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Watford Gap

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Watford Gap is a low-lying area between two hills in the English Midlands , near Daventry and the village of Watford in Northamptonshire . Engineers from Roman times onwards have found it to be the most practical route for connecting the Midlands with South East England . The A5 road , the West Coast Main Line railway, the M1 motorway and a branch of the Grand Union Canal traverse in parallel a space about 400 metres (1,300 ft) wide. It has been written and spoken of as marking the divide between Northern England and Southern England .

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72-646: Watford Gap is a low point through a range of hills providing an easy route between the South Eastern and Midland areas of England. It is near the small village of Watford, Northamptonshire . The gap is 3.5 miles (6 km) north-east of Daventry and 2 miles (3 km) west of Long Buckby . In the era of Roman Britain , the Watling Street Roman road used the gap. The road here forms the A5 , which for national journeys has generally been superseded by

144-599: A government-owned company , 100% in public ownership. The Ordnance Survey Board remains accountable to the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology . It was also a member of the Public Data Group . Paper maps represent only 5% of the company's annual revenue. It produces digital map data, online route planning and sharing services and mobile apps, plus many other location-based products for business, government and consumers. Ordnance Survey mapping

216-656: A close, arranging mountain-top parties with enormous plum puddings . The British Geological Survey was founded in 1835 as the Ordnance Geological Survey under Henry De la Beche , and remained a branch of the Ordnance Survey until 1965. At the same time, the uneven quality of the English and Scottish maps was being improved by engravers under Benjamin Baker . By the time Colby retired in 1846,

288-531: A fire in the Tower of London , the headquarters of the survey was moved to Southampton taking over buildings previously occupied by a military orphanage (the Royal Military Asylum ) in 1841, and Yolland was put in charge, but Hall sent him off to Ireland so that when Hall left in 1854 Yolland was again passed over in favour of Major Henry James . Hall was enthusiastic about extending the survey of

360-479: A large range of paper maps and digital mapping products. The Ordnance Survey's flagship digital product, launched in November 2001, is OS MasterMap , a database that records, in one continuous digital map, every fixed feature of Great Britain larger than a few metres. Every feature is given a unique TOID (TOpographical IDentifier), a simple identifier that includes no semantic information. Typically, each TOID

432-585: A new survey based on Airy 's spheroid in 1858, completing the Principal Triangulation . The following year, he completed an initial levelling of the country. After the Ordnance Survey published its first large-scale maps of Ireland in the mid-1830s, the Tithe Act 1836 led to calls for a similar six-inch to the mile survey in England and Wales . Official procrastination followed, but

504-466: A north–south divide between Northern England and Southern England , referring figuratively to Watford Gap as marking the boundary between the regions. The expression "North of Watford" is used to mean the north of England, especially a place remote from London. It is unknown whether the original expression referred to Watford, Northamptonshire , or the much larger Watford in Hertfordshire,

576-501: A proportion of its profits to the Treasury. In 2010, OS announced that printing and warehouse operations were to be outsourced, ending over 200 years of in-house printing. The Frome-based firm Butler, Tanner and Dennis (BT&D) secured its printing contract. As already stated, large-scale maps had not been printed at the Ordnance Survey since the common availability of geographical information systems (GISs), but, until late 2010,

648-477: A second edition of the town plans: by 1909 only fourteen places had paid for updates. The review determined that revision of 1:2500 mapping should proceed apace. The most detailed mapping of London was the OS's 1:1056 survey between 1862 and 1872, which took 326 sheets to cover the capital; a second edition (which needed 759 sheets because of urban expansion) was completed and brought out between 1891 and 1895. London

720-583: Is associated with a polygon that represents the area on the ground that the feature covers, in National Grid coordinates. OS MasterMap is offered in themed layers, each linked to a number of TOIDs. In September 2010, the layers were: Topography: Integrated transport network: Imagery Address: Address 2: ITN was withdrawn in April 2019 and replaced by OS MasterMap Highways Network The Address layers were withdrawn in about 2016 with

792-624: Is Grade I. The properties concerned include: Pilgrim Father Thomas Rogers was born in Watford about 1572. He was the son of William Rogers and his wife Eleanor. He married Alice Cosford at Watford in 1597 and had six children baptised there between 1599 and 1613. The family joined the Separatist Church at Leiden in the Netherlands sometime after 1613. Thomas Rogers became a citizen of Leiden on 25 June 1618, and records state he

