Sheetlines the Journal of the CHARLES CLOSE SOCIETY for the Study of Ordnance Survey Maps
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Sheetlines The journal of THE CHARLES CLOSE SOCIETY for the Study of Ordnance Survey Maps This edition of Sheetlines was published in 1993 and the articles may have been superseded by later research. Please check the index at http://www.charlesclosesociety.org/sheetlinesindex for the most up-to-date references This article is provided for personal, non-commercial use only. Please contact the Society regarding any other use of this work. Published by THE CHARLES CLOSE SOCIETY for the Study of Ordnance Survey Maps www.CharlesCloseSociety.org The Charles Close Society was founded in 1980 to bring together all those with an interest in the maps and history of the Ordnance Survey of Great Britain and its counterparts in the island of Ireland. The Society takes its name from Colonel Sir Charles Arden-Close, OS Director General from 1911 to 1922, and initiator of many of the maps now sought after by collectors. The Society publishes a wide range of books and booklets on historic OS map series and its journal, Sheetlines, is recognised internationally for its specialist articles on Ordnance Survey-related topics. Sheetlines 36 April 1993 Episodes in the history of the Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 map family by Richard Oliver For a map series which, as far as the map-buying public is concerned, is less than fifty years old, the Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 has had an unusually chequered history and pre-history. With the completion of the publication of the Second Series (Pathfinders) in December 1989 it might have been thought that these maps would be suffered to lead a quiet existence for the next few years, but in the twelve months preceding the writing of this piece, there have been three interesting developments: the publication of a new ‘large sheet’ Pathfinder (1126, Gower); the rumour that ‘uneconomic’ areas may no longer be mapped at this scale; and the development of a joint Ordnance Survey / Hydrographic Department ‘Coastal Zone Series’, of which the prototype sheet is at 1:25,000. Of these, comment on the last is constrained by its still being in the development stage, and this writer commented on the first at some length a few months ago, though its most profound aspect, that of sheet size, is an important theme in the 1:25,000 story, and, in this writer’s view, has an important bearing on the second: the marginal economy of this mapping. From the misty ages: military origins Although the 1:25,000 scale was only adopted as an official scale for Great Britain circa 1930- 31, mapping at broadly related scales had been produced for military purposes for as long as parts of Britain had been subject to official mapping of extensive tracts of land. The military survey of Scotland of 1747-55 was at a scale of 1 inch to 1000 yards (1:36,000), and, after limited areas had been surveyed at the six-inch scale (1:10,560), the military survey of Great Britain begun in earnest in 1795 was made first at three inches to one mile (1:21,120) and then at two inches to one mile (1:31,680). These surveys were originally made for military use rather than for general publication, and even after 1815, when the military justification was removed and they were intended purely to provide a basis for a one-inch (1:63,360) map, surveying at the two-inch scale was retained, and the two-inch drawings often contain minor names and other details which do not appear on the published one-inch maps. Surveying at the two-inch scale was abandoned in favour of the six-inch in 1840, but later in the century a number of maps at the two-inch and three-inch scales were produced of areas of particular military interest. The majority of these appear to have been obtained by direct photo- enlargement of one-inch material, with some additions. For example, the two sheet two-inch map of the Aldershot area of 1890 has several additional names and shows relief by form-lines (in brown) as well as by contours and spot-heights. The two-inch Cannock Chase manoeuvre map of 1894, also enlarged from one-inch material (but this time derived from a zincographed rather than an engraved original), has hill-shading and is the first OS map known to the writer on which appear the now familiar symbols for churches with towers and spires. Several other two-inch manoeuvre maps were produced at this time, but in the nature of things they were ephemeral, rather than contributions to what today would be called ‘core mapping’. The new church symbols were the outcome of a War Office Committee