Will much have changed buying an updated map compared to 1989 version?

[cyclop]

1989 !!! What,like yesterday you mean.From the perspective of a 74yr old living in semi rural Galloway ...nothing...no,wait ,a minor back road,s been closed for months due to badgers.Also ,I bought a full set of used O.S. inch to the mile maps from a book shop !

[Bmblbzzz]

The National Library of Scotland allows you to compare maps of various ages side by side, including OS, Barts, and modern satellite imagery. For all UK, not just Scotland.
Eg: https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by ... =ESRIWorld

There's also Know Your Place, which does the same but you can overlay one map on another – however, I think it only covers the West of England.

[cycle tramp]

Short answer is that I would never expect a 35yr old map to be remotely accurate! Rural areas are often more dramatically changed as well - what used to be a forestry block could easily be a 400-home development by now. At least in urban areas, the roads will mostly stay the same.

Well, i guess it depends on the information displayed on the map...
If hill contours, water courses and churches are displayed, then i'd consider these to be almost permenant features which would allow navigation - they're unlikely to change. Indeed any countryside which is as flat as the somerset levels does allow you to navigate by various churches seen in the distance and at some points Glastonbury Tor, the Polden and Mendip Hills and the Quantocks..
However i would hate to navigate any new urban setting with any of my maps..
..on the plus side, i don't have to.. findmyaddress.com is a useful bit of software which happily displays the map of your chosen location, and its slightly governmental unique property registration number for those who care about thst sort of thing..

[TrevA]

My friend had a more or less full set of Bart’s maps from the 1960’s. If we were doing a Tour in the 1980’s/90’s, we would borrow the maps from him, to save the cost of buying new. This led to some interesting diversions. We were making our way through mid-Wales to catch a ferry across a river, only to be told by a local that the ferry had stopped running 20 years before. Even then, we would come up against dead end roads shown as through roads on the map, where a new road had cut the old road in half, with no way across, under or over.

[Bmblbzzz]

I definitely wouldn't expect many river ferries to have been still running in the 1980s, other than maybe in cities on large rivers eg London, Liverpool. Even the Humber Ferry closed in 1981. By the 1980s on most rivers it was surely a bridge or a diversion.

Ed: It's a shame, as there are many places where a small foot ferry would provide a useful link. Or a footbridge even.