OS Quarter Inch annual revisions

[Steven]

I have an OS Quarter Inch map in my possession.

It is Sheet 11 England South and covers the area between Cardiff, Reading, Sidmouth & Portsmouth.

It is described as Third Edition (New Series) and has the following dates:
Published 1919
Minor corrections 1928
Railways inserted to 1925
Roads revised to September 1926

The main map does not include road numbers.

However (and very strangely in my view) the booklet includes town plans of Basingstoke, Andover, Reading and Newbury, dated 1933, and with road numbers.

Road numbers first appeared on the Quarter Inch map within the Third Edition, but these sheets can easily be spotted by the sheet numbers being suffixed with an "A". The ones before are slightly too old for Maps as it stands, given we have tons of mapping to put up that's after that date. However, we do have a selection of OS Town Plans, and I don't think any of the above list are on there - so they'd be really good to have.

[Steven]

After a small false start yesterday, Sheet 8 (Solway Firth) Revision C/ has been uploaded and is now available.

Originally this was placed onto a layer by itself as the only available Quarter Inch map from 1972. However, upon completing the uploading process, it occurred to me that by 1972 the entire M6 through Westmorland and Cumberland was open (yes, yes, yes, pedants, other than the Cumberland Gap...); and it is nowhere to be seen on this map revision, not even as "under construction", hence it was taken back offline at that point.

I checked with the fountain of all knowledge on these issues (thanks Lez!) whereupon it was discovered that the publication list showing it as being published in March 1972 was incorrect, and it was actually published in June 1971. However, that still doesn't solve the M6 problem, as at June 1971, the entire Westmorland stretch was open, as was the Penrith and Carlisle bypasses, with the only missing section being that between J41 and J42. Indeed, the Penrith Bypass opened as early as November 1968, some two and a half years before the map was published!

Looking once again at the original source map, there is a small annotation at the bottom stating that the revision date was in fact 1968, meaning that for some reason the OS didn't publish the map for quite some time after the revision - so it was miles out of date before it hit the shops!

The usual practice on SABRE Maps is to put map revisions (where possible) on the annual layer corresponding to the publication year, but in this case that would make no sense at all when comparing against the reality at that date, so instead it is on the 1968 layer matching the revision date, which also matches the missing M6 - well, until the November anyway!


(and as it happens, the tiles which show the area where the M6 is end up coming from Sheet 9, so it's all a little moot anyway...)

[Steven]

And now it can be compared against Sheet 8 (Solway Firth) Revision C//*, which actually does show all the relevant parts of the M6, and can be found on the newly created 1972 layer.

And with that, ladies and gentlemen, the pipeline for Quarter Inch Fifth Series mapping is now empty, so short of anyone donating map scans for SABRE, there will be no more Quarter Inch Fifth Series mapping for the rest of the year.

[Truvelo]

The 1970 layer has now been added, but unfortunately there is only a single map that is both not in copyright, and is available to use:

Sheet 13 (The Midlands) Revision C/*

There are a few obvious changes - the M6 is now open between J9 and J10, whilst the rest of the Midlands Links right across to the M1 is now shown as under construction, along with the A38(M) and a great chunk of the M5 south of M50.

I've just spotted something else related to this map. It shows Essington Services as proposed. I had the impression the decision to build Hilton Park instead had already been made by then.

[Steven]

Thanks to the New Year meaning that Crown Copyright ticks on a year, the following are currently being uploaded:

1969
* Sheet 7 (Firth of Forth) Revision C
* Sheet 10 (Lancashire and North Wales) Revision D

1970
* Sheet 10 (Lancashire and North Wales) Revision D/*

There's lots to see on all of them - for example, there's plenty of overlap between the 1969 Firth of Forth sheet and the 1968 Firth of Clyde sheet, so the changes in the year across most of the Central Belt are visible; whilst Lancashire is, well, Lancashire...

[Steven]

.....and... *drum roll*

New map today on the 1965 annual layer - it's the first OSI Quarter Inch map that we have on SABRE Maps, and it's the Ireland (South East) sheet, from Drogheda in the northeast, Roscommon in the northwest and down to the south coast. It has TONS of the old T and L numbers all over it, including my current favourite which is the T.44B.

What do you all think?

[c2R]

.....and... *drum roll*

New map today on the 1965 annual layer - it's the first OSI Quarter Inch map that we have on SABRE Maps, and it's the Ireland (South East) sheet, from Drogheda in the northeast, Roscommon in the northwest and down to the south coast. It has TONS of the old T and L numbers all over it, including my current favourite which is the T.44B.

What do you all think?

Certainly it's made my guess at the realignment of the T1 as 70/80s through the Five Roads much earlier than I'd thought.... And the junction name even appears on the map, which makes for a lovely mapbox insert on the junction page

Edit - and both bridges in place at Youghal...

