Published by Primary Source Microfilm

A unique and neglected cartographic source of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, this collection is a repository of original topographical information, much of it not reproduced in the printed editions.

The original manuscript maps of the first Ordnance Survey present the only accurate and comprehensive cartographic record of Britain before the changes in land use and land tenure, which followed the General Enclosures Acts.

Although a small number of original manuscript maps are no longer available for reproduction, the great majority--351, covering all but the six northernmost counties--are included here in their entirety.

The original drawings are generally scaled at two inches to the mile, while areas of military significance of the Southeast coast are at three to six inches to the mile. The printed counterparts of these maps were not fully published until 1873; and, at a scale of one inch to the mile, omit a number of original features concerning land use and topography.

The maps are a unique research source with a wide variety of applications:

• Historical geographers will be interested in the maps as a unique primary source for general cartographic analysis
• The indication of enclosures, field boundaries and land use provide the economic historian with invaluable documentary evidence of the replacement of one system of land use by another
• The maps continue to be used by lawyers contesting land rights and by genealogists and local historians
• Political and social historians will find evidence of the impact of the Industrial Revolution, areas threatened by potential French invasion and other issues

The collection is also available in five subsets of the area:

• Southwest
• Southeast
• Heart of England
• East and Wales
• West and Northwest

Complete Collection: 425 fiche