Historic maps

This is an outline of the history of mapping in the British Isles, concentrating on the use of maps for building history. For links to online collections of historic maps by region see Image Indexes.

Plymouth from harbour chart c.1539 (British Library)

Bird's-eye views

Early maps were bird's-eye views, showing buildings in elevation, with varying degrees of accuracy. They were not surveyed to modern standards and should not be taken as perfect scale drawings. There are very few for the British Isles before Henry VIII commissioned maps of English coasts and harbours (right). Throughout the Tudor and Stuart periods map conventions were in a state of flux and varied from one surveyor to another. In general urban surveyors gave closer attention to prominent buildings than to the mass of ordinary dwellings. Churches would be drawn individually, while houses might just be indicated by rows of identical roofed boxes. A county surveyor such as Saxton on the other hand might indicate villages and towns by a conventional church symbol, identical from place to place. But no assumptions should be made, as there is so much variety.


Hooker's map of Exeter 1587 (British Library Maps)The Particuler Description of England 1588 [by William Smith], ed. H.B.Wheatley and E.W.Ashbee (1879), has bird's-eye and perspective views of a number of cities and towns, such as Bristol. Some of Smith's work was used by G.Braun and F.Hogenberg, Civitates Orbis Terrarum (1572-1618), facsimile edn. (Amsterdam 1966), which has engraved bird's-eye views of: Bristol, Cambridge, Canterbury, Chester, Cork, Dublin, Edinburgh, Exeter (right), Galway, Lancaster, Limerick, London, Norwich, Shrewsbury, and York (and perspectives of Oxford and Windsor).

A new survey was a major event throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. It was far more common for maps to be reprinted or copied (sometimes inaccurately) time after time, becoming increasingly out of date. For instance Braun and Hogenberg's views of Dublin, Lancaster and Shrewsbury were derived from John Speed's Theatre of the Empire of Great Britain (1612), which has bird's-eye views of major towns inset in the corners of his county maps.

Maps could be commissioned for military reasons, for property owners or as evidence in legal cases, for example these interesting maps of the Plantation of Londonderry by the London Companies. The value of accurate maps for planning purposes became increasingly obvious. After the Great Fire of London in 1666, a measured survey of the devastated city was made by John Leake and others and engraved by Wenceslaus Hollar. It set new standards. Notice that buildings undamaged by the fire are shown in bird's-eye view, but the fire-damaged area in plan.

James Millerd's map of Bristol in 1671 was also based on a measured survey, but still used the familiar bird's-eye view. It had vignettes of major buildings around the border, as did some other 17th-century town plans. A few significant buildings were marked on the map by letters, with their names given in a key. The use of such keys was quite common and can be seen more clearly in this zoomable map of Edinburgh c.1647 by James Gordon of Rothiemay.

The start of modern mapping

In the 18th century more accurate surveys began to appear in the flat ground plan we know today as maps. Still they tended to show some significant buildings in elevation, like the ward plans of London in Strype's 1720 edition of Stow's Survey of London. There was a rise in the publication of local history and guidebooks, often illustrated with a fold-out map.    

Estate and parish maps, like the Baker/Fosbrook map of Painswick (1820), were drawn up for landowners, often on a scale large enough to show each building with reasonable accuracy. Many can be found in the local county record office. Hundreds of maps were created in conjunction with land enclosure acts, which may provide clues to the dating of farms. (There is an online catalogue of enclosure maps of England and Wales.)

In the first half of the 19th century, maps continued to be produced by independent surveyors, such as Greenwood's plan of London in 1827. However local authorities increasingly commissioned their own official surveys, and State surveyors crept slowly across the whole British Isles. Subsequent maps and plans were mainly derived from official sources.

Ordnance Survey

Detail from the OS map of Bristol 2nd edn 1903.The Ordnance Survey was established in 1791 and gradually mapped Great Britain at a scale of one inch to the mile. 351 of the original preliminary drawings for this survey are in the British Library and now available online at Collect Britain. They cover most of England and Wales south of a line between Liverpool and Hull. Drawn on a larger scale than the final printed maps - two inches or six inches to the mile - they show more detail.

As early as 1824 it was decided to to survey Ireland at six inches to the mile. Ireland's Boundary Surveyor, Sir Richard Griffith, was not only charged with this project, but with a valuation of property. He conveniently linked the two together. Griffith's Valuation [1848-1864] gives the names of occupiers of each holding, and a valuation of their lands and buildings, pinpointing their location by reference to the OS map. The valuation was published in several volumes and data from the full set is available online through Irish Origins together with the associated maps and town plans (at a fee). The manuscript records of the survey are in the National Library of Ireland.

The Irish Survey was so successful that the six-inch scale was adopted in Great Britain in 1840. Even more helpfully for building historians, a scale of 25 inches to the mile was initiated in 1854. By the end of the century all cultivated areas were mapped at the 25-inch scale, which showed every building in outline ground plan to a high standard of accuracy.

All County Series maps at 25-inch and 6-inch to the mile scales published between 1843 and 1939 are available to those in UK higher education online at EDINA Digimap. The 6-inch scale OS maps of England, Scotland and Wales (1846-99) are also online at British History Online and Old Maps. The National Library of Scotland has large scale OS maps of Scottish towns (1847-95) online at its digital library, while British History Online makes available large-scale maps of Birmingham, Cardiff, Chester, Chichester, Colchester, Coventry, Durham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Lichfield, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Oxford, Portsmouth, Salisbury, Southampton, Winchester, Worcester, York and much of central London. 

Tithe Maps

The wonderfully useful tithe maps were drawn up for each parish in England and Wales following the Tithe Commutation Act of 1836. Not all are to the standard the Act envisaged, but the ideal was an accurate large-scale map, which showed every building in outline ground plan. The associated apportionment gives a brief description (such as 'farm house and barn') together with the names of the owner and occupier. Online examples include that of South Stoneham, Hampshire and a collection of parishes in the Lower Dove area on the Derbyshire/Staffordshire border. One copy of each was lodged with the Crown; these can be found in the National Archives. A second copy went to the appropriate bishop and a third to the parish authorities. You are likely to find either the diocesan or parochial copy (or both) in the relevant county record office.

Fire insurance plans

Detail of Goad's Insurance Plan of Leeds (1886) Fire insurance plans were were first drawn up by fire insurance companies in the late 18th century. Charles E. Goad began a fire insurance map-making company in Canada in 1875. From 1885 the company had a London office and is still mapping British urban centres, though it ceased making fire insurance plans in 1970. The Goad insurance plans were usually at 1 inch to 40 feet, with a wealth of detail on industrial building use and construction. Brick and stone buildings were shown in red, iron and wooden buildings in yellow, and glass skylights in blue. A standard notation showed the number of storeys, the state of party walls and location of doors and windows. Many can be found in local studies libraries, while the British Library holds a comprehensive collection.

Valuation Office Maps

The Valuation Office Maps of 1910-15 sprang from The Finance (1909-1910) Act. In order to levy a property tax, a nation-wide survey was carried out of all workshops, houses, farms etc., which recorded details such as the owner, occupier, and value. Sometimes the date of erection and the number of rooms might be noted. The surveyors made maps based on the Ordnance Survey to identify each property, entering the information on it into Field Books. Where their working plans and books survive, they can be found in local record offices. The final plans and Field Books are held by the National Archives. See the leaflet Valuation Office Records: The Finance (1909-1910) Act. 

Modern maps

A modern map or aerial photograph can be a good starting point. Seeing the building in its topographical context may trigger ideas - why was it built in that location? What is the relationship to other buildings around?

Sources