on the Military Map of the United Kingdom which had sat in April 1892. The most tangible outcome of this committee’s deliberations was the redesign of the New Series one-inch map, but the evidence given indicated some military desire for mapping at a scale or scales intermediate between one-inch and six-inch, possibly nationally, but possibly of more limited areas: either the south-east of England or the 2 vicinity of important military centres.1 In the 1890s, when the authorisation of cyclic revision of OS mapping was offset by the withdrawal of state support for mapping at scales larger than 1:2500, any significant extension of official mapping was unlikely. Indeed, when in 1902 a new scale was introduced, and at military behest, it was the half-inch (1:126,720). The South African War had proved a chastening experience for the British military, and maps were not excluded. In 1910 the balance of military interest was once more moving towards a scale or scales intermediate between one-inch and six-inch.2 The result was the mapping of a large part of eastern England at a just such a scale. The ‘Map of East Anglia’, (or Suffolk and adjoining parts) 1914 (or 1911?) The hitherto rather exiguous references in print to this map give the date as ‘1914’,3 or ‘during the war’,4 (though there is a solitary unpublished secondary reference to ‘1913-14’)5, and say or imply that it was overtly defensive in its nature, but although this may be justified by the printing or publication dates on surviving copies,6 it is more questionable in the light of two other points. First, the early sheets contained much information not found on standard civil OS mapping, such as watering places for men, horses and traction engines, the construction of bridges and the suitability of church towers and hill-tops as observation points. It has been suggested7 that these are far more characteristic of manoeuvre mapping than of mapping hastily produced for counter-invasion purposes. The second point is more revealing and, for this writer, disposes of the idea that the Map of East Anglia was a ‘war map’. Sheet 85 N.E., though claiming to be printed in 1914, has magnetic information dated 1911. It is suggested that the Map of East Anglia was initially prepared in 1910-11 for use in conjunction with the 1911 manoeuvres, which were cancelled, allegedly because of international tensions, but in fact so that, if necessary, the military could give aid to the civil power during a notoriously strike-ridden summer;8 and that the sheets were printed in 1914 because the reproduction materials were available, rather than because of strict military considerations. One has only to study the sheet lines (36 sheets, laid out as quarters of the One-inch Third Edition Large Sheet Series) to see how improbable is a purely ‘defence’ origin for the map,9 even if defence considerations led to its delayed printing, and even if the investment in its preparation must have been justified more by the possibility of its being merely the first instalment of a much bigger scheme, than of its ephemeral use as a manoeuvre map. Although its sheet lines derived from the one-inch, and its 10 feet interval contours were probably derived from the larger-scale hill-sketches for the one-inch’s hachures, the Map of East Anglia was fundamentally an offshoot from the six-inch. Indeed, the linework was photo-reduced 1 Report of committee on a military map of the United Kingdom, London, War Office, 1892, pp 12, 13, 15, 17, 19, 20, 21, 24, 25; see also tabulated answers to circular. 2 ‘The question began to be active in 1910’ says Brigadier H.S.L. Winterbotham (on the authority of two files on the subject, in the War Office and in the OS, both now lost) in his ‘Sidelights’, p.177 (MS in Ordnance Survey library, Southampton); I am indebted to Peter Clark and Ian Mumford for this reference. Readers of Winterbotham’s A key to maps (1936) will know that his dates are often approximate rather than absolutely correct. 3 J.B. Harley, Ordnance Survey maps: a descriptive manual, Southampton, Ordnance Survey, 1975, 91; Peter Clark, ‘Maps for the army: the Ordnance Survey’s contribution’, Sheetlines 7 (October 1983), 2-6. 4 Y. Hodson in W.A. Seymour, ed., A history of the Ordnance Survey, Folkestone, Dawson, 1980, p.263. 5 ‘Chronology of 1:25,000 scale mapping’, n.d. (?1974-5); copy in cartographic library, Ordnance Survey, Southampton. It would be interesting to know the source of the earlier information in this document. 6 Of which the writer has seen very few. No copies were sent to the legal deposit (‘copyright’) libraries, and other copies survive only in ones and twos in a few private collections.