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Maps for Family Historians
Early County Maps – very small scale
- Very early map of England – Gough 1360
- Saxton’s Map of Cheshire 1577
- John Speed’s series of county maps 1610
- Cary’s maps circa 1770
- Burdett’s Maps 1777
- Yates 1786
- Stockdale 1793
- The Place Names of Cheshire - in Five Volumes J McNDodgson
- A History of English Field Names – John Field
- Bartholomew’s Gazetteer of the British Isles 1887 – John Bartholomew
Ordinance Survey (OS) Maps:
Started in the 1790s to plan for Britain’s defence from invasion 1” to the mile. It took more than 40 years to get to Lancashire and by then they were at 6” to the mile. They didn’t get to Cheshire until the 1870s - then at 25” to the mile. Lancashire was re-done in the 1890s at 25” to the mile. The Godfrey Series of OS Maps from the 1890s onwards were mostly done at 14” to the mile. By the 1960s house numbers were beginning to appear on large scale maps.
Other Large Scale:
1852 The centre of Ashton-under-Lyne and Stalybridge were done at 5ft to the mile, these even showed the inside of public buildings and privies in the back terraces. Find out what your own local studies and archives hold.
Tithe Maps:
Tithe Commutation Act of 1836 converted a payment in kind to a monetary value, which required detailed surveys of land, usage and value. The field numbers should be read in conjunction with the Tithe Apportionments. See Cheshire Record Office Victorian Mapping site in the listed links on the next page. The original maps are help at Chester Record Office.
Various Estate Maps and Plans:
Are held in local studies and archives libraries and most of these are indexed in some way. Tameside Library holds the Earl of Stamford Estate plans for Ashton-under-Lyne indexed in two volumes DDS1 and 2. One of these dates from 1795 and is very large scale, showing all the streets and plots of land as the town was being carved up by local mill owners and speculators. It is really worth investigating what exists for the area your ancestors lived. Utility companies, Railways and Waterways also produced maps and plans of their developments. More estate maps for planning purposes have come to light in the recently deposited Earl of Stamford collection at Tameside local Studies. This collection also has a manorial map surveyed in 1765 with all the fields enumerated as to their use and ownership including the Terrier to accompany it.
GENUKI: the first place I go to find out about the places my ancestors came from.
GOUGH MAP: Earliest Street Map of Great Britain 1360
LANCASHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL: Lancashire County Council’s selection of their old maps on-line this includes a copy of the Gough Map for the North West where features have been superimposed on the original. It is really interesting to see the importance of places circa 1360.
GENMAPS: huge selection of maps here for England Scotland and Wales indexed according to county. This is probably the best collection of Old Cheshire Maps.
VICTORIAN CHESHIRE MAPS: e-mapping Victorian Cheshire: Cheshire's Tithe Maps Online
ARTUS STREET MAPS: early Large Scale City Street Maps including Manchester and Liverpool superb 1818 colour map of London
BRITISH HISTORY ON-LINE: British History on-line has the first OS series of maps searchable on-line.
HISTORIC MAPS OF IRELAND: at the Ordnance Survey Ireland website you can view current and historic maps of Ireland. It may take you a couple of minutes to figure out how it works, but once you have, you can switch almost instantly from a modern satellite map to one of several 19th century maps - still positioned on precisely the same point.
NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND including Military maps and Clan Maps. click on SERIES for a whole set of OS Maps for England
OLD ORDINANCE SURVEY MAPS: used to be the best free on-line source for old OS maps, but now they charge and it is very expensive £11-£16 for an emailed PDF Copy to £22.50-£27.50 for a printed copy and £45-£50 for a framed copy
ALAN GODFREY MAPS: much better value at around £2. 25 per map
CARLSCAM'S STAGE COACHES: - wonderful new website with detailed maps and information about stage coach travel in Cheshire circa 1831.
LONDON ANCESTOR MAPS: Old London Maps and Plans and Borough Boundary Maps also county boundary and borough maps including Cheshire, Ashton-under-Lyne, Manchester and Liverpool
WHERE’S THE PATH? Displays OS maps and Google aerial images side by side and works comfortably and intuitively, to see the clear OS view moving in synchrony with the Google aerial image and with synchronised cursors and live coordinates. Each window can be scaled separately, with the wider view showing an outline window delineating the coverage of the more zoomed one. Several different map types can be selected including the very useful option of 1930s and 1940s OS maps.
Visions of Britain, Maps, Statistics etc of places
