OS/OSI/OSNI Half Inch maps

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Steven
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OS/OSI/OSNI Half Inch maps

Post by Steven »

Maps at the half-inch scale are pretty rare in Ordnance Survey GB world nowadays. They started to fall out of favour around World War 1, though a few hung around into the late 1920s before being killed off. They're most familiar to us because the MoT maps are based on (old) Half-Inch outline maps with the coloured overlays, which is why then-new bypasses look a bit odd sometimes, because there's no road underneath the overlay.

There was an attempt to bring back OSGB maps at the Half-inch scale in the late 1950s and early 1960s, but there were only ever six maps produced at that scale, plus one Tourist Map before once again it was binned off, and there's been no real attempt since 1962 to publish maps at this scale.

However, in Ireland it's a different story. Half inch maps produced by both OSI and OSNI were common through to the late 1980s, and relatively large numbers have survived - meaning that they're a valuable resource for us to have. However, what's always stopped us from doing anything about it is the fact that the tools we use to put SABRE Maps together didn't really support Irish maps very well.

Well, thanks to to a load of development work carried out by Ritchie333, we can now add Irish Grid maps much more easily to SABRE Maps.

So, to celebrate, there's a whole new Layer Group called "OS Half Inch" with two all-new mapping layers for everyone to enjoy, with more to come in the future. We've managed to collect a few of the relatively rare OSGB 1960s Half-Inch maps, and put them together with a few OSI and OSNI maps to give at least some coverage of both islands.

Oh, and they have quite a few of the old Irish T and L roads on them too...

1960-64 layer:
* OSI Sheet 20 (Dingle Bay) Revision 4-62
* OSI Sheet 21 (Killarney) Revision 9-60
* OS Sheet 39 (Norwich) Revision A
* OS Sheet 43 (Greater London) Revision A

1965-69 layer:
* OSNI Sheet 2 (The North East) Revision A
* OSI Sheet 10 (Clifden) Revision 1-68
* OSI Sheet 11 (South Mayo) Revision 9-65
* OSI Sheet 20 (Dingle Bay) Revision 9/69
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Re: OS/OSI/OSNI Half Inch maps

Post by c2R »

These are fantastic! I know I should be excited by the T and L roads on the Irish sheets.... but the London sheet - there's loads going on there - M4,South Mimms and Stevenage bypasses shown as under construction/projected... as well as a lovely explanation as to why M1 J13 is so under capacity, and M1 temporary terminus...
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Re: OS/OSI/OSNI Half Inch maps

Post by Steven »

Three more added today to a new layer:

1955-59 layer:
* OSI Sheet 6 (North Mayo) Revision 12-56
* OSI Sheet 14 (Galway) Revision 5-57
* OS Sheet 36 (Birmingham) Revision A/

If anyone has any half-inch maps in their collection that they'd be happy to scan, then please get in touch.
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Re: OS/OSI/OSNI Half Inch maps

Post by FosseWay »

I have a fair number of late 60s Irish half-inches - will dig out my list.
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Re: OS/OSI/OSNI Half Inch maps

Post by Steven »

And to keep everyone entertained, there's two new layers appeared on the SABRE Maps Half Inch menu today. Can't you tell I've stacked stuff up whilst the server work went on? :mrgreen:

One is the 1935-39 layer which contains the 1935 Half Inch map of Greater London, which has been available on the "London" menu before now (and indeed, still is via that route). However, adding to it we have the brand new 1945-49 layer which contains the 1946 revision of that map.

The 1946 one is quite fun in not just a road enthusiast way (as it shows the immediate post-war of the London and out to some of the Home Counties area), but also a map enthusiast kind of way, in that just like the M25 it's clearly a massive bodge. It's one of those really rare mid-20th century OS maps with no grid lines, or indeed grid references of any kind. It refers in the margin to the "position of this sheet in relation to the Half-Inch Series" which was a series that didn't exist. It's a post-war map drawn almost entirely in the One Inch Fifth Edition "relief" style that the actual Fifth Edition had binned off more than ten years previously.

