile OS New Popular Series map, overlain by the boundaries. A reference number can be found in each of the polygons that can then be used to look up information about that parish in gazetteer in an accompanying book. A major limitation of this work is that although the boundaries are in digital form, they are divided into 115 tiles, none of which have any spatial co-ordinate information inherent in them. This means that although the maps are invaluable as a reference tool, they can not be used together within a GIS to select, analyse and present historic information. We have therefore created a single digital map of the boundaries to provide a single, continuous coverage of polygons, each of which contain the information provided by Kain and Oliver in their accompanying book. This information includes the parish name, Ancient County, and a reference number that coincides with entries for that parish in the 1851 census report. It is recommended that users also order disc 1 of study 4348; Historic Parishes of England and Wales : an Electronic Map of Boundaries before 1850 with a Gazetteer and Metadata Please note: this study does not include information on named individuals and would therefore not be useful for personal family history research.

These geolocated datasets derive from annotations of Christopher Saxton's County Maps of England & Wales, annotations of published volumes of John Leland's Itineraries in Wales, and annotations of Wenceslaus Hollar's vignettes intended for publication in Britannia.

Please see the GitHub repository for details of the sources used and visualisation of their geographic scope.

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 '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: 285,846Sample size: 10,000Total 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

Oliver R. (2013). Ordnance Survey maps: A concise guide for historians. The Charles Close Society. London, UK. 3rd Ed. 320 pages

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)

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

This map of Medieval England contains a wealth of historical information and sites as well as beautiful illustrations. Published in October 1979 as a companion to the modern map "British Isles".>> Order print map <<

The Historic Environment Opportunity Map for New Woodland dataset identifies areas in England that may be suitable for new woodland, based solely on available Historic Environment data. The dataset categorises land by different opportunity ratings to reflect the potential suitability of land for woodland creation while acknowledging areas of uncertainty due to data availability. The purpose of this dataset is to guide landowners, planners, and decision-makers in considering woodland creation from a historic environment perspective. It should be noted that this dataset only considers the Historic Environment and therefore the opportunity ratings do not guarantee or preclude approval for woodland creation proposals. As any forestry proposal could have the potential to affect the Historic Environment you should contact your local historic environment service. The local historic environment service can provide further data to support woodland creation proposals. NHLE is the official, up to date register of all nationally protected historic buildings and sites in England. SHINE is a single, nationally consistent dataset of non-designated historic and archaeological features from across England that could benefit from land management schemes. The opportunity ratings are as defined: · Favourable - Areas deemed suitable for new woodland on consideration of available Historic Environment data. · Neutral - Areas deemed neither favourable nor unfavourable for new woodland on consideration of available Historic Environment data. Proposals in these areas will require additional consideration of the Historic Environment on a case-by-case basis. · Unclassified - Areas, where SHINE data has been supplied, with no assigned opportunity rating. This illustrates a current absence of recorded data from a Historic Environment perspective. However, as SHINE data is included in the dataset for this area, a degree of confidence may be inferred when considering the absence of historic environment features. · Unclassified (No SHINE supplied) - Areas, where SHINE data has not been supplied, with no assigned opportunity rating. This illustrates a current absence of recorded data from a Historic Environment perspective. · Unsuitable - Areas deemed unsuitable for new woodland on consideration of available Historic Environment data.

Georeferenced map of 'Old and New Town of Edinburgh and Leith with the proposed docks' By John Ainslie (1804) as part of the Visualising Urban Geographies project- view other versions of the map at http://geo.nls.uk/urbhist/resources_maps.html. Scanned map. This dataset was first accessioned in the EDINA ShareGeo Open repository on 2011-05-31 and migrated to Edinburgh DataShare on 2017-02-21.

INDEX VILLARIS: or, An Alphabetical Table of all the cities, market-towns, parishes, villages, and private seats in England and Wales was first published by John Adams in 1680. This dataset consists of a transcription of all 24,000 place-names listed in Index Villaris, together with the the symbols representing Adams's categorisation of each place and modern versions of the place-names and the counties and administrative hundred in which they lie or lay. It also comprises a transcription of the latitude and longitude recorded by Adams, and another set of coordinates generated by the application of a thin plate spline transformation calculated by matching some 2,000 place-names to the accurately-georeferenced CAMPOP Towns dataset.

The dataset is being checked, corrected, and refined to include linkage to other geospatial references such as OpenStreetMap and Wikidata, and will in due course be made available in the Linked Places Format.