Purchasing Maps

I hope ebay members will find this guide useful as many of my customers are new to purchasing maps and sometimes are not sure what they are buying.  Maps can be expensive and when buying on line you want to be sure you are buying the correct item and that it contains the information you need.  I am no expert on maps but I hope you will find these general comments useful.

What they contain

Old Ordnance Survey Maps show areas in great detail as the towns, villages and areas were at the time of the survey, some area will have additions after the original survey.  The County boundary lines may have changed; if you cannot find the map you need look over the County line. 

The periods they cover

The companies who have reprinted the old maps have done a great service to us all, in making available these wonderful old maps. It is interesting to compare the old maps to modern day maps to realise how much our towns and villages have changed over the last 100 years or so.  Some of the large unfolded maps (reprints) go back to 1700/early 1800's.

The detail

 If you are interested in history, genealogy, railway lines, tramways, Ordnance Survey maps show all this information.  Streets, schools, churches, farms, factories, mills, wind mills, grave yards, cemetries  rivers, coastal areas are all included. Workhouses, Almshouses, Industrial Schools ,old mines and quarries are shown. The London maps detail clubs and working mens clubs, and I find those covering the Docks and Army Barracks are great for history research.  Use these together with the Census Records (all available on line) and you will obtain a great deal of information.

Which product

There are various products to buy  on the market so make sure that the map you choose is right for your requirements.  If you are not sure ask the seller, they will be only to pleased to answer your questions rather than have an unhappy buyer.  The maps vary in scale for example the can be  an inch to the mile map which gives less fine detail than  an 15 inch to the mile map. 

Indexes

Unlike an A-Z old maps do not have an index so you will need to spend a little while studying the map (great fun) to find what you are looking for.  There are however indexes for some of the London Maps which you can purchase and are useful if you intend to buy a several maps, however they are expensive if you would only need one or two maps.  Some of the larger cities and towns have several maps that cover the area so try to ascertain which map you will need - it can be disappointing to find that you needed the map to the side or above.  

Storage/framing/black & white/coloured

 I find the small folded maps are easy to store and handle but these can be framed and some maps are produced for framing.  You will find that some are printed in black and white (as the original) and that some are coloured, the coloured maps are more expensive to produce. I find the large sheet  unfolded) maps (in my private collection) are difficult to store, I tend to pack them away to keep them intact and then forget I have them.

Many maps are now available on CD or on the internet to download but I do not find these as useful for research as the folded maps which I use frequently in my Genealogy research.

I offer a street look up service (free) on the London Maps and am always willing to try and find a map if you need help.