An Outline History of
British Maps
A historical Webpage compiled and designed by Roy Chetham
A Colris enterprise

Year AD	Development
125	Claudius Ptolemaeus (Ptolemy) the Greek scientist and mathematician who lived in Alexandria wrote his "Geographia" guide to the world based upon surveys done by Marinus of Tyre and reports from travellers.
200	The Antonine Itinerary listed main roads in the Roman Empire.
300	The Tabula Peutingeriana was a diagrammatic map of main roads in the Roman Empire.
1200	Deforestation of Lancashire began when King John sold rights to freemen permitting them to clear assarts for arable use.
1300	Medieval (T in O) maps were largely schematic and based on religious mystical conceptions that the earth was the centre of a universe divided into four elements - fire, water, air and earth. The Hereford Map is the largest surviving example of a T in O map.
1300	Portolan sea charts made in Spain and Italy were reasonably good maps of the Mediterranean but depicted Britain very poorly.
1360	The first relatively accurate portrayal of Britain in map form was by an anonymous mapmaker on two joined skins of vellum. It was called the Bodleian or Gough Map because it passed from the antiquary and topographer Richard Gough to the Bodleian Library in 1799.
1540	Sebastian Munster published a revised edition of Ptolemy's Geographia.
1546	First copper-engraved map published by George Lily, artistic but not accurate.
1564	Gerard Mercator's larger scale effort was little better.
1570	First "Atlas" published by Abraham Ortelius incorporated Mercator's map of Britain.
1573	Ortelius published a supplement to his atlas including a better map of England and Wales drawn by Humphrey Lhuyd.
1574	Christopher Saxton was commissioned by Thomas Seckford to survey and map England and Wales. Around this time Leonard and Thomas Digges devised the theodolyte.
1576	Laurence Nowell, a son or nephew of John Nowell of Read Hall died leaving unpublished a series of new and more accurate maps.
1577	Christopher Saxton's map of Lancashire included Huncot, Altham, Martholme, Ryshton, Church, Akrington and Dunkenhalghe. Bridges over rivers were depicted but no roads.
1579	Saxton's Atlas of England and Wales published. For nearly two centuries afterwards this remained the definite basis for all new atlases and maps.
1603	William Smith was producing maps at this time but his work was not recognised until 40 years after his death.
1607	William Camden used smaller scale versions of Saxton's maps in his Britannia Atlas.
1610	John Speed published his atlas "The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britain". The maps were largely based upon Saxton's but with enhancements like, extra place names and boundaries of the hundreds or wapentakes shown.
1675	John Ogilby produced a series of highly accurate and detailed strip road maps.
1695	Robert Morden produced new maps for Edmund Gibson's English translation of Camden's Britannia but in essence they were only revisions of Saxton, Speed and Ogilby.
1700	Advances were made in surveying techniques and instruments like a plane table but new mapping work seems to have been focused on estate ownership and extent.
1701	Contour lines would seem to have been invented around this time but did not find general adoption in mapping for another 100 years.
1720	Emanuel Bowen, John Owen and Thomas Bowles cooperated to produce the "Britannia Depicta" or "Ogilby Improved".
1724	Herman Moll published his "New Description of England and Wales". It was yet another rehash of Saxton, Speed and Ogilby with a few refinements.
1749	English country map making was dominated in the mid 18th Century by Thomas Kitchin and Emanuel Bowen who cooperated to produce the Large English Atlas in 1760. The scale was much larger than had been produced before but was cartographically made little progress.
1759	Because industry was quickly changing the topography of the country better maps were needed. The Society of Arts, prompted by one of their Fellows William Borlase offered a prize of £100 for "an accurate Actual Survey on the scale of one inch to a mile. The next 100 years proved a golden age for surveyors. Their skills were in great demand nearly everywhere to build turnpikes, canals, railways, streets, bridges and enable parliamentary boundary reform and land enclosures.
1767	Benjamin Donn won the first Society of Arts prize for his map of Devon.
1769	Peter Burdett won the second Society of Arts award for a map of Derbyshire.
1771	Daniel Paterson a former assistant to the Quartermaster General of His Majesty's Forces published "A New and Accurate Description of All the Direct and Principal Cross Roads in Great Britain in strip map form.
1774	The mountain Schiehallion in Scotland was the first ground to be fully mapped with contour lines as an experiment.
1786	William Yates won the award for the first "triangulation" map of Lancashire.
1787	John Cary produced the "New and Correct English Atlas".
1788	Relative positions of the Greenwich and Paris Observatories fixed scientifically by triangulation.
1791	The Board of Ordnance Survey was founded, initially named Trigonometrical Survey. It was conceived by William Roy a Scottish surveyor and the Duke of Richmond, Master General of His Majesty's Ordnance. There was an urgent need for good maps for military purposes and the defence of the Realm against Napoleon. Surveying at one inch to the mile started in the south-east and took 70 years to complete!
1794	The Postmaster General commissioned John Cary to survey and map the 9000 miles of main roads of Great Britain.
1804	Charles Smith published his "New English Atlas".
1805	First Ordnance Survey map published of Essex, (One inch to one mile; Old Series).
1806	John Carey produced a fine map of Lancashire showing the new canals.
1818	Christopher Greenwood started preparing maps partly based upon Ordnance Survey data.
1830	George Hennet published maps of even better detail.
1841	Ordnance Survey Act passed. Headquarters of OS established in Southampton.
1844	Ordnance Survey changed to mapping at 6 inches to one mile and introduced contour lines.
1856	25 inches to one mile survey standard adopted and many towns on an even larger scale.
1893	Comprehensive revision of the one inch survey commenced (Second Series).
1901	Another comprehensive revision of the one inch survey commenced (Third Series).
1922	Activities of Ordnance Survey curtailed by Government economies after the First World War.
1928	First motorist's maps published.
1935	A Departmental Committee was set up under the chairmanship of Sir J.C. Davidson to consider how to restore the Board's effectiveness.
1938	The Committee's report was published but could not be implemented because of the outbreak of World War Two. Davidson recommended the introduction of a standard metric National Grid system and a single projection to cover the whole country.
1962	Retriangulation and revision of geodetic levelling were completed.

Glossary
Plane Table	a horizontal board for sighting and plotting bearings
Theodolite	a sighting instrument for measuring horizontal and vertical angles
Clinometer	an instrument for measuring angles of inclination
Cartography	map making
Topography	detailed description of a place or tract of land
Hundred	a political division of territory comprising of a hundred households
Tithing	a political division of territory comprising of ten households
Palatine	a county possessing royal privileges