OS One Inch New Popular Edition mapping

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Steven
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OS One Inch New Popular Edition mapping

Post by Steven »

Just to keep things entertaining, sometimes I like to try little experiments out.

I've talked before about extending the current One Inch Seventh Series mapping available on SABRE Maps backwards into the older New Popular Edition series (and then onto post-war Scottish Popular and Fifth Edition mapping), so that we have annual layers going back to at least 1945, giving us a much wider view of the changes in the road network over time. One thing that people aren't necessarily aware of is that multiple series at the same (or similar) scales overlap - for example, we have some 1974 One Inch maps, at the same time as Landrangers were starting to be produced.

Well, the first experiment has just gone live - the 1958 One Inch layer has just had three New Popular Edition maps added to it. They are:

* Sheet 177 (Taunton and Lyme Regis) Revision D/
* Sheet 179 (Bournemouth) Revision E/
* Sheet 180 (The Solent) Revision H/

What is interesting is that Sheet 177 butts right up against a Seventh Series sheet on its northern side, meaning that we literally move from one mapping series into the other, one looking very different from the other - yet both were produced at the same time!

Take a look, and see what you think. Comments are very welcome!
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Re: OS One Inch New Popular Edition mapping

Post by Chris5156 »

Steven wrote: Thu Feb 06, 2020 20:29Take a look, and see what you think. Comments are very welcome!
It works for me! Unusual, certainly, but they're OS maps at the same scale from the same year - why shouldn't we show them together on a layer?
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Re: OS One Inch New Popular Edition mapping

Post by Nwallace »

Also consider that the 1st Series of 1:50k maps were the Seventh Series survey and maps rescaled to suit.

It's the 2nd Series of 1:50k maps that was the resurvey and redrawing.

I'm just looking at something I remember spotting in my Post War Popular editions (Scotland) from the codes

Cape Wrath - Revision 1927, Published 1947, Revision code B; Magnetic North date 1955
Similar on Lochcaron and Dornie

My earliest Seventh Series for Cape Wrath is A_ and was revised 1956 and Published 1959


The majority of my Sottish 5th Editions are 1922 or 23 revision dates in the code even when in the post war covers.

What's odder is with another code format "4045/CR"; Magnetic north date of 1945 makes the second number the date , but with them the OSS didn't bother claiming a publish date in the 1940s, they went back to the original 1922 publishing dates.

The 1920s revision codes differed again from the later pre-war 1930s ones
Two Sheet 54s
Old Road: 1150/28 - 2200/31 (IIRC this is a 1931 reprint of a run of 2200 of the 1928 print that had 1150 copies issued)
New Road: 20/33 M37 R37 Not entirely sure what that means...

There's also the variations in the national grid in the Scottish 5th series
It didn't exist for the 1920s and 30s maps, then appeared on them with the 1940s releases but with the 100000km squares noted numerically, only switching to the alphabetic system that's stuck in the 1950s.

Anyway... it indicates that the two runs of 5th Editions (Both "Popular") should be grouped as the same for Scotland at least.
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Re: OS One Inch New Popular Edition mapping

Post by Steven »

Nwallace wrote: Thu Feb 06, 2020 20:48 Also consider that the 1st Series of 1:50k maps were the Seventh Series survey and maps rescaled to suit.
They certainly were! What makes them slightly challenging though is that they're on a different sheet layout, but that's something to start thinking about ready for when they start dropping out of copyright in January 2025.
I'm just looking at something I remember spotting in my Post War Popular editions (Scotland) from the codes

Cape Wrath - Revision 1927, Published 1947, Revision code B; Magnetic North date 1955
Similar on Lochcaron and Dornie

My earliest Seventh Series for Cape Wrath is A_ and was revised 1956 and Published 1959


The majority of my Sottish 5th Editions are 1922 or 23 revision dates in the code even when in the post war covers.
Yep. Full revision denoted by the letter, major revisions are "/*", minor revisions are "/".
What's odder is with another code format "4045/CR"; Magnetic north date of 1945 makes the second number the date , but with them the OSS didn't bother claiming a publish date in the 1940s, they went back to the original 1922 publishing dates.
There's a whole page on the Wiki about OS copyright information - basically the copyright (or publishing) dates only were updated on each full revision. IIRC, there's at least one Scottish Seventh Series sheet where its "real date" is about fifteen years away from its "copyright date".