[Steven]

Thanks to Ross Spur lending me a whole box of maps to scan, the first new OSGB Quarter Inch maps added to SABRE Maps in a while have arrived.

There's Sheet 11 (North Midlands and Yorkshire) Revision C/*/*/* from 1971; and two revisions of Sheet 13 (The Midlands) - Revision C/*/* from 1971 and C/*/*/* from 1972.

There's a little "spot the difference" game over on SABRE's Facebook page that you're invited to join in on!

[Ross Spur]

Sheet 11 North Midlands and Yorkshire 1971 shows a road under construction from the M1, north of J40 to M62 at Morley that was never built. It's not on the 1972 map which shows the M62 as open. A copyright trap maybe?

[Steven]

It looks to be the first stage of the Kirkhamgate - Dishforth Motorway, which at that time was planned to head between Leeds and Bradford and then end up on the A1 at Dishforth but obviously was never built.

It's the grandparent of the later M1 extension to Hook Moor.

There's a little about it on the Wiki at its in-between all-purpose version of A6183 (Kirkhamgate - Dishforth)

Good spot!

[Steven]

As it's my favourite time of year as far as Maps is concerned anyway, I've uploaded a load of new Quarter Inch mapping, some thanks to Ross Spur's magic box of maps that was lent to me for scanning.

Whilst I was at it, I've now cleared all the pipeline of Quarter Inch mapping from the 1960s and 1970s; and the whole batch has gone live today.

There's some really quite unusual sheets in this lot - for example, the civilian OS Fifth Edition doesn't have a Sheet 18, but the military edition does. We usually shy away from using the military editions, but in this case there's an exception as it's a lovely snapshot from the mid-1960s of the vast majority of Ulster - as in Northern Ireland plus most of the other three counties. There's another OSI sheet in the selection too, plus a whole batch of Sheet 16 (Southern England) as they all dropped out of copyright yesterday.

I think my favourite individual thing so far is the unusual way the temporary terminal of the M5 at Avonmouth is mapped on one of the sheets.

1965
Sheet 18 (Northern Ireland) Revision 4-65

1969
OSI Sheet 5 (SW Ireland) Revision 6-69

1970
Sheet 9 (NE England) Revision C
Sheet 11 (N Midlands and Yorkshire) Revision C/*/*
Sheet 14 (East Anglia) Revision C
Sheet 16 (Southern England) Revision C

1971
Sheet 10 (N Wales and Lancashire) Revision D/*/*
Sheet 16 (Southern England) Revision C/*

1972
Sheet 9 (NE England) Revision C/*
Sheet 16 (Southern England) Revision C/*/*

[Bryn666]

As it's my favourite time of year as far as Maps is concerned anyway, I've uploaded a load of new Quarter Inch mapping, some thanks to Ross Spur's magic box of maps that was lent to me for scanning.

Whilst I was at it, I've now cleared all the pipeline of Quarter Inch mapping from the 1960s and 1970s; and the whole batch has gone live today.

There's some really quite unusual sheets in this lot - for example, the civilian OS Fifth Edition doesn't have a Sheet 18, but the military edition does. We usually shy away from using the military editions, but in this case there's an exception as it's a lovely snapshot from the mid-1960s of the vast majority of Ulster - as in Northern Ireland plus most of the other three counties. There's another OSI sheet in the selection too, plus a whole batch of Sheet 16 (Southern England) as they all dropped out of copyright yesterday.

I think my favourite individual thing so far is the unusual way the temporary terminal of the M5 at Avonmouth is mapped on one of the sheets.

1965
Sheet 18 (Northern Ireland) Revision 4-65

1969
OSI Sheet 5 (SW Ireland) Revision 6-69

1970
Sheet 9 (NE England) Revision C
Sheet 11 (N Midlands and Yorkshire) Revision C/*/*
Sheet 14 (East Anglia) Revision C
Sheet 16 (Southern England) Revision C

1971
Sheet 10 (N Wales and Lancashire) Revision D/*/*
Sheet 16 (Southern England) Revision C/*

1972
Sheet 9 (NE England) Revision C/*
Sheet 16 (Southern England) Revision C/*/*

*loses an entire morning's worth of work productivity*

[DavidB]

Something of local interest to me is the bypass of Arborfield Garrison on the A327 which is shown as under construction on the 1970 map and complete on the 1971 one. I have early memories of the old route so that helps me to confirm when things changed.

[Steven]

It again seems like quite some time since any new Quarter Inch / 1:250k maps landed on SABRE Maps.

However, a bunch of OSI 1:250k maps from the early 1960s landed recently (as well as one OSGB sheet), so one lot of pixie magic later, they've all appeared on maps - which means we now have at least one example of every sheet published in the series.