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864-593: Is mentioned as one of the lands belonging to Ethelgifu and was probably inherited from her own kindred. In the 7th century the Mercians converted to Christianity with the death of pagan King Penda . About 889 the area was conquered by the Danes and became part of the Danelaw – with Watling Street serving as the boundary. This was in effect until the area was recaptured by the English about 917 under Wessex King Edward

936-593: Is near to Watford Gap services on the M1 motorway , which was the first motorway service station in the United Kingdom. Roy Harper 's 1977 album Bullinamingvase contains a song titled "Watford Gap". Motorway service areas , which have since undergone radical innovations, were at the time in the United Kingdom typecast as spartan . The owners of Watford Gap services objected to his first reference to

1008-586: Is now part of the diverted A5 road following construction of the M1 motorway. The location of the Watford Gap coaching inn is the subject of confusion, with a location on the east side of the Grand Junction Canal (within the confines of the modern service station) being the most frequently cited, near the disused Welton railway station. There is no mention of a Watford Gap pub or any other pub at

1080-418: Is possible that the original phrase referred to the much larger town of Watford in Hertfordshire, which was the last urban stop on the main railway line out of London to the north of England. There is evidence to support this, as the phrase "North of Watford Junction" was used with similar meaning in the past, referring to Watford Junction railway station at Watford, Hertfordshire. Watford gives its name to

1152-537: Is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see ordnance and surveying ), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of 1745 . There was also a more general and nationwide need in light of the potential threat of invasion during the Napoleonic Wars . Since 1 April 2015, the Ordnance Survey has operated as Ordnance Survey Ltd,

1224-481: Is usually classified as either " large-scale " (in other words, more detailed) or "small-scale". The Survey's large-scale mapping comprises 1:2,500 maps for urban areas and 1:10,000 more generally. (The latter superseded the 1:10,560 "six inches to the mile " scale in the 1950s.) These large scale maps are typically used in professional land-use contexts and were available as sheets until the 1980s, when they were digitised . Small-scale mapping for leisure use includes

1296-629: The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) appointed Steve Blair as the Chief Executive of the Ordnance Survey. The Ordnance Survey supported the launch of the Slow Ways initiative, which encourages users to walk on lesser used paths between UK towns. On 7 February 2023, ownership of Ordnance Survey Ltd passed to the newly formed Department for Science, Innovation and Technology . The Ordnance Survey produces

1368-656: The M1 motorway which also passes through this gap. Later the road was joined by the Leicester Line of the Grand Union Canal , which passes through the Watford Locks just to the north of the gap. The historical geographic importance of the area led to many modern communication routes passing through this narrow gap: the coming of the railways brought the London and Birmingham Railway , now known as

1440-619: The OS Explorer and OS Landranger series were printed in Maybush. In April 2009 building began of a new head office in Adanac Park on the outskirts of Southampton. By 10 February 2011 virtually all staff had relocated to the new "Explorer House" building and the old site had been sold off and redeveloped. Prince Philip officially opened the new headquarters building on 4 October 2011. On 22 January 2015 plans were announced for

1512-553: The Ordnance Survey National Grid 1:1250s, 1:2500s and 1:10,560s after the Second World War. During World War I, the Ordnance Survey was involved in preparing maps of France and Belgium . During World War II, many more maps were created, including: After the war, Colonel Charles Close , then Director General, developed a strategy using covers designed by Ellis Martin to increase sales in

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1584-644: The Pilgrims' Way in the North Downs labelled the wrong route, but the name stuck. Similarly, the spelling of Scafell and Scafell Pike copied an error on an earlier map, and was retained as this was the name of a corner of one of the Principal Triangles , despite "Scawfell" being the almost universal form at the time. Colby believed in leading from the front, travelling with his men, helping to build camps and, as each survey session drew to

1656-559: The River Leam rises and flows west. In linguistics the Watford Gap is often regarded as where England experiences its division of north and south dialects. It is close to the north/south isogloss of the three key hallmarks of Northern English and Southern English : foot–strut split , bad-lad split and the Bath vowel . Making use of the above linguistic divide, authors, journalists and social commentators have written and spoken of

1728-494: The Watford Locks on the Grand Union Canal . Christadelphians have been using the village hall for meetings since the 2000s. From 1838 until 1958, the village was served by nearby Welton railway station . The Historic England website contains details of 21 listed buildings and one scheduled monument in the parish of Watford. All of the listed buildings are Grade II except for St Peter & St Paul's Church which