So how the heck do we georeference it with no grid and only a vague lat/lon markings to go off? Well, on close inspection, it's set to exactly the same projection as the 1935 revision, that does have gridlines, so with a bit of cleverness we can use the 1935 map as a base to georeference the 1946 map.

Which makes this map land in yet another, very rare, group. It's actually a post-war map based on the pre-war National Yard Grid which is the sort of thing that gets people like me all excited...

So there's loads to see - and it's easily compared to the 1935 edition, but don't forget that we also have the 1962 edition also available!
Last edited by Steven on Thu Aug 20, 2020 12:39, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: OS/OSI/OSNI Half Inch maps

Post by c2R »

Steven wrote: Thu Aug 20, 2020 08:47 It's one of those really rare mid-20th century OS maps with no grid lines, or indeed grid references of any kind. It refers in the margin to the "position of this sheet in relation to the Half-Inch Series" which was a series that didn't exist. It's a post-war map drawn almost entirely in the One Inch Fifth Edition "relief" style that the actual Fifth Edition had binned off more than ten years previously.

I think it's really nice without the gridlines, and with the relief shading - just a flowing landscape of colour.
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Re: OS/OSI/OSNI Half Inch maps

Post by Steven »

After some time working on One Inch annual layers, it's time for a change of scenery with some shuffling of layers and some adding of Half Inch mapping from the late 1960s and early 1970s from all three national Ordnance Surveys.

From OSGB, we have two Tourist sheets, well, technically two revisions of the single Half Inch sheet that was available, that of Snowdonia. There's the A revision from 1966, plus the A//* revision from 1972.

From OSNI, there's the North East sheet that's now moved to its own 1968 layer, where it's been joined by other mapping...

Which leads us to OS Ireland mapping, and there's a few here, both new and shuffled. The full list is:

* Sheet 10 (Connemara) Revisions 1-68 and 12-69
* Sheet 11 (South Mayo) Revisions 9-65 and 7-68
* Sheet 14 (Galway) Revision 5-68
* Sheet 20 (Dingle Bay) Revision 9-69
* Sheet 21 (Killarney) Revision 11-69

Have fun with that lot!
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Re: OS/OSI/OSNI Half Inch maps

Post by Nwallace »

I noticed a fair whack of Irish sheets on Jerry Stampfers Ebay shop when I last trawled through to see what I could add to my collection.
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Re: OS/OSI/OSNI Half Inch maps

Post by Steven »

Well, the last week has been a busy one for SABRE Maps.

Thanks to Ritchie333's work on bugfixing a problem with our ability to process maps based on the Irish Bonne projection, there's a big batch of OSI Half Inch maps been completed from between 1964 and January 1971 - the lattermost helpfully having a 1970 copyright date!

But in order to complete those, we've ended up adding a number of OSGB Half Inch maps as well - so now we have literally every OSGB Half Inch Second Series that was released to the public online now.

And on top of that, we've added a 1970 OSNI sheet 1 (The North West) to the mix; and then in order for it all to make sense, there was also a 1956 OSI Dublin sheet.

The full list, with each map layer they can be found on is below, and the eagle eyed of you will notice that there's at least one copy of almost every OSI sheet that was printed - the exception being Sheet 5 (Belfast), which is the only sheet that is entirely within Northern Ireland.

So, there's also another brand new layer been added - the whole of Ireland (bar the aforementioned Belfast sheet, which doesn't exist in the timeframe) circa 1969.

I hope everyone enjoys them - there's been a lot of hard work put into them!

1970-74
OSI Sheet 9 (Newry) Revision 8-70
OSI Sheet 17 (Shannon Estuary) Revision 1-71
OSI Sheet 24 (West Cork) Revision 5-70
OSNI Sheet 1 (North West) Revision A

1969
OSI Sheet 1 (Letterkenny) Revision 10-69
OSI Sheet 2 (Coleraine) Revision 8-69
OSI Sheet 3 (Donegal) Revision 12-69
OSI Sheet 7 (Sligo) Revision 3-69
OSI Sheet 8 (Monaghan) Revision 12-69

