Historic County Map of Northumberland

FRITH historical Ordnance Survey maps are reproductions of first edition maps prepared by the Ordnance Survey in the late 19th and early 20th Century. The original maps were published in numbered sheets and of course some locations happen to be in the middle of a sheet whilst others could be right on the edge of a sheet. Now, by digitally "stitching" together all the sheets that comprise England & Wales and in some cases, Scotland, Frith is able to offer you a map with any location at the centre, regardless of where it appeared on the original sheets.

Since some maps are created from more than one original Ordnance Survey sheet you may notice mismatched content running horizontally or vertically across the whole map. If you do, this indicates a join where your map has been digitally ‘stitched’ together. If this is the case you may notice one or more of the following in your map:

• Darker or lighter sections, where the density of the original map sheets varied - as they may have been drawn and published years apart this variation is unavoidable.
• More than one date for your map may be quoted - this is where different sections of it were surveyed or drawn at different times.
• Buildings built at the time of the later map and which straddle the border may not appear on the earlier section if not built at that time.
• If a railway line or road was added in the intervening years it will not show on the earlier section. Even if it were present at the time both sheets were drawn, the lines may not line up exactly due to the variances between the two original sheets.
• Because the original maps were all drawn by hand by individual cartographers, there may be variations in drawing and lettering styles between sheets.
• Town or county names maybe truncated or may run off the edge of the map - this is because your map is an extract of a larger image and we cannot move names from their original position on the maps.

In the days when these maps were drawn the process was very time consuming and expensive so new mapping was only completed every 20 or 30 years. This means maps are unfortunately not available for specific years.