The "Cr" on the code is the location of printing - basically which OS office did it.
The 1920s revision codes differed again from the later pre-war 1930s ones
Two Sheet 54s
Old Road: 1150/28 - 2200/31 (IIRC this is a 1931 reprint of a run of 2200 of the 1928 print that had 1150 copies issued)
New Road: 20/33 M37 R37 Not entirely sure what that means...
Yep, your first supposition is correct. The second one means "2000 copies, originally published 1933, Minor revision 1937, roads and railways correct to 1937".
There's also the variations in the national grid in the Scottish 5th series
It didn't exist for the 1920s and 30s maps, then appeared on them with the 1940s releases but with the 100000km squares noted numerically, only switching to the alphabetic system that's stuck in the 1950s.

Anyway... it indicates that the two runs of 5th Editions (Both "Popular") should be grouped as the same for Scotland at least.
The Popular Edition is actually the Fourth Series, not the Fifth - the Fifth were the first One Inch maps to display road numbers, but were only published across southern England, roughtly south of the M4. Again, there's a Coverage Project page on the SABRE Wiki for the Fifth Edition.

The New Popular were also never published in Scotland (as they were only planned to be temporary anyway), so they added the National Grid and road numbers post-war to Scottish Popular editions. The Grid was originally denoted with an all-numeric code before the familiar grid square letters coming later.

What will really mess with your head is that in the 1930s, a lot of OS mapping (like the Ten Mile Road Maps and the One Inch Fifth Edition) used the National Yard Grid - very similar to the current National Grid but measured in yards.
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Re: OS One Inch New Popular Edition mapping

Post by FosseWay »

This is great!

I think from most users' perspective, the year a map dates from (or is most recently revised to, more accurately) is more important than which OS series it belongs to. The latter is probably really only of interest to map nerds like me.
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Re: OS One Inch New Popular Edition mapping

Post by Bryn666 »

This works for me too.

I can't wait for the time when the One Inch/1:50k series overlaps begin.
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Re: OS One Inch New Popular Edition mapping

Post by c2R »

Bryn666 wrote: Fri Feb 07, 2020 10:35 This works for me too.

I can't wait for the time when the One Inch/1:50k series overlaps begin.
Me either, although disappointingly the sheets have different boundaries so they may need to occupy their own group, unless we can think of any better way to present the data...
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Re: OS One Inch New Popular Edition mapping

Post by Bryn666 »

c2R wrote: Sat Feb 08, 2020 11:19
Bryn666 wrote: Fri Feb 07, 2020 10:35 This works for me too.

I can't wait for the time when the One Inch/1:50k series overlaps begin.
Me either, although disappointingly the sheets have different boundaries so they may need to occupy their own group, unless we can think of any better way to present the data...
That could be a problem yes, otherwise you're looking at trimming sections and potentially losing useful data.

I'm not the expert in this field...
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Re: OS One Inch New Popular Edition mapping

Post by Mattemotorway »

Bryn666 wrote: Tue Feb 11, 2020 10:33
c2R wrote: Sat Feb 08, 2020 11:19
Bryn666 wrote: Fri Feb 07, 2020 10:35 This works for me too.

I can't wait for the time when the One Inch/1:50k series overlaps begin.
Me either, although disappointingly the sheets have different boundaries so they may need to occupy their own group, unless we can think of any better way to present the data...
That could be a problem yes, otherwise you're looking at trimming sections and potentially losing useful data.

I'm not the expert in this field...
IIRC, there isn't really much (if any) overlap between the two series, so there probably won't be a problem... (Though, of course, this is all still 5 years away...)
My old posts are just downright embarrassing.

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Re: OS One Inch New Popular Edition mapping

Post by Steven »

Six weeks or so later from the first test sheets, beat the lockdown boredom and visit SABRE Maps for another exciting set of all-new old maps!

* Sheet 163 (Barnstaple) Revision E/
* Sheet 183 (Eastbourne) Revision A///


They can be found on the OS One Inch 1957 layer. As with the first set, there's a discontinuity where the New Popular sheets meet the Seventh Series sheets - this time in the NE corner of the Eastbourne sheet.

Enjoy!
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Re: OS One Inch New Popular Edition mapping

Post by c2R »

Steven wrote: Tue Mar 24, 2020 18:35 Six weeks or so later from the first test sheets, beat the lockdown boredom and visit SABRE Maps for another exciting set of all-new old maps!

* Sheet 163 (Barnstaple) Revision E/
* Sheet 183 (Eastbourne) Revision A///


They can be found on the OS One Inch 1957 layer. As with the first set, there's a discontinuity where the New Popular sheets meet the Seventh Series sheets - this time in the NE corner of the Eastbourne sheet.

