This page is intended as a guide to those attempting to sell old Ordnance Survey maps on eBay
Ideally, when bidding on an old map I'd like to know:
Ordnance Survey maps were only made and printed by the Ordnance Survey
However, Ordnance Survey maps have been sold under different covers. Prior to the 1920s, Ordnance Survey agents were supplied with maps in bulk, and it was the agent who mounted, folded and covered the map for sale to the public. Some foreign map sellers, e.g., Kummerly & Frei in Germany, also put their own covers on OS maps.
Additionally, Ordnance Survey mapping is often used by other map publishers in the production of their own maps. In the early days, such mapping was advertised as "Reduced Ordnance Map" or "Based on the Ordnance Survey" - and included names like Bartholomew and Geographica. This practice continues right up to the present day, with map publishers like the AA being major users of OS mapping.
Over the years, each scale of map has been published in different editions
| Scale | Series Name | Description |
| 1:25,000 | Provisional Edition Regular Edition First Series |
Covering an area of 10km x10 1km grid squares. Early sheets were not named, but numbered according to the 10km grid square: E.g., Bexhill was sheet 51/74, later TQ74. Map cover was initially blue and buff, later dark blue 1968 OS house
style. Most later sheets had an integral cover. |
| Second Series Pathfinder Series |
Covering twice the area of the First Series sheets,
the Second Series was produced in a dark green laminated cover, in the 1968
OS house style. Sheet numbers were combinations of the two First Series
sheet numbers.
Later maps had an integral cover. |
|
| Outdoor Leisure Maps | Introduced in 1972, the Outdoor Leisure maps
covered a much larger area than the Pathfinder maps. The early brown-covered
sheets were based on First Series mapping; later yellow-covered sheets were
based on Second Series mapping.
Sheet numbers varied over the years, and were occasionally reused for other areas. Pathfinder maps were withdrawn from areas completely covered by OL maps. |
|
Explorer Series (1-31) |
Like the later Outdoor Leisure maps, the Explorer
Series was derived from the Second Series mapping, but with smaller sheets
(initially 20km x 20km) covering more 'touristy' areas. 31 sheets were published.
From about 1998, new Explorer maps were introduced to replace the Pathfinder Series, covering the whole country except for the areas already covered by OL sheets. Earlier Explorer maps were renumbered into the new series, and OL maps in Scotland were replaced. In 2002, the remaining sheets Outdoor Leisure maps were merged into the Explorer series, with their sheet numbers prefixed with the letters OL to avoid confusion with the earlier Explorer maps. |
|
| 1:50,000 | First Series Second Series Landranger Series 1:50,000 Series |
Introduced between 1974 and 1976 to replace the One-inch maps First Series maps were produced directly from the One-inch Seventh Series Second Series mapping was redrawn from new surveys. |
1:63,360 |
Old Series New Series |
Originals of these maps are extremely rare, and
are best sold through specialist dealers. There are many variants.
Reprints are now common, and still on sale new. Most common are the 'David & Charles', either in a buff envelope, or with a green/white cover. Some areas have the 'Godfrey Edition', with plain coloured covers. |
| Third Edition | The earliest of the full-colour maps, using a combination of contours, hachuring and sunset shading to represent relief. | |
| Popular Edition | The earliest readily-available one-inch maps, published from about 1919 onwards | |
| Fifth Edition | A new series of maps, on larger sheets, but not covering the whole country. | |
| Sixth Edition (New Popular Edition) |
After the Davidson Committee (1935), the maps were reset to new sheet lines on the new National Grid. A few sheets were published in 1940, the remainder after the war. | |
| Popular Edition with National Grid | The New Popular Edition didn't include Scotland: instead the Popular Edition was reissued with National Grid lines overprinted. | |
| Seventh Series | Planned from 1948, and introduced from 1952, the Seventh Series consisted of new survey. Early maps were printed in 10 colours, later ones with just 6. |
|
| District Map or Tourist Map | Special sheets produced separately from the regular
'series' maps, but usually covering larger areas. In the inter-war
years, a large number of sheets were published, most with attractive cover
pictures.
Tourist maps are now published at various scales, and are more likely to be based on Quarter-inch mapping. The last of the true One-inch Tourist maps was withdrawn from sale in 2001. The most recent of the District maps was a special 1972 map of Greater London. |
|
| 1:75,000 | Touring Maps | The current series of blue-covered Tour or Touring maps are at a variety of scales, and are "derived from 1:250,000 digital data". |
| 1:100,000 | ||
| 1:110,000 | ||
1:126,720 |
Road Map | One of the standard map series from the years before the Great War, these maps had a pleasing green Ellis Martin cover. |
| MOT Road Map | The main maps showing the new road numbers introduced by the Ministry of Transport in the 1920s, and the series continued through to the war years. | |
| Second Series | Although planned as a series covering the whole country, only five sheets were ever published. Style is similar to one-inch Seventh Series and quarter-inch Fifth Series. One sheet was retained as a Tourist map. | |
1:250,000 |
First Edition | As with the early one-inch maps, if you have one of these to sell, you should obtain specialist advice! |
| Second Edition | A good general road map, and quite pretty. | |
| Third Edition | The first OS maps specialised for a particular
market, the Third Edition Quarter Inch maps were designed as road
maps.
