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Historic map overlay: the old Ordnance Survey on today’s map
Waystone lays the Ordnance Survey’s six-inch-to-the-mile maps of 1843–1913 over today’s map, with the paper colour taken out so only the ink remains. Field boundaries, place names, buildings and the antiquities the surveyors drew sit on the ground, over the LiDAR and the heritage records. Free, in a browser.
What the map is
The Ordnance Survey mapped Great Britain at six inches to the mile (1:10,560). Waystone shows both editions, from the scans held by the National Library of Scotland: the first, surveyed between 1843 and 1882, and the revised second, surveyed between 1888 and 1913. The surveyors drew field boundaries, buildings, woods, footpaths and place names, and marked antiquities in a distinctive lettering: camps, tumuli, Roman roads and the sites of buildings that had gone.
Why lay it over today’s map
On its own an old map shows how a place was. Laid over today’s map and the LiDAR, it shows what has changed and what has not: hedges that have been removed, lanes that are now footpaths, earthworks that the surveyors drew and that still survive, and banks on the LiDAR that were already field boundaries a century ago.
How to use it in Waystone
- Open the map and choose the Victorian base map in the layers.
- Turn the LiDAR on underneath to compare the surveyors’ lines with the shape of the ground.
- Click a pin to read the heritage record for anything the map marks.
Every place and parish has the old map of that spot: see places and the LiDAR map by county.
Examples
Maiden Castle, Dorset
The hillfort’s ramparts as the surveyors drew them, with the site of a Roman building marked inside.
Old Sarum, Wiltshire
The earthworks of the hillfort and the medieval city, drawn on the six-inch sheet.
Questions
Is it free?
Yes. The map is free to use in a browser, with nothing to install.
Which years does it show?
Both six-inch editions: the first, surveyed between 1843 and 1882, and the second, surveyed between 1888 and 1913. A link opens the second; the map’s layers switch between them.
Which areas does it cover?
Great Britain at six inches to the mile.
Can I download the old maps?
Waystone shows the map; it does not supply the files. The National Library of Scotland publishes the scanned sheets on its map website.
Sources
- Ordnance Survey six-inch maps, first and second editions (1843–1913): reproduced from the collections of the National Library of Scotland.
- Recorded places: the national heritage records as held by Waystone.
Last updated 2026-10-16.