X-Nico

16 unusual facts about Ordnance Survey


Archie Small

After the war, he was still actively playing for the Ordnance Survey team, earning further County caps, and continued to work at the London Road premises until his retirement.

Batsford Arboretum

Batsford Arboretum is located at Ordnance Survey mapping six-figure grid reference SP 187339

Danger area

On maps of the United Kingdom produced by the Ordnance Survey the words Danger Area in red indicate Firing and Test Ranges in the area.

Donald Swain Lewis

This was probably not an Ordnance Survey style grid based on a system of mile or kilometre squaring, but a system based on squares identified by letters and numbers.

Draper's Mill, Margate

A mill was marked on Robert Morden's map of 1695, Harris's map of 1719 and the 1819-43 Ordnance Survey (OS) map.

Field name

In the United Kingdom, each field has or had a field name often seen on old parish maps, tithe maps and early and pre Ordnance Survey maps

House Party at Boothy's

The inside sleeve of the vinyl features an Ordnance Survey map, with an arrow pointing directly to the house where these parties were held.

International Map of the World

The Central Bureau of the Map of the World was established at the Ordnance Survey in London.

Maybush

Located in the western side of the city, Maybush is probably most famous as the former location of the Ordnance Survey head office.

Michelle Gildernew

Gildernew is one of ten siblings from a Republican family based at the "Gildernew farm complex" (as described on Ordnance Survey maps) in County Tyrone.

Mobil 1 Rally Championship

The PC version is notable for the stages being based around real-life Ordnance Survey maps.

OS MasterMap

OS MasterMap® is Ordnance Survey's flagship digital product, launched in November 2001.

Robert Barlow

Robert Barlow (18 February 1813 – 16 February 1883) was a cartographer and topographical draftsman from England who spent most of his career there with the Ordnance Survey of Great Britain.

Thursbitch

Thursbitch is a novel by English writer Alan Garner, named after the valley in the Pennines of England where the action occurs (also listed in the 1841 OS map as "Thursbatch").

Vernacular geography

The British Ordnance Survey is sponsoring research at the Universities of Cardiff and Sheffield.

Westonbirt Arboretum

Westonbirt Arboretum is situated in Gloucestershire on the A433 approximately 3 miles south west of Tetbury, at Ordnance Survey mapping six-figure grid reference ST 848898.


Alexander Macbain

As a teenager, he taught for half a year at the Dunmullie School in Boat of Garten (1870–71), attended Baldow School in Badenoch, was employed by the Ordnance Survey in Scotland and Wales (1871–74) and returned to Baldow School for another term.

Angular Recording Corporation

Set up in June 2003 by two ex-Goldsmiths College students, Joe Daniel and Joe Margetts, who reclaimed a local Ordnance Survey Triangulation Station and made it their first artefact: ARC 001.

Balta, Shetland

John MacCulloch visited Balta in May 1820 to carry out the Trigonometrical Survey for the Ordnance Survey.

Billington, Bedfordshire

Mapmakers, from Thomas Jefferys in 1765 to the Ordnance Survey in 2006, have consistently written the word "Billington" next to the settlement by the church and the words "Little Billington" next to the hamlet of that name.

Eilean Mhuire

There are various ruins on the island and the Ordnance Survey mark the remains of "St. Mary's Chapel" on the western side of the island, having been informed in 1851 that the island was a priest's refuge "in the time of Knox".

GeoPlace

This is a joint venture between the Local Government Group and Ordnance Survey, which involved the acquisition of Intelligent Addressing.

Gloster Survey

In 1926, the Aircraft Operating Company, an official contractor to the British Ordnance Survey for aerial survey work overseas, required a replacement for the converted Airco DH.9s that formed the majority of its fleet.

Lydd Ranges

The Danger area extends out to sea and mariners sailing to and from Rye Harbour must pass south of the Stephenson Shoal to avoid it.

Map

Many national surveying projects have been carried out by the military, such as the British Ordnance Survey: a civilian government agency, internationally renowned for its comprehensively detailed work.

Ordnance Survey Ireland

The Engineer officers in charge of the operation were Lt-Colonel Thomas Colby, a long-serving Director-General of the Ordnance Survey, and Lieutenant Thomas Larcom.

River Taf

Water drains from high ground above the village of Crymych in Pembrokeshire, and at one time flowed at ground level across the main CardiganTenby road (A478) before falling to the level of the defunct Whitland and Cardigan Branch Line railway station "Crymmych Arms" (Great Western Railway) where, on the UK Ordnance Survey map of 1866 it is shown as the source of the Taf.

South Cumberland Islands National Park

This mountain is now called Sca Fell due to a procedural error by the Ordnance Survey in capturing the correct name, publishing this in 1867.