Appendix Six - Maps
Toward the end of the eighteenth century cannons
were built that could fire further than the crew could see, this meant that
accurate maps were required. Ever fearful of rebellion, particularly in view of
events in Scotland, the Government set up the Board of Ordnance in 1795 and
they began to draw up accurate maps of the entire country. The word ordnance is
the military term for supplies but is usually associated with cannons and other
forms of heavy artillery.
The survey teams started with two carefully
measured base lines, one in the north another in the south, and a complete set
of maps was drawn up from each of these. When they reached each others
respective base lines the two sets of maps were found to be surprisingly
accurate. The first map to be published was of Kent, in 1803 and by 1840 the
whole of England south of a line from Preston to Hull was drawn at one inch to
the mile. Subsequently larger scale maps were adopted and maps of Ireland,
Northern England and Scotland at six inches to the mile were drawn up. One
thing to beware of when using Ordnance Survey maps for research is that the
early maps of 1800's were brought up to date in the 1850's and 1860's to show
railways and the expansion of towns but they often retained their original
date, the changes were added but the maps were not drawn afresh.
Maps
proved very popular with the general public and after a successful experiment
in drawing up a very large scale map of St. Helens in 1844 similar large scale
maps of towns were systematically drawn up for any town of over about four
thousand people. For researching your local station the first map to look for
would be the twenty five inch to the mile maps from the later nineteenth
century (the local reference library usually holds a set of these). Later maps
contained less detail on the shape of buildings but more on who owned what, so
do not assume that the original bay windows on the station masters house were
subsequently removed. Note that track plans were not always accurate on
Ordnance Survey maps, and in any case these relate only to the date the map was
drawn up or amended, beware!
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