Ordnance Survey

A national mapping agency of the United Kingdom, established in 1791, and managed by the military for close to 100 years. Widely regarded as the best in the field of cartography, it produces, maintains, and markets a wide range of maps, computer data, and other geographical information for business, leisure, educational, and administrative use.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

One of the beneficial results of the '45 rebellion. the difficulties of the Culloden campaign persuaded Lieutenant-General Watson, deputy quartermaster-general, that better maps of the Highlands were needed. Much of the work, later extended to the Lowlands, was done by William Roy. In 1765 Roy was appointed to survey coastal areas of Britain and to report to the master-general of the ordnance. At the same time the newly formed Royal Society of Arts offered rewards for county maps. After Roy's death in 1790, the duke of Richmond, master-general of the ordnance, appointed a small team in 1791. they issued in 1801 the first of a series of one-inch maps, the county of Kent. A survey of Ireland was started in 1825.