20 year old OS maps...

[tracker1972]

Whilst gazing wistfully across OL1 and OL24 I noticed the dates... 2005 and 1995...
Now, I am guessing that the rate of erosion probably hadn't changed the fundamental lie of the land, but one woodland straddling the two was open access on one, and not on the other. Got me thinking about what else, rights of way and the like, might have changed.

Do any of you have a rolling programme of map swaps? Do the OS publish the number of changes for each revision (if they do, I've failed to find it). Or do I have to suffer new maps with the included digital downloads? (Something I would actually quite like, but wouldn't do just for the digital...)

Any ideas?

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[Tonyuk]

Have a look at online mapping sites that provide OS maps. The Hug is the place i use. Check the map you have for the route against the online one and note any major differences. If everything seems about the same then just keep using it. I have a few maps from the early 90's that apart from being a bit tatty are still totally usable.

Tonyuk

 

[John Fenna]

I still use some old 1:50000 Series one maps..... 1976...

 

[santaman2000]

Generally speaking, old maps become historical documents just by virtue of showing how things used to be. I still use old maps to find things no longer shown on current ones.

 

[John Fenna]

Some places do not change much over the years - others do!
I have reprints of maps of my home area dating back to 1819 and I could still happily navigate the hills with them!
I will be taking some of my 1976 vintage maps with me to Scotland next week as I am confidant that the hills have not moved...
If any Brits here fancy old maps of their area I can recommend Cassini Historical Maps which are enlarged and re-projected copies of old maps that match current OS Landranger map sheets
www.cassinimaps.com - no affiliation etc

 

[tracker1972]

Have a look at online mapping sites that provide OS maps. The Hug is the place i use. Check the map you have for the route against the online one and note any major differences. If everything seems about the same then just keep using it. I have a few maps from the early 90's that apart from being a bit tatty are still totally usable.

Tonyuk

Thanks for the tip, looks like a useful place to check up on if it is worth even considering a swap or not.

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[tracker1972]

Santaman2000 and John, couldn't agree more about the usefulness of old maps. One of the local history projects I did at school included visiting the local library and looking at maps back to sometime in the 1700s I think. Presenting the kids with a sheaf of maps of the village with the task of spotting the changes map by map, plotting the rise and fall of mining in the village was great. Not as great as the hours studying the maps myself though!

It looked like I may invest in a couple of new local maps if only to get the digital access so I can easily print maps of exact parts of routes to hand out to whoever I'm with. As mentioned on another thread, a love of maps and the potential for adventure they contain is spreading to my kids...

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[Imagedude]

Never really got on with the newfangled 1:50,000 maps, I still use my dad's one inch maps...

 

[Quixoticgeek]

Access land didn't exist in 1995, so it's no surprise that it isn't on the map then.

I would personally suggest that any map should be be as recent as you can justify. I once tried to cycle from London to Canterbury, I had a map, and I followed it some of the way out of London before realising that some of the roads I was on were not on the map. So I took a sign for Dover and followed the road, a main road with 1 lane each way became 2 lanes each way. Two lanes each way became three lanes each way which soon became three lanes each way with blue flashing lights.

As I chatted to the friendly police officer, we both looked at the map, before realising that it's 1974 survey date meant is missed off some landscape features, like the M2, the M20, the M25, and well, much of the building work of Southern Britain... The kind police officer escorted me from the M20 and I navigated by luck, dead reckoning, and a general hope of finding the national cycle network (I never did)...

So yeah, upto date maps are well worth having, the landscape changes...

J

 

[tracker1972]

Access land didn't exist in 1995, so it's no surprise that it isn't on the map then.

I would personally suggest that any map should be be as recent as you can justify. I once tried to cycle from London to Canterbury, I had a map, and I followed it some of the way out of London before realising that some of the roads I was on were not on the map. So I took a sign for Dover and followed the road, a main road with 1 lane each way became 2 lanes each way. Two lanes each way became three lanes each way which soon became three lanes each way with blue flashing lights.

As I chatted to the friendly police officer, we both looked at the map, before realising that it's 1974 survey date meant is missed off some landscape features, like the M2, the M20, the M25, and well, much of the building work of Southern Britain... The kind police officer escorted me from the M20 and I navigated by luck, dead reckoning, and a general hope of finding the national cycle network (I never did)...

So yeah, upto date maps are well worth having, the landscape changes...

J

Although not quite that extreme, that's the kind of thing I would want to avoid!

The accessible bit was woodland, I don't know if the Forestry Commission opened up with access land?

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[Quixoticgeek]

Not all Forestry commission land is access land. What's the grid reference of the area you're looking at?

Btw, dash4it.co.uk are very cheap for maps, and bloomin' quick too. No connection other than happy customer.

J

 

[Joonsy]

another thing that can change on old versus new maps are actual public footpaths/rights of way, some have been diverted and some have been discontinued altogether. Newer maps also show 'permissive' paths which were not shown on the old maps (paths which are not public but where landowners allow the public to walk). If you are walking footpaths it's best to know if they are up to date.

I still have some old maps I used in the 1970s, including the first series 1:25000 which had blue covers and the second series which had green covers, looking over these old maps it's interesting to see the various changes, the magnetic variation printed on the maps has changed as well though you can get that off the internet of course. One of the big differences in the midlands is the planting of the national forest, large areas have been completely transformed.

It's best to use the most up to date maps, they have far more information and many things can change, even the contour lines as the old 1:50000 first series maps had a vertical interval of 50 feet unlike new maps which have an interval of ten metres or five metres in lowland areas. The most obvious changes being roads and buildings etc but other things such as river crossings can change when new bridges are built.

 

[tracker1972]

Not all Forestry commission land is access land. What's the grid reference of the area you're looking at?

Btw, dash4it.co.uk are very cheap for maps, and bloomin' quick too. No connection other than happy customer.

J

dash4it are constantly sending me emails tempting me with mappy goodness. It's hard to resist but I can't quite bring myself to unsubscribe, but I remember them being very quick when I used them last.

The bit that caught my eye with it's differing colour first was at SK 245 800.

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[Joonsy]

The bit that caught my eye with it's differing colour first was at SK 245 800.

I would encourage anyone to study the symbols on the OS maps, it will tell you exactly what that colour means. OS maps are a real work of art, the information they give is incredible, for example you can even differentiate between different types of churches. Wether a forest has public access or is privately owned is shown on the index of symbols, in fact you can even tell if it is coniferous or broadleaved.

 

[tracker1972]

I would encourage anyone to study the symbols on the OS maps, it will tell you exactly what that colour means. OS maps are a real work of art, the information they give is incredible, for example you can even differentiate between different types of churches. Wether a forest has public access or is privately owned is shown on the index of symbols, in fact you can even tell if it is coniferous or broadleaved.

You are correct, hence my light concern regarding which it was! A quick experiment with the free trial of the OS maps app suggests it is no longer open access in the spot that caught my eye initially.

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