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Old Maps website is closing down on 31 October 2021


RLongden

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I was told by the OS people that they were one of the main depositories of the Ordinance Survey out of copyright maps. Now that it's closing down (apart from Scotland) the rest of the UK will loose it's free access to old maps. The other places that the OS people gave me to look for maps were nearly all commercial companies of the type offering ground surveys for builders. Or those limited to a local area. 

You would have thought that the National Library in the UK would have something similar to that of Scotland - online. But no luck there.

I think it's totally ridiculous that the Ordinance Survey archive should have been entrusted into oldmaps in the first place. The subscription fees were MASSIVE and people were not going to pay that price to look at old maps.

Some websites suggest the Oxford or Cambridge websites to get maps, but these are not geared up at all for the public and are just really out-of-date academic institutions that should have been abolished years ago.      

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You’ve obviously seen or used this site before too?

https://www.oldmapsonline.org

it’s a nice interface and navigation, which uses a lot of NLS maps and also other sources. It’s global too, so handy if you’d like a browse a little further afield?

still a pity about old maps though, even if the zoom was limited to free users….

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That site as far as Sheffield is concerned seems to use only the Scotland source so it's easier just to go to the Scotland one. The other site did have more maps of Sheffield and in larger scales. Plus some more recent maps. 

I would suggest that if anyone has the time and a page capture software to get as many of the maps from the site before it closes.

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Does anyone know why it's closing down. I don't recall seeing anything about it on the site.

I wonder what will happen to the maps on it. Perhaps Sheffield History could get hold of them somehow? At least the Sheffield ones.

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I have sent them a message asking why they are closing and what will happen to the map collections.  I will let you know if they respond.

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Such a pity Oldmaps.co.uk have several maps that Ive never found on other map sites, particularly earlier than 1900, always seemed damned expensive to subscribe just to zoom in and still be restricted to 300 maps per month.

I shall miss this site greatly, was a tremendous help in locating old pre 1900 coal mines

 

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17 minutes ago, John E Ievers said:

There is always the 1890s 1:500 scale archive  online at http://www.sheffieldarchivemaps.co.uk/

Just tried it. Very poor search. Tried Victoria Station - no results. "Duke Street - several but not the Sheffield one! Norfolk Street - only took me to Rotherham!!!!

Seems you can only search not view the maps themselves.

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19 hours ago, History dude said:

Just tried it. Very poor search. Tried Victoria Station - no results. "Duke Street - several but not the Sheffield one! Norfolk Street - only took me to Rotherham!!!!

Seems you can only search not view the maps themselves.

You are making it to complicated Dude!


"Search Archive Maps"

01.png
Enter "Sheffield"

02.png
"Sheffield South Yorkshire"

03.png
You are then presented with a selection grid over Sheffield, that can be moved around and zoomed in or out.

04.png

05.png

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On 28/10/2021 at 09:28, SteveHB said:

You are making it to complicated Dude!


"Search Archive Maps"

01.png
Enter "Sheffield"

02.png
"Sheffield South Yorkshire"

03.png
You are then presented with a selection grid over Sheffield, that can be moved around and zoomed in or out.

04.png

05.png

Did you click on "View Archive Map"?

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Well I didn't get a reply back. But the site has now been taken over by the Landmark Group.  This is what they had to say:

Over the last 10 years Landmark has partnered with the team at Old Maps to sell our historical mapping data to consumers keen to learn about local history or purchase printed maps for personal or decorative use. Viewing and printing these maps from the Old Maps website was limited under our license agreement to non-commercial users.

Over the past 12 months, it became apparent that some of our professional services users were not clear about these restrictions and were choosing to use Old Maps as a reference tool as an alternative to accessing and purchasing historical maps under commercial license terms.

As a result we have decided to focus our efforts on clarifying and improving our historical mapping offer to the professional services market. Regrettably, this means that we are no longer able to offer consumers access to the Old Maps website.

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On 02/11/2021 at 19:26, History dude said:

Well I didn't get a reply back. But the site has now been taken over by the Landmark Group.  This is what they had to say:

Over the last 10 years Landmark has partnered with the team at Old Maps to sell our historical mapping data to consumers keen to learn about local history or purchase printed maps for personal or decorative use. Viewing and printing these maps from the Old Maps website was limited under our license agreement to non-commercial users.

Over the past 12 months, it became apparent that some of our professional services users were not clear about these restrictions and were choosing to use Old Maps as a reference tool as an alternative to accessing and purchasing historical maps under commercial license terms.

As a result we have decided to focus our efforts on clarifying and improving our historical mapping offer to the professional services market. Regrettably, this means that we are no longer able to offer consumers access to the Old Maps website.

Yes, that’s the wording on the redirected landing page for old-maps.co.uk

Seems that commercial users have spoiled it for the rest of us, by purchasing maps under non-commercial terms, rather than paying the costs to use them for commercial purposes?

I would imagine that was almost impossible to police and enforce, so that’s why they had to close down the resource.

Typical of the developers and construction companies who were maybe the likely culprits, to dodge paying a few quid for the maps, then make millions on the resulting housing / commercial projects 🤬

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Not sure how long the 1:500 scale OS town maps have been available on NLS, but some really useful, detailed images here, zoomable right in, with none of the restrictions of the old-maps site

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/find/#zoom=15&lat=53.38220&lon=-1.47656&layers=70&b=1&z=0&point=0,0

It says ‘in progress’, so hopeful of more maps and more years to be added, yet these turn of the century street maps show some interesting detail….

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