The front covered featured an Ellis Martin cover of a motorcyclist. This mapping was also used for the 1922 Ordnance Survey Atlas of England and Wales, on 22 folios. |
|
| Third "A" Edition | The same mapping as the 3rd Series, but on new larger sheets. England sheet 5 was squeezed out between sheets 4A and 6A. | |
| Fourth Edition | The motorists map, with an Ellis Martin cover showing a car driver. Folded sheet was still 12 inches long. There were 11 sheets for England and Wales, and 9 sheets for Scotland - with sheet 1, The Border, being common to both sets. (Scotland 8 and 9 were usually printed together.) Wartime edition has a red border on the cover instead of the earlier blue. |
|
| Fourth Edition with National Grid | After 1945, the Fourth Edition was re-released with National Grid lines. The cover was in the OS house style, with a blue roundel and wavy border. | |
| Fifth Edition | 17 sheets covering the whole country, produced
from the new Seventh Series one-inch mapping. The pilot sheet, sheet
10, was released in 1957, the remainder of the series and the 'standard'
sheet 10 by 1962.
There was also a large-format Great Britain atlas produced from the Fifth Series - with the 17 sheets in a ring binder. It was intended that updates would be issued as the series sheets were republished. |
|
| Routemaster | A new nine-sheet series, with white covers. | |
| Travelmaster | Turquoise blue covers, eight sheets (numbered 2-9), with a GB Routeplanner as sheet 1 | |
| Road Maps (Eighth Edition) |
New in 2001, the green covered Road Maps are still current. An Edition B of each sheet was issued in 2003, and Edition C in 2005. (The Northern Isles are at a reduced scale.) | |
| 1:625,000 1:633,600 |
Ten-mile Road Map |
Covering the whole country in just two or three sheets, and since 1976 as a single double-sided sheet. The 1932 and 1946 maps were also available on a single "Ansell fold" sheet. |
Within a series, only the sheet numbers remained constant - the sheet titles often changed over time. For older sheets, it's vital that the whole title is given, e.g., the one-inch "Greater London including the Metropolitan Traffic Area - Relief Edition" is a very different sheet from the one-inch "Greater London". (A scan of the cover will usually be sufficient, but be aware of possible differences between title on the cover and the title printed on the actual map.)
Even within a single series of maps, the cover design may have changed several times. Most series had three or four different styles of cover, and some as many as eight major variations - not counting the different photos/paintings used for individual sheets. Covers were printed separately from the maps themselves, so it wasn't unusual for a specific printing of a sheet to be issued under more than one cover.
The term 'Integral Cover' describes maps where the standard cover design for the folded sheet is actually printed onto the map itself rather than as a separate card cover which is glued on afterwards. Flat sheets folded so that the key is visible do not have an integral cover - they are best described as 'Flat sheets (folded)'.
Any tears, wear, marks, writing, grubbiness, Sellotape stains, etc.
All the above info can usually be obtained just from a picture of the map cover.
It's far quicker to scan than to try to describe.
All Ordnance Survey maps were printed on paper. However, the paper was often pasted onto a linen or cloth backing to increase the strength of the folded map. If the paper was cut into panels before being pasted onto the cloth, it's described as dissected.
The dates are useful, but may be up to 30 years either side of publication!
Usually on the bottom left of the OS maps, either a numeric or letter code to distinguish between different revisions of the same sheet. For later maps, the code is somewhere within the key area, and is now highlighted as "Edition"
The earliest codes consist of the number of copies in a printing, followed by a two digit year code. Since the printings were usually in the thousands, the year code was incorporated as the last two digits of the number: 25046 was 25,000 copies printed in 1946. Such numbers were unique only for each particular sheet - and could be repeated for sheets covering different areas of the country.
In 1947, a new type of code was introduced, consisting of a unique four-digit identifier for each sheet printed. Sheets published at the same time all got different numbers - and the size of printing and the year information was lost.
It changed again about 1953, with letter codes instead. Normally the letters would start at A and increase for each major revision of a sheet - but maps which had previously used other codes frequently jumped straight to E or F. Minor revision on a sheet was marked by adding bars underneath the letter code. Since multiple underscores are difficult to type. the '/' character is used instead: A, A/, A//, B, B/, C. An asterisk "*" beside a bar indicated that any older printings should be withdrawn from sale - no astersk meant that older stock could be left on the shelves.
The most recent change has been to convert the number of slashes back to numbers. A, A1, A2, B1, B2, C, etc., but underscored letters are still occasionally used for minor revision.
Tears, wear, writing, general grubbiness?
Writing on the map is likely to decrease the value, but might not if the markings themselves are of historical significance.
Until the 1970s, the price of the map was usually printed on it - either on the map or on the cover. Later maps may have a price label from the shop.