Enjoy!
The join in the corner is really interesting - it shows the minor differences in styles - road widths, fonts, text colours, even the shading on the railway quite well, as this part of the world is fairly geographically packed with features!

I do find it interesting that neighbouring sheets like these were released in the same year, but with different base styles - I suppose re-drawing them then for minor revisions was a much more difficult task without modern graphics computer layouts...
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Re: OS One Inch New Popular Edition mapping

Post by Steven »

One more NPE map for today, which is sheet 173 (East Kent) Revision E/.

It can be found on the 1956 layer, right up the corner!
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Re: OS One Inch New Popular Edition mapping

Post by Steven »

Two days later, two new maps!

Continuing our travels back in time, we have the following now available on the One Inch 1955 layer:

* Sheet 177 (Taunton and Lyme Regis) NPE Revision D
* Sheet 186 (Bodmin and Launceston) NPE Revision C

First person to spot the differences between the D and D/ revisions of Sheet 177 (both of which are online) wins a prize!
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Re: OS One Inch New Popular Edition mapping

Post by Ross Spur »

That was a tricky one. The only differences I have seen between 1955 and 1958 is that that the Flax Factory near to Yeovil is just marked "Factory" in 1958 and the Reservoir near to Chard is shown as disused in 1955 but with no description on the 1958 map. Not spotted any road changes though.

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Re: OS One Inch New Popular Edition mapping

Post by Steven »

Ross Spur wrote: Tue Apr 07, 2020 20:39 Not spotted any road changes though.
There does look to be something at Crewkerne, but I'm not entirely sure whether it's just an overlay issue.

Three more maps added today, to the 1954 layer. They are:

* Sheet 150 (Ipswich) NPE Revision C
* Sheet 182 (Brighton and Worthing) NPE Revision E
* Sheet 188 (Torquay) NPE Revision D
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Re: OS One Inch New Popular Edition mapping

Post by Ross Spur »

Yes, at Crewkerne - Gouldsbrook Terrace and Court Barton are not shown as part of the A30 on the 1958 map but they are again on the 1961 map, as they were in 1955. With just these small changes the 1958 revison 3 years after the previous version seems a bit extravagant.
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Re: OS One Inch New Popular Edition mapping

Post by Steven »

There's a reasonably large pile of NPE maps been added this evening.

They are:
* Sheet 124 (Kings Lynn) NPE Revision 1301
* Sheet 126 (Norwich) NPE Revision 1288
* Sheet 135 (Cambridge and Ely) NPE Revision 1286
* Sheet 157 (Swindon) NPE Revision 1273
* Sheet 158 (Oxford and Newbury) NPE Revision F
* Sheet 160 (London NW) NPE Revision F
* Sheet 162 (Southend on Sea) NPE Revision 1274
* Sheet 165 (Weston-super-Mare) NPE Revision 1289
* Sheet 170 (London SW) NPE Revision 1287
* Sheet 184 (Hastings) NPE Revision E

There's also a distinctly light-hearted quiz on an extract of one of these maps on the SABRE Facebook page.
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Re: OS One Inch New Popular Edition mapping

Post by Steven »

One more map uploaded today, which is Sheet 189 (Land's End) Revision C from 1954.
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Re: OS One Inch New Popular Edition mapping

Post by Steven »

And after the hiatus, the travelling back in time continues, with the all-new 1951 layer.

This one has been quite fun to put together, and we have the following:

* Sheet 108 (Denbigh) Revision 1244
* Sheet 111 (Buxton and Matlock) Revision 1261
* Sheet 112 (Nottingham) Revision 1245
* Sheet 124 (Kings Lynn) Revision 1262
* Sheet 143 (Gloucester and Malvern) Revision 1262
* Sheet 169 (Aldershot) Revision 1256
* Sheet 171 (London SE) Revision 1259
* Sheet 175 (Okehampton) Revision 1270
* Sheet 176 (Exeter) Revision 1275
* Sheet 177 (Taunton and Lyme Regis) Revision 1257
* Sheet 182 (Brighton and Worthing) Revision 1235
* Sheet 188 (Torquay) Revision 1234

We're well into the OS's unique style of revision codes, hence why all the the numbers similar rather than being numbered as revisions within each sheet, like the later letter codes.

Let us know what you find!
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Re: OS One Inch New Popular Edition mapping

Post by c2R »

Thanks ever so much Steven.

Here's a question.... can any one see the difference between the 1951 and 1952 Kings Lynn sheets? I've been scouring them for much of the last hour trying to see if there are any, and I've not been able to see any differences whatsoever! Am I missing something massively obvious?!
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