1800-590: The West Coast Main Line ; the most recent addition, in 1959, was the M1, Britain's first inter-urban motorway, bringing with it Watford Gap services , the first motorway service station . Topographically the gap is a pass caused by a tectonic plate shift, between east and west hill ranges. A tributary of the River Nene rises at Watford and flows east to the Wash , whereas at Kilsby a tributary of

1872-547: The 1:25,000 "Explorer" series, the 1:50,000 "Landranger" series and the 1:250,000 road maps. These are still available in traditional sheet form. Ordnance Survey maps remain in copyright for 50 years after their publication. Some of the Copyright Libraries hold complete or near-complete collections of pre-digital OS mapping. The origins of the Ordnance Survey lie in the aftermath of the Jacobite rising of 1745 . Prince William, Duke of Cumberland realised that

1944-589: The British Army did not have a good map of the Scottish Highlands to locate Jacobite dissenters such as Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat so that they could be put on trial. In 1747, Lieutenant-Colonel David Watson proposed the compilation of a map of the Highlands to help in pacifying the region. In response, King George II charged Watson with making a military survey of the Highlands under

2016-587: The Elder , son of Alfred the Great . In 940 the Vikings of York captured Northamptonshire and devastated the area, with the county retaken by the English in 942. Northamptonshire is one of the few counties to have both Saxon and Danish town-names and settlements. This may be reflected in the place-name's etymology, where both Old Scandinavian 'vað' has been coupled with its English translation, 'ford'. Alternatively,

2088-546: The Netherlands. Some of those children are known to have later gone to New England . Thomas died, as did many other Mayflower passengers, during that first winter in Plymouth Colony, 1620-21. His son Joseph survived to live a long life as a person of note in the colony. [REDACTED] Media related to Watford, Northamptonshire at Wikimedia Commons Ordnance Survey The Ordnance Survey ( OS )

2160-418: The Watford Gap, plied the passing trade of the area. The pub, as well as the route from Cambridge to Coventry , is mentioned as early as 1769. This route ran through Northampton , Duston, Harlestone, past Althorp Park, Brington, Long Buckby, Watford, Watford Gap itself—the map indicating that the coaching inn was on the west side of Watling Street, and then into Kilsby. The route from Watford Gap to Kilsby

2232-522: The centre of Southampton (made worse by the bomb damage of the Second World War). The bombing during the Blitz devastated Southampton in November 1940 and destroyed most of the Ordnance Survey's city centre offices . Staff were dispersed to other buildings and to temporary accommodation at Chessington and Esher, Surrey, where they produced 1:25000 scale maps of France, Italy, Germany and most of

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2304-481: The city's court complex. The new head office building was designed by the Ministry of Public Building and Works for 4000 staff, including many new recruits who were taken on in the late 1960s and early 1970s as draughtsmen and surveyors. The buildings originally contained factory-floor space for photographic processes such as heliozincography and map printing, as well as large buildings for storing flat maps. Above

2376-591: The command of the Duke of Cumberland. Among Watson's assistants were William Roy , Paul Sandby and John Manson. The survey was produced at a scale of 1 inch to 1,000 yards (1:36,000) and included " the Duke of Cumberland's Map " (primarily by Watson and Roy), now held in the British Library . Roy later had an illustrious career in the Royal Engineers (RE), rising to the rank of General, and he

2448-563: The development of the railways added to pressure that resulted in the Ordnance Survey Act 1841 ( 4 & 5 Vict. c. 30). This granted a right to enter property for the purpose of the survey. Following a fire at its headquarters at the Tower of London in 1841 the Ordnance Survey relocated to a site in Southampton and was in disarray for several years, with arguments about which scales to use. Major-General Sir Henry James

2520-458: The direction of William Mudge , as other military matters took precedence. It took until 1823 to re-establish the relationship with the French survey made by Roy in 1787. By 1810, one-inch-to-the-mile maps of most of the south of England were completed, but they were withdrawn from sale between 1811 and 1816 because of security fears. By 1840, the one-inch survey had covered all of Wales and all but

2592-522: The early 1940s, the OS produced many "restricted" versions of the County Series maps and other War Department sheets for War Office purposes, in a variety of large scales that included details of military significance such as dockyards, naval installations, fortifications and military camps. Apart from a brief period during the disarmament talks of the 1930s, these areas were left blank or incomplete on standard maps. The War Department 1:2500s, unlike

