The Ordnance Survey Drawings are a series of 351 of the original preliminary drawings made by the surveyors of the
Ordnance Survey
Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of 1745. There was a ...
between the 1780s and 1840 in preparation for the publication of the one-inch-to-the-mile "Old Series" of maps of England and Wales. The drawings are now held in the
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the Briti ...
, and cover most of England south of a line between
Liverpool
Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...
and
Kingston upon Hull
Kingston upon Hull, usually abbreviated to Hull, is a port city and unitary authority in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England.
It lies upon the River Hull at its confluence with the Humber Estuary, inland from the North Sea and south- ...
, as well as parts of Wales.
The drawings provide a unique record of landscapes and land use in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, of the expanding canal and
turnpike road networks, and of
place-names. They are now of interest to a range of researchers, including
landscape historians,
social historians
Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not.
Etymology
The word "social" derives from ...
,
transport historians,
students of place-names, and
genealogist
Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kins ...
s.
They can be seen on the Online Gallery at the British Library website.
References
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Ordnance Survey