There are a couple of ways to buy a map, the first is to find the right area, scale and year. Make sure you have the right selection on screen and then click on the 'buy this map' button on the map page, alternatively click on the 'add to cart' button to the right of the map.

Both options will open your cart page and show the maps that you currently have ordered. To add a different map click on the 'back to maps' button, to change the quantity of the current map, click on the up and down arrows.

To order a map click on the 'BUY NOW' button. Please note that the system will not process any order until you confirm you have read the terms and conditions.

Pressing 'BUY NOW' will open a confirmation page - this is your last chance to change your mind and quit the order process - pressing 'BUY NOW' here will forward you to the Pay Pal site.

PayPal are an online secure payment agency and more can be read about them here

The direction arrows surrounding the map allow you to navigate. Click on the relevant arrow to move North, South, East or West. You can also click anywhere on the map to re-centre the view on the point you clicked.

You can see more of the map or a smaller area in more detail by using the Zoom buttons to the left of the map.

There are 4 ways to search for a map. Firstly you can enter current address information into the Search Bar, this will accept postcodes, town names, or street names and numbers.

Secondly, you can search using British National Grid co-ordinates, and these can be entered into the co-ordinates search bar (Easting and then Northing).

Thirdly, you can use the Gazetteer to search by County and then Town name, enter the Gazetteer by clicking on the 'GAZ' button.

Finally you way wish to see historic maps of some famous places. To do so, select a place from the 'Places of Interest' drop down menu, and the map will appear.

You can re-enter search criteria at any point when you are in the map page.

If you come across a map partially made up of a solid black block, this indicates a missing map sheet. Unfortunately, some of the original map sheets were damaged or lost by Ordnance Survey, and therefore unavailable for viewing from this web site. However the large scale (1:2500 scale) map of the same area may still be available.

If you are interested in buying a Decorative Map of an area containing missing small scale ( 1:10 560 scale) map sheets, it is worth looking at the thumbnail images along the bottom of the map to see if any are unaffected.

If you come across a map containing an adjacent area of white space, this indicates an area situated on a county boundary. As maps are loaded on a county by county basis, it may be necessary to select a thumbnail from an adjacent county to view the rest of the map.

The pink rectangle overlaid on top of the map shows an area 1km by 708 metres. This is the geographical area printed on a Decorative Map derived from the large scale (1:2500 scale) maps.

The blue rectangle overlaid on top of the map (shown at the maximum zoom extent) shows an area 2km by 1.416km. This is the geographical area printed on our Decorative Maps derived from the small scale ( 1:10 560 scale) maps. You can see examples of the difference in the maps by clicking here.

Please note that the Decorative Maps are extracts from the 1:10 560 and the 1:2500 maps and are not actually to scale.

The date on maps relates to the publication date, not the date of the survey. If a map is made up of a number of maps the date specified relates to the earliest map shown.

Please note in relation to 1:10 560 maps and larger scales that the date provided is relevant for all details on the map except for the following circumstances:

Boundaries were occasionally altered after field revision but before publication on 1:10 560 maps prepared between circa 1896 and 1913.

Before 1866, railways were sometimes added without acknowledgement to published 1:10 560 sheets.

The maps available for free viewing from this web site have been extracted from the earliest available Ordnance Survey (OS) County Series mapping at 1:10 560 scale which are held by Landmark for the whole of mainland Great Britain. Later editions and other scales of mapping are also available from Landmark. Map extracts can be purchased as Decorative Maps direct from this web site.

Ordnance Survey has one of the largest collections of historical mapping in Great Britain and until recently this was only held as a paper archive. As the result of a joint venture between Ordnance Survey and Landmark Information Group an extensive digital archive has been created allowing historical mapping of Britain to be offered online at www.old-maps.co.uk.

When the maps were scanned from Ordnance Survey's historical map archive, every possible effort was taken to ensure that clean electronic images were generated however a number of factors affected the quality of the scanned map image. In particular dust on the maps has resulted in dark areas. Other imperfections result from folds and tears which make it impossible to scan an even image; in some extreme cases a section of the map is missing resulting in a loss of that data. It is important to note, however, that damaged maps are the exception and that most of the historical mapping is in very good condition especially considering its age.

Over the years, several county boundaries have changed. Indeed, new counties have also been created and some old counties ceased to exist. Any searches you perform based on place name, modern day address or co-ordinate will bring up a map of the area and list the county that the area was in at the time the mapping was created.

When the mapping was created, each county was surveyed with a slight overlap into the next county. If you perform a search on a place which appears close to a county boundary, it may be covered by mapping from more than one county. This is why your search results page may present the same place in two or more counties. It is worth looking at each county's coverage of the area to see which best suits your needs.

The thumbnail images will give you an overview of the coverage available so that you can select the map that best suits your needs

Although the old-maps site is predominantly for personal use, gifts & private research we appreciate that, from time to time, map images purchased or downloaded from the site may be required for publication. If the publication is for charity or small scale, non--profit use then permission is usually granted without additional royalties payable. All that is required is the correct attribution.

Examples of non-profit use have included parish & church newsletters and local history society leaflets. However, larger scale publication, books & journals will require an additional licence.

If you are in any doubt please contact us and, in the majority of cases, permission can be granted without the need for additional licensing.

Unfortunately this means that the payment was not taken from your chosen Credit./Debit Card, for more information, please contact our main reception on 01392 441700, quoting ‘old-maps’.

The pages on this web site require a JavaScript enabled browser in order to operate properly. We recommend Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 with Javascript enabled.

Old-maps also requires that your browser is set to accept session cookies. Session cookies are small snippets of information that the site stores on your computer in order to allow it to keep track of its activity. No personal or sensitive information is stored and the server can only retrieve its own information from your computer. We do not consider session cookies to be a security threat (which is a widely-shared erroneous perception).

If you are having trouble accessing the maps on our site and you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer, we suggest you try enabling the "Use HTTP1.1" and "Use HTTP1.1 through proxy connections" options which are available in the Advanced Browser settings.

This site is designed for an optimum screen resolution of 1024x768. The site will work at lesser resolutions (e.g. 800x600), but will require use of scrollbars to see certain areas on the page.

What do the symbols on the maps mean?

There are many symbols on the maps we show, and we receive many queries about what they mean. Thankfully Ordnance Survey also produced legends to decipher these symbols, and you can view the legends here

Why are the maps watermarked?

Due to an amendment in our licencing agreement with Ordnance Survey, we are required to watermark the images online.