2664-533: The first element may be a Scandinavianised form of original Old English 'gewæd', with the same meaning, or else Old English 'wāþ' ('hunting'). In 1066 the local Saxon lord is recorded as Thor, a common Scandinavian name that may have dated back to the Viking invasions of several centuries prior. The first known recording of the affairs of Watford village is in the Domesday Book of 1086. At that time Watford

2736-419: The industrial areas were extensive office areas. The complex was notable for its concrete mural. Celestial , by sculptor Keith McCarter and the concrete elliptical paraboloid shell roof over the staff restaurant building. In 1995, the Ordnance Survey digitised the last of about 230,000 maps, making the United Kingdom the first country in the world to complete a programme of large-scale electronic mapping. By

2808-516: The information now being available in the AddressBase products – so as of 2020, MasterMap consists of Topography and Imagery. Pricing of licenses to OS MasterMap data depends on the total area requested, the layers licensed, the number of TOIDs in the layers, and the period in years of the data usage. OS MasterMap can be used to generate maps for a vast array of purposes and maps can be printed from OS MasterMap data with detail equivalent to

2880-498: The last urban stop on one of the main railway lines from London to the north of England. There is evidence to support the latter, as the phrase "North of Watford Junction" was used with similar meaning in the past, referring to Watford Junction railway station at Watford, Hertfordshire. Historically, this was a junction of the West Midlands to London or East Anglia stagecoach routes across England . Its coaching inn ,

2952-438: The late 1990s technological developments had eliminated the need for vast areas for storing maps and for making printing plates by hand. Although there was a small computer section at the Ordnance Survey in the 1960s, the digitising programme had replaced the need for printing large-scale maps, while computer-to-plate technology (in the form of a single machine) had also rendered the photographic platemaking areas obsolete. Part of

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3024-400: The latter was converted into a new conference centre in 2000, which was used for internal events and also made available for external organisations to hire. The Ordnance Survey became an Executive Agency in 1990, making the organisation independent of ministerial control. In 1999 the agency was designated a trading fund , required to cover its costs by charging for its products and to remit

3096-611: The leisure market. In 1920 O. G. S. Crawford was appointed Archaeology Officer and played a prominent role in developing the use of aerial photography to deepen understanding of archaeology. In 1922, devolution in Northern Ireland led to the creation of the Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland (OSNI) and the independence of the Irish Free State led to the creation of the Ordnance Survey of Ireland , so

3168-496: The medieval village remains is underscored by the adjoining ridge and furrow , evidence of an extensive medieval cultivation system which provided rich, well-drained land for crop planting. Watford is close to the nationally-known Watford Gap motorway service station . The original "North of Watford" expression was already in use many years before the Watford Gap Service Station or M1 opened in 1959. It

3240-409: The mile) for Land Valuation and Inland Revenue purposes: the increased scale was to provide space for annotations. About a quarter of these 1:1250s were marked "Partially revised 1912/13". In areas where there were no further 1:2500s, these partially revised "fifty inch" sheets represent the last large-scale revision (larger than six-inch) of the County Series. The County Series mapping was superseded by

3312-738: The north of England to a scale of 1:2,500. In 1855, the Board of Ordnance was abolished and the Ordnance Survey was placed under the War Office together with the Topographical Survey and the Depot of Military Knowledge. Eventually in 1870 it was transferred to the Office of Works . The primary triangulation of the United Kingdom of Roy, Mudge and Yolland was completed by 1841, but was greatly improved by Alexander Ross Clarke who completed

3384-481: The one that Roy had used in 1784), and work began on mapping southern Great Britain using a 5 mi (8 km) baseline on Hounslow Heath that Roy himself had previously measured; it crosses the present Heathrow Airport . In 1991, Royal Mail marked the bicentenary by issuing a set of postage stamps featuring maps of the Kentish village of Hamstreet . In 1801, the first one-inch-to-the-mile (1:63,360 scale) map

3456-476: The organisation to move from a trading fund model to a government-owned limited company , with the move completed in April 2015. The organisation remains fully owned by the UK government and retains many of the features of a public organisation. In September 2015 the history of the Ordnance Survey was the subject of a BBC Four TV documentary entitled A Very British Map: The Ordnance Survey Story . On 10 June 2019

3528-535: The original Ordnance Survey pulled its coverage back to Great Britain. In 1935, the Davidson Committee was established to review the Ordnance Survey's future. The new Director General, Major-General Malcolm MacLeod , started the retriangulation of Great Britain , an immense task involving the erection of concrete triangulation pillars ("trig points") on prominent hilltops as infallible positions for theodolites. Each measurement made by theodolite during