1968
OSI Sheet 13 (Drogheda) Revision 1-68
OSI Sheet 16 (Dublin) Revision 8-68
OSI Sheet 18 (Tipperary) Revision 7-68
OSI Sheet 19 (Carlow) Revision 2-68
OSI Sheet 22 (Cork and Lismore) Revision 10-68
OSI Sheet 23 (Waterford and Wexford) Revision 8-68
OSI Sheet 25 (Cork) Revision 6-68

1965-67
OSI Sheet 6 (North Mayo) Revision 8-67
OSI Sheet 9 (Newry) Revision 4-67
OSI Sheet 12 (Longford) Revision 12-67
OSI Sheet 15 (Birr) Revision 9-67

1960-64
OSI Sheet 4 (Omagh) Revision 4-64
Sheet 28 (Snowdon) Revision A
Sheet 36 (Birmingham) Revision A/

1955-59
Sheet 36 (Birmingham) Revision A
Sheet 51 (Canterbury) Revision A
OSI Sheet 16 (Dublin) Revision 1-56
Last edited by Steven on Mon Jan 18, 2021 14:13, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: OS/OSI/OSNI Half Inch maps

Post by c2R »

Wow, thank you Steven. What's quite interesting about that 1969 layer is that it makes extensive use of bilingual place names in the north, even for relatively small places that I'd never heard anyone use the Irish language for when referring to...
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Re: OS/OSI/OSNI Half Inch maps

Post by Steven »

c2R wrote: Mon Jan 18, 2021 14:06 What's quite interesting about that 1969 layer is that it makes extensive use of bilingual place names in the north, even for relatively small places that I'd never heard anyone use the Irish language for when referring to...
I suspect if you compare to the OSNI sheets on the 1968 and 1970-74 layers they might just treat some of the names differently!
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Re: OS/OSI/OSNI Half Inch maps

Post by Ritchie333 »

This is a fascinating look at Ireland that is comparable with the one inch maps of Great Britain we've had for the last ten years. Wow, there's so much to find, like seeing where the T8 (N11) originally met the T12 (N25), and seeing the T7 had a small spur to Wicklow. Also confirmation that the T10 vanished at the NI border and probably should have gone as far as Enniskillen, but who knows?
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Re: OS/OSI/OSNI Half Inch maps

Post by nowster »

Steven wrote: Mon Jan 18, 2021 13:30 Well, the last week has been a busy one for SABRE Maps.
So that's why the disk space low alarm went off this morning! Another 4GB added to the server.
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Re: OS/OSI/OSNI Half Inch maps

Post by AndyB »

I will see if my dad has the missing map around Belfast. You never know...
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Re: OS/OSI/OSNI Half Inch maps

Post by Steven »

I've just acquired another OSNI Half Inch map from 1968, this time the South East sheet.

And it's brilliant - one of those maps that the more you see, the more you find - there's most of the M1, the first section of M2, the A8(M), and a whole pile of other goodness including one I'll discuss on another thread...
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Re: OS/OSI/OSNI Half Inch maps

Post by c2R »

Steven wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 14:39 I've just acquired another OSNI Half Inch map from 1968, this time the South East sheet.

And it's brilliant - one of those maps that the more you see, the more you find - there's most of the M1, the first section of M2, the A8(M), and a whole pile of other goodness including one I'll discuss on another thread...
it's interesting that this creates a gap in coverage on the 1968 layer just wide enough that Dundalk isn't on either map! Presumably there's a sheet that does show it and has considerable overlap in one direction or another?
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Re: OS/OSI/OSNI Half Inch maps

Post by Steven »

c2R wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 14:58
Steven wrote: Thu Jan 28, 2021 14:39 I've just acquired another OSNI Half Inch map from 1968, this time the South East sheet.

And it's brilliant - one of those maps that the more you see, the more you find - there's most of the M1, the first section of M2, the A8(M), and a whole pile of other goodness including one I'll discuss on another thread...
it's interesting that this creates a gap in coverage on the 1968 layer just wide enough that Dundalk isn't on either map! Presumably there's a sheet that does show it and has considerable overlap in one direction or another?
Yeah, this is because OSNI decided to do their own thing with Half Inch mapping in the late 1960s and reproject it properly onto the Irish Grid with new sheetlines; whilst OSI stayed with the older Irish Bonne mapping into the 1970s.
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