National Maps of Britain

Abstract

A CIRCULAR from the Ministry of Town and Country Planning directs attention to a new series of maps of Great Britain constructed to illustrate various aspects of national life and resources. The scheme is a development of the idea of a National Atlas originally prepared by a committee of the British Association in 1939 and is now under the guidance of both the Ministry of Town and Country Planning and the Department of Health for Scotland. The maps are being published by the Ordnance Survey. All maps are to be on a scale of 1:625,000, or about ten miles to an inch, and all will bear the new national grid. Each map will be in two sheets, covering respectively (1) Scotland and the northern part of England and (2) the remainder of England and Wales. Those sheets already published are the base map, land utilization, administrative areas, topography, population density in 1931, types of farming and land classification. Several of these are new compilations. Shortly to be ready are sheets showing population of urban areas in 1938, roads, coal and iron resources, and iron and steel production. Others in hand include a physical map, with accepted terminology of physical features, grasslands of England and Wales, geology, electricity supply, gas, railways, population changes, various economic maps, and seaports. The price of the published sheets is generally five shillings.