Historic Roads as GIS vector data

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cb a1
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Historic Roads as GIS vector data

Post by cb a1 »

Apologies first for any mangling of terminology that will make experts in this field wince [I think I've got the terminology right in the title] and apologies if there is such an obvious answer that I should hang my head in shame as a long-time sabristi.

If I want to know where the roads are in the UK, I can go to the OS website and download OS Open Roads.

That's great for 'today'. I'm also aware of the ITN layer which was replaced by the OS Mastermap Highways network. I believe I can get hold of ITN data back to 2007.

Obviously, I know I can look at SABRE maps to see where roads were in the past, but these don't have 'roads as a separate layer' IYSWIM.

Does anyone know if there are any historic road layers for the UK as GIS vectors? I've found one for Roman Roads, but I'm more interested in having something like 1920, 1930, 1940, etc.
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c2R
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Re: Historic Roads as GIS vector data

Post by c2R »

We've got OSM traces of the original routes for the First 99 plus extras, but not a complete set of all roads from a particular date. So just the tip of the iceberg really.

These traces are generally on the road's wiki page, or its history page if it has one.
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Steven
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Re: Historic Roads as GIS vector data

Post by Steven »

It's also worth knowing that rather astonishingly the OS claim to not have any copies whatsoever of any historic OpenData product, and that they simply overwrite the old with the new whenever a new release is made.
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c2R
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Re: Historic Roads as GIS vector data

Post by c2R »

Steven wrote: Fri Aug 23, 2019 18:57 It's also worth knowing that rather astonishingly the OS claim to not have any copies whatsoever of any historic OpenData product, and that they simply overwrite the old with the new whenever a new release is made.
They what?! I wasn't aware of that...
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cb a1
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Re: Historic Roads as GIS vector data

Post by cb a1 »

Alas a depressingly common problem I find.

"I won't ever want to use this old data again, therefore no-one else will. Delete (Y/N) = Y. Are you sure (Y/N) = Y."

As for the 'lack' of responses on my OP by the way, I guess that means I wasn't being dumb and such information doesn't exist. Not quite the answer I was wanting, but if no sabristi know of such a resource, I can be pretty damn certain that it doesn't exist.
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Steven
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Re: Historic Roads as GIS vector data

Post by Steven »

I'm not aware of it existing unfortunately - they're a bit of a labour of love which is why the only "set" I know of is the SABRE 1922-23 First 99 ones.
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Richard_Fairhurst
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Re: Historic Roads as GIS vector data

Post by Richard_Fairhurst »

http://parlvid.mysociety.org/os/ has archives of a few OS Open Data products.
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cb a1
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Re: Historic Roads as GIS vector data

Post by cb a1 »

Unfortunately it's not 'public' access, but there is an academic resource - https://digimap.edina.ac.uk/

Unfortunately it also only goes back to 2007 with roads as GIS vector data.
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Kaasdrager
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Re: Historic Roads as GIS vector data

Post by Kaasdrager »

New poster here :) While there is a lot of historic mapping data available from public and commercial providers, including georeferenced OS maps going back to the 1830s, it's unlikely that anyone would have vectorised the historical road network. The reason for this is simply that it would be a lot of manual work and there is no money in it. Everybody needs current road data for many different reasons but I struggle to see a use for historic roads in vector format.
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Steven
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Re: Historic Roads as GIS vector data

Post by Steven »

Kaasdrager wrote: Fri Oct 18, 2019 17:57 I struggle to see a use for historic roads in vector format.
Well, there are a few use cases, such as on SABRE, for example, when illustrating the route of the A42 (Reading - Birmingham) on modern mapping. The 1923 Route Traces page is a good place to see possibilities.
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From the SABRE Wiki: A42 (Reading - Birmingham) :

The original A42 was the main road from Reading to Birmingham via Oxford. Like the other original two-digit roads, it was classified in 1921.


During 1934, the Ministry of Transport, in an attempt to rationalise some of the main routes, proposed to extend the A42 north to the A6 at Salford, and extend the A423 at both ends to run from Maidenhead

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