Maps and new online opportunities to wander the past

Off Deansgate on Jackson's Row in 1849

Maps are the things of history.

They locate people, explain the context of where and how they lived and they are just fun to use.

My favourite is the OS map, some so detailed that you can almost find the litter left on the street.

Armed with one of these detailed maps, a set of street directories, a census return and  the odd photograph add in google street maps and you have a powerful set of tools to explore the past and the people who lived there.

For years  I have bought into a wonderful set of maps produced by Digital Archives Association ranging from OS maps of towns and cities to our historic canals, and Mr Spurr has always been on hand to give advice, make suggestions and point me to other maps.*

The village in Chorlton, 1854

On one occasion he even went out of his way to locate a detail of a map from the National Library of Scotland and process it into a digital format.

And it is of the National Library of Scotland that I want to focus on for they have announced a major new online resource which covers a collection of English and Welsh maps covering more than 100 years.**

“This website allows all of the flat-sheet holdings of OS six-inch to the mile County Series maps of England and Wales held by NLS to be viewed.

We have attempted to include all our unbound holdings of these maps, which are probably comprehensive from ca. 1890 onwards."

Nor is that all because the National Archives has teamed up with the Genealogist to put its collection of tithe maps and apportionments on line.***

Who owned and worked Chorlton in 1845

Tithe maps are a powerful way into the world of the early and mid 19th century.

The maps along with the all important schedule list who owned the land in a particular area, who rented it what it was used for and how much it was worth.

So here is a snapshot of the great landowners, their farmers and the way the land was used allowing the researcher to track down a tenant farmer and even the house they lived in.

The map and its schedule for Chorlton-cum-Hardy was invaluable when I wrote my book allowing me to wander across the township following the lives of our farmers, market gardeners and agricultural labourers along with the tradesmen and the better off.****

Then and now it remains a starting point when I want to recreate that lost Chorlton of the 1840s.
So I shall eagerly be awaiting the progress of the project which will be uploaded in stages of the next 18 months.

That said some County Archives like Cheshire have already digitalised theirs and these were so helpful in throwing light on some of the people who moved into Chorlton and gave an insight into the landholdings of our local church across the Mersey.*****

All of which just leaves me to say go off and explore.

Pictures; Jackson’s Row and the surrounding area from the OS map of Manchester & Salford, 1844-49, and detail from the OS map of Lancashire, 1841-53, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/ Tithe map of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, courtesy of Philip Lloyd

*Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/

**Ordnance Survey Maps - Six-inch England and Wales, 1842-1952, NLS,   http://maps.nls.uk/os/6inch-england-and-wales/info1.html

***UNEARTH TITHE MAPS TREASURE, Alan Crosby, WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? BBC Publications, Issue 85 April 2014

****The Story of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/the-story-of-chorlton-cum-hardy.html


*****Cheshire Archives and Local Studies, http://maps.cheshire.gov.uk/tithemaps/