You may know about our trig pillars, but did you know that there are more nostalgic reminders of how we used to map Great Britain?
Have you ever seen one of these while you’ve been out and about? If so, it is highly likely you have spotted one of our renowned benchmarks. 2018 marks 25 years since the last traditionally-cut arrow style benchmark was carved on a milestone located outside The Fountain pub in Loughton.
Over the last few months, I’ve been watching a new housing development being built near my home. It’s always interesting to see new communities appearing in previously open land and in this case, close to wetland areas and flood plains around Tewkesbury.
While I admire the civil engineering techniques used to create the housing infrastructure, it prompts me to think about the impact of surface water on this development, especially as it is overlooking the floodplain.
Early in 2018 Ordnance Survey (OS) were approached by the Registers of Scotland (RoS) to support their Data Month, an internal event for RoS staff held in March to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and best practice across the business. RoS is the non-ministerial government department responsible for compiling and maintaining 18 public registers. These relate to land, property, and other legal documents and include the Land Register of Scotland and General Register of Sasines.
There has been much speculation amongst historians and archaeologists on whether Roman Chester (Deva) was intended to be the capital of Britannia.
This was the subject of a BBC Two Timewatch programme (Britain’s Lost Colosseum) from 2005 and, more recently, in Professor Alice Roberts’ Britain’s Most Historic Towns programme about Roman Chester.
During an archaeological dig in 1939, the remains of a substantial elliptical building were discovered immediately to the dextral rear (north west) of the headquarters building (Principia).
The map below shows the approximate location of these buildings. The elliptical building would have been approximately where the present-day Chester Market Hall is located.
Location of Principia and Elliptical Building overlaid on OS Open Map-Local with present day city walls.
Keswick Mountain Festival trail run.
Following the Easter indulgence, we’re releasing a new feature for OS Maps – the 3D fly-through. Perfect for planning GetOutside adventures with your friends and family or for justifying your chocolate consumption (just us?), you can visualise your whole route before you start your trip.
For April Fool’s Day we challenged one of our most senior and experienced cartographers to create a mythical island for Country Walking magazine. The premise was that this island had been lost to the sea centuries ago, only for it to have now mysteriously risen out of the waves in need of mapping.
Mark Wolstenholme, in his 34 years at OS, has worked across every series of mapping we have. Here he explains how to produce a fictional island in a short time frame, while making it authentic enough to convince as a prank.
The beast from the east dominated headlines this month, with snow causing traffic issues, school closures and disruption across the country. In Cumbria, the depth of the snow and challenging terrain resulted in significant issues accessing some communities. Cumbria’s multi-agency Strategic Co-ordinating Group (SCG), made up of partner agencies, secured military assistance to help access the most isolated communities, many of which had been cut off from all supplies for five days. We were asked to assist the SCG under Mapping for Emergencies (MFE).
Photo from Cumbria County Council on Twitter showing travel conditions in Croglin
One of our technical consultants, Kevin Topping, knows the power of geospatial in these situations only too well. Since joining OS last autumn, Kevin has been working with local resilience teams across England and Wales, showing how geospatial data can help in emergency planning. He ensures that authorities are aware of the data available under the Public Sector Mapping Agreement (PSMA) and how to best make use of it, including calling for extra assistance from OS under MFE.
OS is Britain's mapping agency. We make the most up-to-date and accurate maps of the country. But we're also a digital business, and we use our content to help governments, companies and individuals to be more effective both here and around the world.