However, as one of the OSI sheets is from 1960, which is a year that's not been covered up to now in the annual layers (as in GB it's covered by the Fifth Series Revision A layer), I've also taken the time to create the full 1960 and 1961 layers on SABRE Maps too.

Anyway, the new sheets are:
1960
OSI Sheet 1 (Ireland - NW) Revision 6-60

1962
OSI Sheet 2 (Ireland - NE)

1963
Sheet 5 (Eastern Highlands) Revision A/

1964
OSI Sheet 3 (Ireland - West) Revision 2-64

1966
OSI Sheet 5 (Ireland - SW) Revision 2-66

[Steven]

A small SABRE Maps update this morning - the final missing Revision A sheet of the Quarter Inch Fifth Series, Sheet 8 (Solway Firth) has finally been added to SABRE Maps, meaning that the "A" Revision layer is now complete across Great Britain.

It's also been added to its correct annual layer (1960), and to the SABRE Maps Sheetfinder, in the Quarter Inch section.

[c2R]

A small SABRE Maps update this morning - the final missing Revision A sheet of the Quarter Inch Fifth Series, Sheet 8 (Solway Firth) has finally been added to SABRE Maps, meaning that the "A" Revision layer is now complete across Great Britain.

It's also been added to its correct annual layer (1960), and to the SABRE Maps Sheetfinder, in the Quarter Inch section.

Something I'd not noticed before about several from this series is the misprint of the A764 as A746 north of Portpatrick.

[Steven]

The Quarter Inch Fourth Edition isn't massively well represented on SABRE Maps, so we're looking to so something about that, as they're a really interesting series in their own right and deserve some spotlight on them

If you see one in the flesh, you'll recognise it easily those really tall sheets which look completely different from the vast majority of other OS maps. Most sheets have what looks to be really strange sheetlines with odd National Grid References in the corners - but that's because it's actually laid out on the previous National Yard Grid, so maps published in the 1930s have corners that actually make sense.

So, these late maps have now been uploaded, and are also available via the SABRE Maps Sheetfinder.

1955
E&W Sheet 12 (England SE) Revision D

1957
Scotland Sheet 3 (Forth, Clyde & Tay) Revision B/

1958
E&W Sheet 9 (East Anglia) Revision C/
E&W Sheet 10 (England SW) Revision A///

1959
E&W Sheet 12 (England South) Revision E/

[Steven]

And as promised, there's now 13 (!) more of the tall OS Quarter Inch Fourth Edition maps been uploaded to SABRE Maps today, all from the 1948-1952 period, and are available via the SABRE Maps Sheetfinder.

They are:

1948
Sheet 9 (East Anglia) Revision 2024
Sheet 10 (England SW) Revision 2020
Sheet 11 (England S) Revision 2021
Sheet 12 (England SE and London) Revision 2022

1951
Sheet 2 (North Central) Revision 2028
Sheet 3 (England NE) Revision 2029
Sheet 4 (N Wales and Manchester) Revision 2030
Sheet 8 (Midlands) Revision 2031
Sheet 9 (East Anglia) Revision 2032
Sheet 11 (England S) Revision 2033
Sheet 12 (England SE and London) Revision 2034

1952
Sheet 6 (N Midlands and Lincolnshire) Revision 2036
Sheet 8 (Midlands) Revision D

[Truvelo]

Strange that as late as 1952 the railways are still shown with their pre-nationalisation names. Either this was overlooked by OS or effort was made on ensuring only the roads were kept up to date.

[Steven]

Another collection of 17 of the tall OS Quarter Inch Fourth Edition maps from 1945-46 been uploaded to SABRE Maps today, and are available via the SABRE Maps Sheetfinder.

They are:

1945
Sheet 11 (England South) Revision 20045/Ch

1946
England and Wales
Sheet 2 (England North Central) Revision 20046
Sheet 3 (England North East) Revision 20046/Cr
Sheet 4 (North Wales and Manchester) Revision 20046
Sheet 6 (North Midlands and Lincolnshire) Revision 20046
Sheet 7 (South Wales) Revision 20046/Cr
Sheet 8 (Midlands) Revision 20046/Cr
Sheet 9 (East Anglia) Revision 20046
Sheet 10 (England South West) Revision 23046/Cr

Scotland
Sheet 2 (Scotland SW) Revision 20046
Sheet 3 (The Forth, Clyde and Tay) Revision 20046.Cr
Sheet 4 (Glasgow and the Middle West) Revision 15046/Cr
Sheet 5 (The Eastern Highlands) Revision 15046
Sheet 6 (Skye and the Outer Hebrides) Revision 15046
Sheet 7 (Scotland North) Revision 15046
Sheet 8 (Orkney Islands) Revision 5046
Sheet 9 (Shetland Islands) Revision 5046