TOPOGRAPHIC photos on Flickr

My wife and I undertook a 3 day hike recently in Victoria’s South East. Hitting the trail we thought we might just be the only ones out there this weekend. When we arrived at our camp for the first night we were met be another larger group o...

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goth topographics by Eldon Underhill

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Vintage Postcard - Valentine - Art Colour Series # A845 E H Thompson - Ullswater by Mark Crombie

STAVERTON Northamptonshire Village houses RPB 1932 by Mark Crombie

CARDIGANSHIRE ABERAYRON.BRIDGE STREET. CIRCA 1900.POSTED LOCALLY WITH DUPLEX. by Mark Crombie

OS Maps | Old Series | Sheet 10 | OSDs by fraser donachie

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The image uses the Ordnance Surveyors' Drawings (OSD) held by the British Library.

The survey dates appear as manuscript additions on the following OSDs (and are quoted within Hodson & Campbell Ordnance Surveyors' Drawings 1789-c.1840 pub. 1989):

OSD 68 "Surveyed circa 1793-4"

OSD 69 "Surveyed circa 1793-4"

OSD 71 "Surveyed circa 1793-4"

OSD 75-1 "Date of survey 1797"

OSD 75-2 "Date of survey 1797"

OSD 75-3 "Date of survey 1797"

Rob Wheeler: "the dates probably come from (lost) registers of when the initial survey was completed".

The topographical survey date range for the printed sheet 10 is given in Hellyer & Oliver The First Ordnance Survey Map pub. 2015 as 1793-1805, so this suggests that supplemental survey material was used to compile these drawings. However, the source of the 1805 'finish' date is uncertain.

Rob Wheeler: "Maps at this date were based on traverses along the roads, tied to tertiary triangulation and with the gaps between roads filled 'by the eye'".

The OSDs for sheet 10 appear very uniform within themselves, as if each drawing was perhaps completed well within a single year. And there appears to be a high degree of consistency between drawings e.g. the ‘mainland’ ones look contemporary with each other and the Island ones ditto. The Island OSDs are attributed to William Gardner.

Rob Wheeler: "The finished [Ordnance Surveyors'] drawings, which [have survived], were indeed probably all produced [at] about the same time and by the same draughtsmen".

The OSDs for the ‘mainland’ were drawn at 3 inches to the mile whilst those for the Island were drawn at 6 inches to the mile.

Rob Wheeler: “[The] finished 3 inch plans were 'For Government Use Only' and multiple versions/copies were circulated. There was an earlier 2 inch rough plan signed [by] Frederick George Mulcaster, which like the 3 inch plans, is derived from the 6 inch drawings”.

The OSDs weren’t only used to produce the printed maps. They were also Board of Ordnance products in their own right, circulated to military users.

The next step, prior to engraving, was the production of a 'model' or ‘fair drawing’ for the prospective printed map. This would have involved synthesising the content from all of the OSDs within the selected map neat lines (i.e. border). This step involved reducing the 3 inch and 6 inch OSDs to the 1 inch scale using a pantograph.

Rob Wheeler: “In July 1808, Mudge was authorised to have [the] sundry plans of William Gardner reduced, taken to pieces and reassembled to agree with the Trigonometrical Survey: 770 sq miles at 4s/sq mile”. This implies that the OSDs were most probably drawn between survey completion (c.1800?) and starting the fair drawing (1808).

Some ‘last minute’ annotations / corrections appear on the ‘mainland’ OSDs in black ink. It seems that sheet 10’s fair drawing was completed prior to these being added. These mark-ups were ultimately included on sheet 11, but that’s another story.

Sheet 10 is unique in that the Island is depicted in accordance with the full ‘specification’, including hill hachures, whereas the ‘mainland’ is shown in ‘skeleton’ form only, omitting hachured hills and certain placenames.

The final step was to hand over the ‘fair drawing’ to the engravers, Benjamin Baker (and assistants) and Ebenezer Bourne. Engraving could have been started as early as 1809, with a planned publication date of 1st June 1810.

Because sheet 10 is not integrated within the ‘national’ pseudo-grid of sheets, Mudge had freedom of choice to select its dimensions and coverage. The dimensions of sheet 10 could therefore represent the ‘ideal’ size and aspect ratio sought by Mudge. Sheet 33 is a similar example, at least in width.

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Attention is drawn to TNA: MPHH 1/220, rough plans by Budgen of c1798, marked with lines implying resection by compass or theodolite.

MPHH 1/220

Description:

'Budgen's Rough Plans': four sheets of the Topographical Survey of Hampshire. (1) Plan showing Lyndhurst, Lymington, Brockenhurst and New Forest area. (2) Plan showing Titchfield and Hamble area. (3) Plan showing Ringwood and Christchurch area. (4) Plan showing Portsmouth, Gosport, Porchester, Havant, Emsworth and Cosham area. Approximate scales: 3 inches to 1 mile. Endorsed on (3): by Charles Budgen, Royal Military Surveyor and Draughtsman, 1798.

Date: 1798

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Reference is also made to a plan covering Titchfield, Rowner & Portsmouth (related to OSD75??) with a trig diagram on the back 'suggesting linkages to the trigonometrical observations'. The reference for this is D Hodson, 'Maps of Portsmouth Before 1801', Portsmouth Record Series No 4 (Portsmouth, 1978).

I seem to recall that a search of the TNA catalogue -perhaps WO 78 or WO 47 - throws up some of the preparatory material for those IOW maps".

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Rob Wheeler: "[The Isle of Wight] surveys were commenced in 1791”.

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OSD 75-2 has quite a few black ink annotations depicting notional new fields and revised road layouts near Fawley. Eling and Fawley were apparently enclosed by an Act of 1810 (with award later in 1814). A further inclosure Act for Fawley alone is dated 1813. Richard Oliver writes: “the Fawley [enclosure] map - undated, but obviously no later than 1815 - is at Hampshire Record Office Q23/2/51/1, and apparently extends somewhat outside the area immediately affected by the enclosure”.

Rob Wheeler writes: “[The enclosure map] will have been surveyed on the ground. I would expect the commissioners appointed by the Act to have made their decisions and staked out the new enclosures (or most of them) in 1811 so the surveyor from the Ordnance could have come round at any time after that”.

Early Morning Scene, St. Catharine St., Montreal by McGill Library