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The Ordnance Survey (OS) is now a civilian organisation and government agency in the United Kingdom, and one of the world's largest producers of maps. In addition to producing a wide range of maps of Great Britain 1 , the organisation is also working in over sixty countries world-wide.
The roots of the United Kingdom Ordnance Survey (OS) go back to 1747, when King George II of England commissioned a military survey of the Scottish highlands following the Jacobite revolt of 1745. William Roy was the engineer responsible for this pioneering work; one of the staff involved was noted artist Paul Sandby. It was not until 1790 that the Board of Ordnance (the predecessor of the Ministry of Defence) began a national military survey starting with the south coast of EnglandEngland is the largest, the most populous, and the most densely populated of the four " Home Nations" which make up the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK). Occupying the south-eastern portion of the island of Great Britain, England in anticipation of a FrenchThe French Republic or France ( French: Republique francaise or France is a country whose metropolitan territory is located in western Europe, and which is further made up of a collection of overseas islands and territories located in other continents. invasion.
By 1791Events January 25 The British Parliament passes the Constitutional Act of 1791, splitting the old province of Quebec into Upper and Lower Canada March 3 The United States Congress passes a resolution calling for the establishment of the United States Mint, the Board had purchased the new Ramsden theodolite , and work commenced on mapping southern BritainThe word Britain is used to refer to the United Kingdom (UK): i. the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (from 1927), the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland ( 1801- 1927) or the United Kingdom of Great Britain ( 1707- 1801). using a baseline that Roy himself had previously measured. In 1801 the first one- inchAn inch is an Imperial unit of length. Sweden also briefly had a "decimal inch" based on the metric system: see below for more. According to some sources, the inch was originally defined informally as the distance between the tip of the thumb and the firs map was published: it was of the countyOriginally, a county was the land under the jurisdiction of a count (in Great Britain, an earl, though the original earldoms covered larger areas) by reason of that office. The term has since tended to represent a tertiary geographical unit of administrat of KentThis article is about the English county of Kent. See also Kent (disambiguation). Kent is a county in England, south-east of London. The county town is Maidstone. Kent has land borders with East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London, and a defined boundary wi, with a second of Essex following shortly after.
During the next twenty years about a third of England and Wales was mapped at the one-inch scale. It was gruelling work: Major Thomas Colby , later the longest serving Director General of the Ordnance Survey, walked 586 miles in 22 days on a reconnaissance in 1819.
Image:OS-map Shepshed gam print ordsvywat-sun-0132036358224.jpg|thumb|right|400px|Image produced from the Ordnance Survey Get-a-map service. Image reproduced with kind permission of Ordnance Survey and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland.In 1824, Colby and most of his staff moved to Ireland, to work on a six inch to the mile valuation survey. 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. He believed in leading from the front, travelling with his men, helping to build camps, and as each survey session drew to a close arranging mountain-top parties with enormous plum puddings.
After the first Irish maps began to come out in the mid- 1830s, the Tithe Commutation Act led to calls for similar six-inch surveys in England and Wales. After official prevarication, the development of the railways added to pressure that resulted in the 1841 Ordnance Survey Act. This granted a right to enter property for the purpose of the survey.
Following a fire at its headquarters in the Tower of London, the OS was in disarray for several years with arguments about which scales to use. Major-General Sir Henry James was now Director General, and he saw how photography could be used to make maps of various scales cheaply and easily. The twenty five inch to the mile survey was complete by 1895.
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