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National Library of Scotland maps

dwilly

master brummie
https://maps.nls.uk/

Someone showed me this site the other day, allows overlay of os maps old and new and also comparison side by side, allows you to alter the intensity of the over lay so new map or old map is more prominent, looks like you could have hours of fun with it, although it the Library of Scotland it also cover England and of course Birmingham
 
Also here https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=45974&p=561735#post561735
I had fun with it ...
friendly_wink.png
 
Looks like the NLS is moving quite quickly (in view of the amount of data) with their scanning of 1950s maps with house numbers. Naturally they started in Scotland and have now reached Dumfries. It will be great when we once again have this valuable facility at our fingertips. Example link below

wow thanks john...i cant wait for it to reach birmingham ive always thought it brilliant anyway but having numbering on the maps will be a massive bonus to us..i will never get any shopping..housework or cooking done not to mention baby sitting :D :D

lyn
 
By chance I just came across this on the NLS website. I have previously been told, and passed on , the message that the library were palnning to make their post war large scale maps maps available on the site but had not seen it in print from them directly before. Both the 1: 1250 and 1:2500 maps referred to show numbering. I hope they acheive their target of the end of 2024

ScreenHunter 53.jpg
 
It would be great when these maps with house numbers are available for the other cities. I've been using them in London and they're so useful for locating addresses better. (I just wish you could fade between two old maps not just modern+old) e.g. https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=18.1&lat=51.47538&lon=-0.24091&layers=173&b=1

I have a tip which might help people using the Birmingham map Towns 1:500 1840s-1890s, which seems to have some missing tiles in the zoomable map. I was frustrated by this, but eventually found that these tiles are present in the underlying maps which have been stiched together to make the full city. So you can click the small link to the bottom right, to show the individual map for the area like X1V.1.17 and these seems to be complete. I've ordered a few of these maps as prints and they are wonderful.

Here's what I mean: this has some missing sections near Dartmouth Circus
NLS Missing tiles 1.png

So look for this link bottom right:
NLS Missing tiles 2.png

Once you click it, it turns into a sentance which is "waiting" for you to roll over the right area, and then it shows you th ename of the underlying map (XIV.17 etc). The trick is to be able to move your mouse back to the link to click it - which is impossible because you roll over another area on the way and it changes! So you have to pan the map across until the area you want is right next to the original link. (It's weird that they didn't do this another way...). So then you mouse over the link and double-check it's still the right map section number and click "view or order this map".
NLS Missing tiles 3.png

This takes you to the single-map view, where you will see the missing tiles.
NLS Missing tiles 4.png

Vivienne (if you see this), I figured this out while looking for St. George St, Court 7, House 6 where Edward & Sarah lived - which was frustratingly right under one of these missing sections.

St Georges St Birmingham 1880s map sm.png

This is at XIV.1.16 - https://maps.nls.uk/view/228801896

If you have trouble clicking the hover link, you can choose from the maps: https://maps.nls.uk/os/townplans-england/birmingham.html
There's always another way!
 
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