Historic Sierra Leone mapping (FOI221111)

This Freedom of Information request asks for details of coordinates of established 1st order Geodetic network mapping points in Sierra Leone

Request for information - Ref no: FOI221111

February 21, 2023

Information request

Thank you for your email of 13 September 2022 and your clarification email of 20 October 2022, requesting information from Ordnance Survey in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000, as set out in the extract below:

Email 13 September 2022

I am a mapping and GIS consultant for the Government of Sierra Leone (Ministry of lands and country planning, for a land administration project, financed by the World Bank.
As part of this project, I investigate the existing information on Geodetic network and ground benchmarks beacons that need to be renewed. From my investigation with current and former officials, it was said to me that the information on the geodetic network can not be found in the country and might be found in the British archive or at the Ordnance Survey archive.

I searched the online catalogue and didn't find information on that data. This information is from the late 1950's and the survey was done by Ordnance survey.

I will be thankful for help locating the data or additional information and advise regarding locating the data. this data that is needed for the Sierra Leone land administration project.

Email 20 October 2022

For verification, what I am looking for is the list of coordinates of established 1st order Geodetic network points. A person with a survey and mapping background should know about that type of data.

Our response

I confirm that Ordnance Survey does hold the information you have requested.

We have reviewed the information we hold, and I am pleased to provide you with the attached files which are relevant to your request:

The information supplied to you continues to be protected by copyright. You are free to use if for your own purposes, including private study and non-commercial research, and for any other purpose authorised by an exception in current copyright law. Documents (except photographs) can be used in the UK without requiring permission for the purposes of news reporting. Any other reuse, for example commercial publication, would require the permission of the copyright holder. Most documents supplied by Ordnance Survey will have been produced within government and will be Crown copyright

Further to your email of 25 October 2022, I confirm that the National Archive do not hold the items listed in the spreadsheet sent to you on 18 October 2022. These files are due to be transferred to the National Archives at some stage in the future, but I am unable to confirm when this will take place.

Next steps

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