3600-652: The place being (" Watford Gap, Watford Gap / A plate of grease and a load of crap… "). Harper was advised to drop the track from future UK copies of the album, though it reappeared on a CD reissue and remained on the American LP . 52°18′22″N 1°07′26″W  /  52.306°N 1.124°W  / 52.306; -1.124 Watford, Northamptonshire Watford is a village and civil parish in West Northamptonshire in England . At

3672-417: The production of six-inch maps of Ireland was complete. This had led to a demand for similar treatment in England, and work was proceeding on extending the six-inch map to northern England, but only a three-inch scale for most of Scotland. When Colby retired, he recommended William Yolland as his successor, but he was considered too young and the less experienced Lewis Alexander Hall was appointed. After

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3744-410: The rest of Europe in preparation for its invasion . Until 1969, the Ordnance Survey largely remained at its Southampton city centre HQ and at temporary buildings in the suburb of Maybush nearby, when a new purpose-built headquarters was opened in Maybush adjacent to the wartime temporary buildings there. Some of the remaining buildings of the original Southampton city-centre site are now used as part of

3816-498: The retriangulation was repeated no fewer than 32 times. The Davidson Committee's final report set the Ordnance Survey on course for the 20th century. The metric national grid reference system was launched and a 1:25000-scale series of maps was introduced. The one-inch maps continued to be produced until the 1970s, when they were superseded by the 1:50000-scale series – as proposed by William Roy more than two centuries earlier. The Ordnance Survey had outgrown its site in

3888-399: The six northernmost counties of England. Surveying was hard work. For instance, Major Thomas Colby , the longest-serving Director General of the Ordnance Survey, walked 586 mi (943 km) in 22 days on a reconnaissance in 1819. In 1824, Colby and most of his staff moved to Ireland to work on a six-inches-to-the-mile (1:10,560) valuation survey. The survey of Ireland, county by county,

3960-521: The six-inch standard was adopted in Great Britain for the un-surveyed northern counties and the 1:1056 scale also began to be adopted for urban surveys. Between 1842 and 1895, some 400 towns were mapped at 1:500 (126 inches), 1:528 (120 inches, "10 foot scale") or 1:1056 (60 inches), with the remaining towns mapped at 1:2500 (~25 inches). In 1855, the Treasury authorised funding for 1:2500 for rural areas and 1:500 for urban areas. The 1:500 scale

4032-477: The standard issue, were contoured . The de-classified sheets have now been deposited in some of the Copyright Libraries, helping to complete the map-picture of pre-Second World War Britain. From 1824, the OS began a 6-inch (1:10,560) survey of Ireland for taxation purposes but found this to be inadequate for urban areas and adopted the five-foot scale (1:1056) for Irish cities and towns. From 1840,

4104-527: The suggested location on the 1889 or 1927 or 1952 Ordnance Survey maps of Northamptonshire. The nearest pub was the now-closed Stag's Head Inn in Station Road, Watford. The original location is further north on Watling Street. The canal-side building still stands but is closed for business and in poor repair. The earlier Watford Gap Inn is in good repair and generally unaltered, with the stabling yards and main structures used as farm buildings. The village

4176-524: The survey are to endeavour to obtain the correct orthography of the names of places by diligently consulting the best authorities within their reach. The name of each place is to be inserted as it is commonly spelt, in the first column of the name book and the various modes of spelling it used in books, writings &c. are to be inserted in the second column, with the authority placed in the third column opposite to each. Whilst these procedures generally produced excellent results, mistakes were made: for instance,

4248-405: The time of the 2001 census , the parish's population was 224 people, including Murcott and increasing to 320 at the 2011 Census. Watford is home to Watford Gap services , the UK's oldest motorway service station, located directly on the M1 motorway and alongside the West Coast Main Line . It is known that the important Roman road Watling Street was constructed on the western boundary of

4320-422: The two scales was completed by the 1890s, with a second edition completed in the 1890s and 1900s. From 1907 till the early 1940s, a third edition (or "second revision") was begun but never completed: only areas with significant changes on the ground were revised, many two or three times. Meanwhile, publication of the one-inch to the mile series for Great Britain was completed in 1891. From the late 19th century to

