Cycling UK Forum

There’s a book available on the OS website that documents the history of the Ordnance Survey. It’s very in-depth and is probably more suited to reference rather than as a ‘rattling good read’!
https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/docume ... istory.pdf

I have a copy, it really is an in depth history, and it is massive, 394 A4 pages and set in 10 on 12 point.
Not the sort of thing you read from cover to cover.

I'll wait for the audio book

Who’d be the best narrator - Stephen Fry or David Tennant perhaps? They’d have to go some to hold the listener’s attention throughout!

simonineaston wrote: ↑15 Aug 2023, 8:34am Who’d be the best narrator - Stephen Fry or David Tennant perhaps? They’d have to go some to hold the listener’s attention throughout!

I chose Fiona (enhanced), she was quite happy to read this for me either on the phone or laptop. You can also right click highlighted text then click Services > Send to Music as a spoken track, in which case the talking voice file is sent to your Music folder (MacOS).

Here's a short section of her reading about Crawford on his bicycle, in the first half of the 20th century:

https://soundcloud.com/campag/os-1?si=1 ... al_sharing

The Charles Close Society might have something more readable.
https://charlesclosesociety.org

CCS is definitely worth joining if anyone's interested in the Ordnance Survey, their Sheetlines magazine is excellent and the subscription is really good value.

Cool - didn’t know about that. Thanks

I once had a conversation with someone from the Ordnance Survey who was having a meeting with someone from my employer, who created shared use paths and other features that might appear on maps. I took the opportunity to tell him about a moorland feature whose absence from OS maps had always seemed like an omission to me. On a heathland plateau otherwise devoid of landmarks, apart from one trig point, there is a linear feature, probably created by a fault line, which takes the form of a scarp, several hundred metres long and a couple of metres high. In the mist that frequently forms up there it was (pre GPS) a very useful landmark. Or would have been if it were on the maps. I could tell he wasn't interested and the feature never did find its way onto maps. I was a bit disappointed at the time because I had assumed anyone working for the OS would have been as keen as myself to see mapping improved where it can be. But he just wanted to get the day's job done and not pick up more work along the way.

That website described upthread does indeed have a ton of interesting items available, including lots of linked short articles available to public view.

Try “Map of a Nation” by Rachel Hewitt, all about the history of the OS: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Map-Nation-Bio ... 1847082548, published in 2010 and available on Kindle. I found it fascinating - there are lots of illustrations, and descriptions of various personalities and the developing techniques over the years. I couldn’t put it down!

I have a book Mapping the Railways. It is a fascinating history. Three proposals for tunnels across the North Channel are shown and it shows, of course, what we have lost.

LollyKat wrote: ↑30 Aug 2023, 12:22pm Try “Map of a Nation” by Rachel Hewitt, all about the history of the OS: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Map-Nation-Bio ... 1847082548, published in 2010 and available on Kindle. I found it fascinating - there are lots of illustrations, and descriptions of various personalities and the developing techniques over the years. I couldn’t put it down!

I have this on my bookshelf. It was fascinating. The French started mapping first. They still have good maps.

What it doesn't really explain is how the privatisation of mapping in the Ordnance Survey has affected Britain for the worse. Take a look at almost any part of Germany on OpenStreetMap and you will see all the houses outlined and numbered. The state mapping services make their data available to OSM for free. The high quality means that many websites use OSM as a base. Now look at Britain. In some places dedicated volunteers have mapped this detail; in most places not. Britain is selling more of its soul to google as a result.

You can work against this. Get mapping on OSM. It is easy.

plancashire wrote: ↑2 Sep 2023, 2:12pm The French started mapping first. They still have good maps.

Take a look at almost any part of Germany on OpenStreetMap and you will see all the houses outlined and numbered. The state mapping services make their data available to OSM for free. The high quality means that many websites use OSM as a base. Now look at Britain. In some places dedicated volunteers have mapped this detail; in most places not. Britain is selling more of its soul to google as a result.

You can work against this. Get mapping on OSM. It is easy.

French geodetic and trigonometrical survey nationwide predated the equivalent in Britain under the OS, but the history of map-making goes back much earlier than that...

Have a look at the PDFs here

https://press.uchicago.edu/books/HOC/index.html

For a comprehensive history of cartography.

On OSM, yes, it is patchy/uneven as it is crowdsourced, I agree more folks should use it, and also contribute to it.

Traction_man wrote: ↑2 Sep 2023, 5:10pm French geodetic and trigonometrical survey nationwide predated the equivalent in Britain under the OS, but the history of map-making goes back much earlier than that...

Have a look at the PDFs here

https://press.uchicago.edu/books/HOC/index.html

For a comprehensive history of cartography.

On OSM, yes, it is patchy/uneven as it is crowdsourced, I agree more folks should use it, and also contribute to it.

Thanks. When I wrote, I was thinking more of real attempts at trigonometric surveying, not so much odd shapes as for example in the Mappa Mundi.

OSM can be excellent but it isn't in Britain, for reasons I mentioned up thread. I suspect there may be a cultural aspect too but best not to discuss here.