SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

While I was nosing around on Twitter I found this: http://maps.nls.uk/openlayers.cfm?id=38. It's the National Library of Scotland's collection of maps and covers the whole of Great Britain, but obviously with the emphasis on Scotland. If you click on "Explore georeferenced maps" it overlays the old maps on Google or Bing Maps with a slider to decide how transparent it is. It's similar to Enhanced Zoom on the commercial Old Maps site but without the watermark (or the subscription fee!). Here's a map of central Leeds in the 1950s overlaid on Bing Roads: http://bit.ly/IiPL4T.

Interesting, might give that go when I do a bit more of those 1951 photos. I'm hoping it's better than squinting at little bits of old maps before having to move on to the next square again. Cheers

Phill_dvsn wrote: Interesting, might give that go when I do a bit more of those 1951 photos. I'm hoping it's better than squinting at little bits of old maps before having to move on to the next square again. Cheers Just so long as they aren't obscured by clouds eh Phil ?

Thanks, excellent site. Easy to "grab" screen prints of large areas.Try using Awesome Screenshot: http://awesomescreenshot.com/

PhillIf you copy overlapping squares from Old Maps site using something like the free Screenhunter, then they can be joined up and saved pretty well using microsoft image composite editor ( http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/ ... s/ivm/ICE/ ).

chemimike wrote: PhillIf you copy overlapping squares from Old Maps site using something like the free Screenhunter, then they can be joined up and saved pretty well using microsoft image composite editor ( http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/ ... s/ivm/ICE/ ). Thanks for that Mike.I find the main problem using the old maps is trying to follow an old railway line, or in the last case follow a flight path. It depends what date the map is, some show great building detail very close up, others show a wider area where you can hardly see any detail, let alone any writing. Doing and great area is a complete pain. I know it's only a free preview site like 'try before you buy' But you'd be bankrupt if you actually bought a map for every area of interest.Cheers

NLS has zoomable 1:25,000 maps from the early 50s which are about the same time as the RAF aerial photos. Given that they're about the same time, I wonder if those photos were actually used as part of the surveying for these maps. Of course the area covered by Leeds city council (as it is now) is split across 4 maps:North west Leeds: http://maps.nls.uk/view/91788838North east Leeds: http://maps.nls.uk/view/91788865South west Leeds: http://maps.nls.uk/view/91788835South east Leeds: http://maps.nls.uk/view/91788862

mhoulden wrote: NLS has zoomable 1:25,000 maps from the early 50s which are about the same time as the RAF aerial photos. Given that they're about the same time, I wonder if those photos were actually used as part of the surveying for these maps. Of course the area covered by Leeds city council (as it is now) is split across 4 maps:North west Leeds: http://maps.nls.uk/view/91788838North east Leeds: http://maps.nls.uk/view/91788865South west Leeds: http://maps.nls.uk/view/91788835South east Leeds: http://maps.nls.uk/view/91788862 Thanks for those Links, far better than the oldmaps.They've come in real handy so far.Cheers     

NLS now has 6 inch maps for England and Wales: http://maps.nls.uk/os/6inch-england-and ... index.html. These cover the period 1842-1952. As before, these are the full maps in clear detail and without any watermarks. Here's the oldest map of central Leeds, published in 1851: http://maps.nls.uk/view/102344959. It has the beginnings of Wellington St station but there's no link across town to Marsh Lane yet.

Ooh plenty to go at there. The stream from Burley village and one down the course of Thornville Road to start. Lost hours beckon.