Mapmakers - A History of Great Britain Through Ordnance Survey

Ordnance Survey is the home of British mapmaking. Starting in 1745, when a twenty-one-year-old engineer was tasked with a small-scale military survey of Scotland, their archive is a treasure trove of cartographical wonders. MAPMAKER brings to life for the first time this illustrious archive in a beautifully produced book which shows how these maps have told, and continue to tell the story of the changing shape of Britain. These are stories of religion, stories of changing industry, stories of politics and infrastructure, and stories of ourselves - where and why we move around this island, and how we do it. We find disappearing footpaths, mutilated maps, fictitious ''Trap Streets'' added by wily cartographers to catch unlawful replications, and a commemorative map made by OS for Queen Victoria on her Silver Jubilee. The lavish, full-colour volume contains maps from throughout OS''s lifetime and records how our landscape has changed - and gives us clues about how it might continue to do so in the future.

Product details

• Authors: Ordnance Survey
• Publisher: Weidenfeld and Nicolson
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 01.10.2026
• EAN: 9781399625845
• ISBN: 978-1-399-62584-5
• No. of pages: 256
• Subjects: HISTORY / Historical Geography, TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING / Cartography, Gift books, Historical maps & atlases, Historical Geography, REFERENCE / Atlases, Gazetteers & Maps