4392-637: The village. In the Roman era the Roman settlement of Bannaventa ('A Gap in the Hills'), with defensive earth and timber ramparts and a ditch, was situated about two miles south-west of Watford. Today some remains of the settlement such as building platforms, mounds and crop marks are still visible. After the departure of the Romans, the area eventually became part of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia . Watford

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4464-466: Was a merchant of camlet cloth (a combination of silk and camelhair). It is possible Alice Rogers died sometime before 1620 since, per 1622 records, a woman named Elizabeth (Elsgen), possibly his second wife, cared for the Rogers children left behind when Thomas and his son Joseph sailed for the New World. Thomas Rogers and his son Joseph, aged about 18, went to North America on the Pilgrim ship Mayflower in 1620, while his other children remained in

4536-430: Was begun in earnest in 1790 under Roy's supervision, when the Board of Ordnance (a predecessor of part of the modern Ministry of Defence ) began a national military survey starting with the south coast of England. Roy's birthplace near Carluke in South Lanarkshire is today marked by a memorial in the form of a large OS trig point . By 1791, the Board received the newer Ramsden theodolite (an improved successor to

4608-409: Was by then Director General, and he saw how photography could be used to make maps of various scales cheaply and easily. He developed and exploited photozincography , not only to reduce the costs of map production but also to publish facsimiles of nationally important manuscripts. Between 1861 and 1864, a facsimile of the Domesday Book was issued, county by county; and a facsimile of the Gough Map

4680-488: Was completed in 1846. The suspicions and tensions it caused in rural Ireland are the subject of Brian Friel 's play Translations . Colby was not only involved in the design of specialist measuring equipment. He also established a systematic collection of place names, and reorganised the map-making process to produce clear, accurate plans. Place names were recorded in "Name Books", a system first used in Ireland. The instructions for their use were: The persons employed on

4752-413: Was considered a fairly large village with a population that could have been more than 100 people. By 1086 the Saxons had been ousted by the Normans and Gilbert the Cook was Lord and Tenant-in-Chief of Watford and another parish. Baldwin was the son and successor of Gilbert in the reign of King Henry I . By the time Baldwin died in the first year of Henry II , Watford was held by the Barony of Brunn which

4824-457: Was considered more 'rational' than 1:528 and became known as the "sanitary scale" since its primary purpose was to support establishment of mains sewerage and water supply. However, a review of the Ordnance Survey in 1892 found that sales of the 1:500 series maps were very poor and the Treasury declined to fund their continuing maintenance, declaring that any revision or new mapping at this scale must be self-financing. Very few towns and cities saw

4896-464: Was held by Baldwin. The Barony and Watford with it passed to the husband of one of Baldwin's daughters, Hugo Wac, who became the Baron of Brunn succeeding his wife's father. Watford has extensive settlement remains for an earlier form of the village in the medieval era. There is a stone building, and remains of gardens, traces of medieval dwellings, house-sites, paddocks, etc. Additionally, there are reconstructed cottages from this era. The significance of

4968-449: Was issued in 1870. From the 1840s, the Ordnance Survey concentrated on the Great Britain " County Series ", modelled on the earlier Ireland survey. A start was made on mapping the whole country, county by county, at six inches to the mile (1:10,560). In 1854, "twenty-five inch" maps were introduced with a scale of 1:2500 (25.344 inches to the mile) and the six inch maps were then based on these twenty-five inch maps. The first edition of

5040-402: Was largely responsible for the British share of the work in determining the relative positions of the French and British royal observatories. This work was the starting point of the Principal Triangulation of Great Britain (1783–1853), and led to the creation of the Ordnance Survey itself. Roy's technical skills and leadership set the high standard for which the Ordnance Survey became known. Work

5112-449: Was published, detailing the county of Kent , with Essex following shortly afterwards. The Kent map was published privately and stopped at the county border, while the Essex maps were published by the Ordnance Survey and ignored the county border, setting the trend for future Ordnance Survey maps. During the next 20 years, about a third of England and Wales was mapped at the same scale (see Principal Triangulation of Great Britain ) under

5184-670: Was unusual in that land registration on transfer of title was made compulsory there in 1900. The 1:1056 sheets were partially revised to provide a basis for HM Land Registry index maps and the OS mapped the whole London County Council area (at 1:1056) at national expense. Placenames from the second edition were used in 2016 by the GB1900 project to crowd-source an open-licensed gazetteer of Great Britain. From 1911 onwards – and mainly between 1911 and 1913 – the Ordnance Survey photo-enlarged many 1:2500 sheets covering built-up areas to 1:1250 (50.688 inches to

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