Tuesday 4 May 2010

Land-Form PROFILE tiles updated

Over the years some problems have been reported with a few Land-Form PROFILE data tiles. Ordnance Survey have now provided us with updated versions of these tiles for which the problems have been fixed. The following tiles have been updated for both DTM and contour data:

hp50swnm80nwnm80swnm87nenm87nw
nt87swny47seny57swny87swsd61ne
ss30ness30nwss30sess30swss31se
ss31swss40swst20nwst30sest40ne
st40sest50nest50nwst50sest57se
st76sest85nwst86nwst86swsx39nw
sx49nwsx57nesx57sesy49nesy59nw


Thanks to those who have reported the errors in the data.

Monday 3 May 2010

Historic Download - new service

Launched as a BETA service on 20 April 2010, Historic Download is an entirely new facility allowing users to select and download larger quantities of historical map data.


The facility offers the capability to browse contemporary maps of the UK which have been shaded blue to indicate the coverage of historical maps of each series and edition. Areas of historical maps can be selected for download by clicking on the appropriate shaded polygons or by dragging a box to select multiple map sheets.

The interface has been designed to improve selection and retrieval of larger quantities of data for research projects. Build up a list of the data you need, choosing maps from different editions of a given product and take up to 200 maps in a single download.

EDINA welcomes feedback on this BETA service. You can contact us on edina@ed.ac.uk or 0131 650 3302.

Launching Ancient Roam

Ancient Roam is a new mapping facility within Historic Digimap. It is based upon the Roam mapping client available from Digimap's OS Collection and includes the standard features such as fixed scale map views, 'slippy maps', searching by place name, postcode and grid reference, easy to use zooming and comprehensive help.



Key features specific to Ancient Roam include the ability to select historical maps from any decade (depending on map coverage and availability) using the Timeline along the top of the map window. Ancient Roam also offers an easier means of identifying and selecting maps in areas where County Series overlap at County boundaries. A single click on the map will also query maps to display the year the map shown was published along with other information about the map.

New Town Plan Maps
The large scale Town Plans are now available to view in Ancient Roam and download from Historic Download. The Town Plans are the largest scale historical maps available from Digimap offering great detail at 1:500, 1:528 and 1:1056 scales. The coverage of these maps is limited in that only settlements with a population greater than 4000 at the time of surveying were mapped. It is interesting to see what were regarded, then, as "urban" areas. The detail captured is enlightening; individual trees are marked in parkland and many industrial and commercial uses of land and buildings are noted.



Beta Service
Currently available as a BETA service, Ancient Roam will continue to undergo development over the coming weeks. Proposed additional functions include:

  • PDF map creation for printing

  • My Maps, to enable bookmarking screen maps for future reference

  • Multiple historical map views, to enable comparison of maps of different dates

  • Map fade slider, to show transition between maps of different dates

  • The ability to download the original Map sheet data which makes up your current on-screen map view

EDINA would welcome feedback on the service and on these proposed developments. Please contact us on edina@ed.ac.uk or 0131 650 3302