Roman Britain (Historical Map and Guide): 7

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The MCCs, organised by 1:100 000 scale map sheet numbers (½˚ squares – technically not ‘square,’ but normally referred to as such), give current and superseded coordinates for every point that is plotted on the MCDs. This includes heights (ground level and station mark) and references to the files that contain its coordinates, station descriptions and photo identifications. Primary triangulation and traverse areas Four maps have been permanently preserved at The National Archives as typical examples of Directorate of Overseas Surveys (DOS) map production between 1946 and 1999: Three films showing DOS activities were transferred to the B ritish Film Institute's National Film and TV Archive. DVD copies of one of these films, a DOS training film, was supplied to all main repositories holding parts of the Ordnance Survey International Collection. Non-Directorate of Overseas Surveys mapping You can see this functionality in action if you choose one of the One Inch layers from the 1950s-70s.

In addition to contract photography, the collection occasionally holds cover obtained by the national survey departments, and other aid agencies such as the Canadian International Development Agency. The final steps used concrete, which the Romans had rediscovered (it had been used in Ancient Egypt). They seem to have mixed the mortar and the stones in the fossa. First a small layer of coarse concrete, the rudus, then a little layer of fine concrete, the nucleus, went onto the pavement or statumen. Into or onto the nucleus went a course of polygonal or square paving stones, called the summa crusta. The crusta was crowned for drainage.

Almost all photography of Africa, Aden, Malaya, and Borneo flown between 1946 and 1953 was taken with Fairchild® K17 cameras, and from 1951 with Williamson F49 cameras, both using the same focal length of 152 mm. These were carried in aircraft (mainly Lancasters) of RAF photographic reconnaissance squadrons. The planned scale of photography was 1:30 000, selected as a compromise that would provide specialist departments (geology, forestry, agriculture) with photography that both enabled interpretation of thematic information, and suited topographic mapping. The directions for making pavements given by Vitruvius. The pavement and the via munita were identical in construction, except as regards the top layer.

Most of the known network was complete by 180 AD. Its main purpose was to allow the rapid movement of troops and military supplies. It was also vital for trade and the transport of goods. Ordnance Survey already had its own international division. When the two organisations were merged in 1984, all international aerial photographs, maps, and survey data were amalgamated into one working collection. It was named Technical Information and Support Services and kept that title for seven years, before being renamed International Library in 1991. Between 1946 and the late 1980s, Directorate of Overseas Surveys (DOS) field parties worked towards establishing ground control (planimetric and height) for mapping, observing national primary and secondary survey frameworks, and assisting with tertiary and cadastral control and levelling. The collection includes results of control surveys by other organisations, some connected to DOS schemes and most used by DOS in its mapping programmes. International boundary survey data, maps, correspondence, and files are held by The National Archives. It was Directorate of Overseas Surveys (DOS) practice to show international boundaries on the medium-scale mapping wherever well-defined, and there was enough information to be drawn without significant error. Portrayal of boundaries was agreed with countries concerned, and correspondence with national survey departments provided additional data.

Maps of Roman Britain

A small-scale guide to this photography is included in the DOS Annual Reports from 1951 to 1984, to be held by The National Archives (TNA). Other photography in the collection is shown on non-DOS cover diagrams or sortie plots produced by the originator of the photography. Summary diagrams for each country illustrate the location of all photography. The principal points of photos used in the mapping are shown and numbered on almost all DOS 1:50 000–1:125 000 scale topographic maps and provide accurate indications of the location of individual photos. Air photo mosaics and print laydowns (uncontrolled mosaics produced as map substitutes on standard sheetlines in advance of the regular mapping) are archived at the National Collection of Aerial Photography. This available online and provides an excellent overview as the OS Map has considerable detail on it. It is in our plans to provide a set of mapping data that can be used by us all using Google Maps nd Google Earth so we will keep you posted on that but for the moment here are the top 3 sources we have identified: The collection holds approximately 1.5 million monochrome, vertical aerial photographs. Each one is survey-standard and suitable for viewing stereoscopically in 3D. Most are at nominal scale 1:30 000 – 1:60 000 and in 230 mm by 230 mm format. Mostly panchromatic, though there are infrared, monochrome prints, off-colour, infra-red negatives, and a few colour prints. The Directorate of Overseas Surveys (DOS) book collection was merged with the Ordnance Survey Library’s collection in 1987. It has since been withdrawn from the library and has relocated to other institutions under the direction of the National Archives.