1923 MoT Road Map - white roads

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Duncan Barrett
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1923 MoT Road Map - white roads

Post by Duncan Barrett »

Hi and thanks for allowing me to join the community.

Please can ask what the designation of the white roads are that are shown on the 1923 MoT Road Maps. I've read the Wiki and a few other references but the facility to ask the question and get an easy to understand answer is great! :D

Many thanks,

Duncan
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Steven
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Re: 1923 MoT Road Map - white roads

Post by Steven »

Duncan Barrett wrote: Wed Jan 16, 2019 20:40 Hi and thanks for allowing me to join the community.
Welcome to SABRE!
Please can ask what the designation of the white roads are that are shown on the 1923 MoT Road Maps. I've read the Wiki and a few other references but the facility to ask the question and get an easy to understand answer is great! :D
Simple really - they're unclassified roads. There was no such thing as Class III roads in the initial days of numbering.
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Duncan Barrett
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Re: 1923 MoT Road Map - white roads

Post by Duncan Barrett »

Steven wrote: Wed Jan 16, 2019 20:47Simple really - they're unclassified roads. There was no such thing as Class III roads in the initial days of numbering.
Thanks for the speedy reply Steven.

I noted in my reading that the MoT road maps were considered the definitive guide to publicly accessible roads... does this mean that if they appear on this map they are a public right of way and likely to be on the list of streets?

Many thanks,

Duncan
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Steven
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Re: 1923 MoT Road Map - white roads

Post by Steven »

Duncan Barrett wrote: Wed Jan 16, 2019 21:25 I noted in my reading that the MoT road maps were considered the definitive guide to publicly accessible roads... does this mean that if they appear on this map they are a public right of way and likely to be on the list of streets?
No, I'm afraid that's incorrect, and the source that has given that information is wrong.

The combination of the original set of MoT maps and the "List of class I and class II roads and numbers" booklet is the definitive guide to the original classification (and routing) of Class I and Class II roads right back at the start of road numbering, and nothing more. Changes in classification can be seen in the later editions of MoT maps, and then into the Ten Mile Road Maps.

They are an overlay on earlier OS Half-inch mapping, in some cases quite a number of years earlier, and so nothing beyond those classifications can be guaranteed. It is extremely dangerous to make any assumptions based on MoT maps regarding the road network and public rights of way in the present day, almost 100 years later.
Steven
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Duncan Barrett
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Re: 1923 MoT Road Map - white roads

Post by Duncan Barrett »

Hi Steven,

It was my interpretation of the source that was wrong, which is disappointing.

I was referring to right's of way at the time of publication rather than now.

Thanks,

Duncan
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Chris5156
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Re: 1923 MoT Road Map - white roads

Post by Chris5156 »

Duncan Barrett wrote: Thu Jan 17, 2019 07:07I was referring to right's of way at the time of publication rather than now.
The same applies. The maps are a black and white Ordnance Survey base sheet with a colour overlay to indicate which roads were class I and which were class II. Therefore all the information on the map about rights of way was the same as that on the OS's standard map sheets of the time, and the OS does not (and has never, I think) claimed that their maps show definitive information about whether any given road or track is a public right of way. Their maps carry disclaimers to that effect.
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