Selecting the Best Maps
If all you want to see are small towns (and large villages), you can to consult road atlases, but once you know the area where your ancestors lived, you need to study a more detailed map or street plan. The notes below will help you make the right choice.
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Maps of Wales Menu page
Let's examine each of the main types of map available:
- Travel Route Maps and Road Atlases
- Medium and Large Scale Ordnance Survey Maps
- Town Plans
- Street Atlases
- Tithe Maps
1. Travel Route Maps and Road Atlases
These maps are useful for navigating your way around Wales by road and getting you to the general area where your ancestors lived. They are usually in book form, each double-page spread covering an area of perhaps 50 miles by 70 miles or more. The maps are to a scale of 3 or 4 miles to the inch, and only show major roads and surfaced minor roads. The smaller lanes and villages are not shown. The road maps on the Multimaps website show a similar level of detail.
2. Medium and Large Scale Maps
The Ordnance Survey (OS) produces a range of maps covering the whole of Wales. Maps from the OS range described below are all available in the form of folded sheets:
Landranger Series - (Scale 1¼ inches to 1 mile) These maps cover an area roughly 25 miles by 25 miles. Details include land contours, streams, bridges, tiny villages, churches and chapels, public footpaths and rights of way, and most farms and other large buildings. The example (right) shows the detail found on the Landranger series. This image covers almost exactly the same area as the picture (above right) taken from a Road Atlas.
Once you know the approximate area where your ancestors lived, you simply must get the Landranger map of the area. In some cases you may need more than one map, because your location may be close to the edge of the sheet. You would need about twenty sheets from this series to cover the whole of Wales. (See here for list of sheets)
Small (3km x 3km) sections of Landranger maps can be accessed on the Ordnance Survey Get-A-Map facility, centred on the location you have nominated.
The first editions of the Ordnance Survey maps were produced in Victorian times, based on surveys undertaken in the 1830s and 1840s. See below for further details of the Victorian OS maps.
Pathfinder Series - (Scale 2½ inches to 1 mile) These maps cover an area about 10 miles by 15 miles. All the details of the Landranger series are shown, plus extra details such as most houses and cottages, the names of small farms, and individual field boundaries. Pathfinder maps are no longer being published, having been replaced by the Explorer and Outdoor Leisure series (see below).
Explorer Series - (Scale 2½ inches to 1 mile) These maps are similar to the Pathfinder maps, but cover a larger area and include more features of interest to tourists. The Explorer series, together with the Outdoor Leisure series (see below) have replaced the Pathfinder maps. The example (right) shows the greater level of detail of the town of Cardigan on an Explorer sheet, compared with the earlier example from a Landranger.
Small (2km x 2km) sections of Explorer or Outdoor Leisure maps can be accessed on the Ordnance Survey Get-A-Map facility, centred on the location you have nominated.
Outdoor Leisure Series - (Scale 2½ inches to 1 mile) This series is similar to the Explorer series, but is produced to provide convenient coverage of the National Parks, those in Wales being:
- Brecon Beacons (sheets 12, 13)
- Pembrokeshire Coast (sheets 35, 36)
- Snowdonia (sheets 17, 18, 23), and
- Wye Valley & Forest of Dean (sheet 14).
Below: Examples of the range of OS maps described above.
Left to right: Landranger; Pathfinder; Explorer; Outdoor Leisure.
Further details on the Ordnance Survey Website.
Victorian First Edition Series - (Scale 1 inch to 1 mile) These maps cover an area about 20 miles by 30 miles. The maps are monochrome facsimile reprints of original maps which were published by the OS in the late 19th century. The maps are based on surveys undertaken in the 1830s and 1840s, but have later details (e.g. railway lines) added. They give a fascinating glimpse of the Welsh landscape as it was in the mid 19th century. Some of the names are difficult to read (see example right), so good lighting and a magnifying glass are essential. Eighteen sheets are required to cover the whole of Wales. (See here for list of sheets)
Large Scale Old Maps Series - (Scale 6 inches to 1 mile) These superb highly-detailed maps are monochrome facsimile reprints of original 6 inch to 1 mile maps which were published by the OS in the late 19th century. The maps are based on surveys undertaken earlier in the century, but have later details added. They identify features such as field boundaries, the names of public houses, churches, chapels, smithies, mills, and more (see example, right). Scans of these maps can be accessed on line at the Old Maps website from where facsimile reprints can also be purchased. Each map covers an area of about 5 miles by 4 miles.
3. Town Plans
If your ancestors were town dwellers, you'll be fascinated by the large scale town plans produced by the Ordnance Survey from the second half of the 19th century onwards, many of which have been republished by Alan Godfrey of Gateshead in a series known as The Godfrey Edition (see example, right).
The original Ordnance Survey town plans were drawn to a scale of 1:2500 (25 inches to 1 mile) but the Godfrey Edition reprints are reduced to 1:4340 (about 15 inches to 1 mile). The back of each sheet contains historical information and in many cases facsimile reprints of relevant extracts from a contemporary trades directory such as Kelly's. Because of the large scale, each sheet only covers a small area, about 1 x 1½ miles. There is no street index included.
Over 1,500 Godfrey Edition sheets have been published, with an increasing number of Welsh towns represented, mapped between 1900 and 1915. Check here to see whether your Welsh town is available in the Godfrey Edition series.
Godfrey Edition maps may be obtained from Alan Godfrey's own On-line Mapshop or other specialist map suppliers (see here for details).
4. Street Atlases
Again, if your ancestors were town dwellers, you may find a modern street atlas and gazetteer or street index helpful in locating their address.
Many of the streets, rows, and terraces mentioned in the 19th century censuses still exist - and in lots of cases the original houses have survived. A street plan will be useful in identifying their location.
Typically, street atlases are drawn to a scale of 4 inches to 1 mile (see example, right).
Various UK publishers offer street atlases of Welsh towns and cities, either in book form or as folded sheets; e.g. Geographers' A-Z series, Ordnance Survey, and the Streetezee (formery Streetwise) Street Atlases.
Street plans of urban areas can be accessed on-line at websites such as Streetmaps.
5. Tithe Maps
Tithe maps were first drawn up in the 18th century to try settle disputes over the payment of tithes by landowners and property owners (tithes were payments made to the local parish by all landowners).
The purpose of tithe maps was to provide a definitive record of the size, location and ownership of every parcel of land and property. Most tithe maps were completed between the 1830s and 1850s. Each map covers only a small area, but to a large enough scale for all the necessary details to be included.
Each building, field or plot of land is drawn in, its boundaries shown and an identification number allocated (see example, right).
Tithe maps were used in conjunction with a schedule giving a list of names (corresponding to the ID numbers on the map), identifying the owner of each piece of land or building. The schedule also gives the area of each piece of land, and its description or name (if it has one). Schedules were sometimes recorded on the map itself, and sometimes as a separate document.
For example, a parcel of land on the left of the map has the number 189 written on it. Reference to the schedule gives the name corresponding to number 189. This would then identify him/her as the owner of that piece of land.
Tithe maps are normally available for study in County Record Offices, Public Libraries, and the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth. For further details, see Tithe Maps of Wales on the National Library of Wales website.
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