Old Maps

Slightly off-topic but indulge me.

I’m fascinated by maps and mapping. So if you want to compare how things have changed in the last 60 years go and have a browse around this free OS map website. http://www.npemap.org.uk

You can find a complete set of scans of the New Popular Edition OS maps for Scotland, England and Wales.

There’s railway lines everywhere as these map predate Dr. Beeching by 15 years. No motorways and bypasses! I can remember as a kid going on holiday from Liverpool to North Wales and it taking 4 hours to get to LLandudno. Well it was the awful bottleneck at St. Asaph. A journey that probably takes 1hr 30mins now. But seeing just how many main roads there weren’t back then brings home the dramatic change there has been.

Anyway, go and have a scoot about and see how your local has changed. Whilst doing that, bang in your postcode so that the free postcode database benefits.

Andy
MM0FMF

In reply to MM0FMF:
Great site Andy… Thanks for the heads up…

73 Marc GØAZS

In reply to MM0FMF:

Excellent website find Andy.

Interesting to see Horse Head Moor NP-021 is given as 1985 feet and Birks Fell NP-031 as 2001 feet. I wonder which map version got it the wrong way around so giving Marilyn baggers and SOTA addicts two bites of the cherry.

73, Gerald

In reply to MM0FMF:

St Asaph is still a bottle neck! Hate having to go into there when I am in work in Termerichan.

Helen GW7AAU

In reply to G4OIG:

Interesting to see Horse Head Moor NP-021 is given as 1985 feet and
Birks Fell NP-031 as 2001 feet.

The maps on the site are all around 1948 vintage. Mr. Hotine and his crew were out building trig points in 1948 and surveying like mad. Trig point S5470 (Loughrigg Hill) was built in May 1949 and trig point S5500 Yockenthwaite Moor was built 3rd August 1949. Horse Head Moor is S5496 and would have been built between May and August 1949. So the trig points used to accurately survey that part of the country were built after the maps you were looking at were printed.

However, my 2006 Anquet shows Horse Head as 605m and Birks as 610m which match the figures you’ve given when converted back into old money. So the heights haven’t changed on the maps in 59 years.

Looking at some of the MARHOFN newsletters shows that this Birks Fell/Horse Head Moor lark has been going on for at least 10 years. The problem being that the trig isn’t at the highest point and it’s all a bit featureless and flat. Of course if enough Marilyn baggers tramp over the two summits to make sure they’ve bagged the highest point, whichever it is, they’ll cause enough erosion to make the 609m spot at SD893768 the Marilyn! :slight_smile: See these photos of Cow Close Fell at SD884727 http://www.trigpointinguk.com/photos/P33903.jpg and http://www.trigpointinguk.com/photos/P31384.jpg for an example of peat erosion at work.

All fascinating stuff.

Andy
MM0FMF

In reply to MM0FMF:
You may already know this, Andy, but the Geological survey maps are colour overprinted on OS 1 inch maps of about 1895 vintage, this has been done deliberately because while the survey is sufficiently accurate the towns and cities are much smaller and obscure less of the geology. I find it fascinating to compare my small collection with modern maps!

I don’t know if the GS maps can be seen online, anybody else know?

73

Brian G8ADD

In reply to MM0FMF:

Of course if enough Marilyn baggers tramp
over the two summits to make sure they’ve bagged the highest point,
whichever it is, they’ll cause enough erosion to make the 609m spot at
SD893768 the Marilyn! :slight_smile:

Actually, adding to the Marilyn baggers efforts, if we all activate NP-031 and do a bit of boot scuffing while we are there, then perhaps we can get NP-021 reinstated as the Marilyn, Hi! This thing be could see-sawing back and forth for several decades.

Peat erosion en route to a summit is actually one of the things that I dislike most. It’s bad enough getting to Kinder Scout from Edale (did I really carry a car battery up there back in 1981 to operate 10GHz?), but a summit like Esgeiriau Gwynion GW/NW-031 can be an absolute nightmare. I’m glad I tackled it at the end of a protracted period of dry weather.

73,

Gerald

In reply to G4OIG:

Reminds me of the Hugh Grant film… “The Englishman Who went up a hill and came down a mountain”.

Very funny film, well worth watching.

73 Mike