Ordnance Survey maps

Called 'the most detailed topographic mapping of most of England and Wales from the 1840s to the 1950s', OS maps formed the backbone to our research into Luton's historical orchards.

The orchard symbol on maps

Ordnance Survey maps have a dedicated symbol for orchards. We've found more than 150 sites labelled with the orchard symbol on OS maps of Luton. You can see the symbol on a plot with the red outline. The image shows what today is Roman Road at the junction with Canterbury Close, Leagrave. 

Still existing today

The starting point for our research was OS County Series maps from 1878 onwards, but OS maps have a symbol for orchards until this day. The image shows today's orchard symbol in use in 2015, from the OS Explorer 1:25000 Scale Colour Raster.

Why use Ordnance Survey maps? 

The main reason we used OS maps is that they have a dedicated symbol to demarcate orchards, so the Royal surveyors in the 19th century made our job much easier and allowed us access to this fantastic rich record of our landscape history. Through the OS County Series and National Grid maps, we were able to track the pattern of orchards in Luton during this period. 

From the late nineteenth century, mapping in the UK became accurate to a degree we can recognise today. This coincided with the major growth of Luton. 

Quoted from the National Library of Scotland: 

'The Ordnance Survey 25 inch to the mile County Series (1841-1952) is immensely valuable for local history. It is the most detailed Ordnance Survey mapping for most parts of England and Wales. The maps allow practically every feature in the landscape to be shown. They provide good detail of all buildings, streets, railways, industrial premises, parkland, farms, woodland, and rivers. Their bold style and informative symbols and abbreviations allow easy interpretation for a wide range of uses.'

The scale of the maps is either 1:2500 or 1:1250. The smaller the number, the larger the scale. The larger the scale, the more detail that is shown.

What about the map epochs?

Our map adviser at the People's Trust for Endangered Species refers to the different eras of OS County Series maps as Epochs 1 to 4. Epoch 1 is the oldest and Epoch 4 the youngest. This has the advantage of referencing them in conversation much easier - try saying "Eighteen-seventy-eight Map" versus "Epoch 1". 

Crop of the First Edition OS map 1:2500.
Part of Leagrave on the First Edition OS Map of Luton 1:2500

Epoch 1 -First Edition - surveyed around 1878

The first edition of the OS County Series and the basis for following revisions. This brought up around 93 orchards in the area of Luton. A 20-year revision cycle was planned, and largely followed, until the First World War. The scale is 1:2500. 

Part of Leagrave on the Second Edition OS Map of Luton 1:2500

Epoch 2 - Second Edition -  surveyed around 1900

This revision standardised and simplified some of the symbols. In this edition, we only found 44 orchards mapped in Luton. The scale is 1:2500.

Part of Leagrave on the 1924 Edition OS Map of Luton 1:2500

Epoch 3 - Edition of 1924 - surveyed around 1922

Orchard numbers were rising again in this revision from the 1920s. Around 70 orchards were mapped in Luton at this time. The scale is 1:2500.

Part of Dunstable Road on the 1937 revision of the OS Map of Luton 1:2500. Did you know that we had a local greyhound stadium?

Epoch 4 - Revision of 1937 - surveyed around 1937

We also looked at Epoch 4, which is a revision from 1937. But it only includes a small part of Luton on the border to Dunstable.  The scale is 1:2500.

Part of Leagrave on the 1963 National Grid Map of Luton 1:1250

National Grid Map - surveyed around 1963

These maps were harder to access as part of this research. However, Luton resident and map collector Marian Biskupski hand-searched his archive to bring up several orchards. The maps have just been made available online, and our search will continue. The scale is even larger than the OS County Series, showing incredible detail at 1:1250.