The Charles Close Society for the study of Ordnance Survey maps

Digital Images Archive

One-inch sheet 120, on Popular Edition sheet lines, 1916

“He (i.e. Charles Close as Director General) did a number of experiments, amongst which the Killarney sheet is the best known. To my mind, however, the most useful thing he produced as an experiment was a map of Somersetshire (Bridgwater) which now hangs in the office of O.Maps. A quite beautiful bit of work. These experiments went on for some time, and I remember them vividly….and was privileged to talk a good deal to Close about his ideas.” So wrote H StJ L Winterbotham as he retired as Director General in 1934, in 'Sidelights', the confidential handover notes he wrote for his successor M N MacLeod. It is probable, though unproven, that these notes refer to this copy of sheet 120. For further information on the historical background and the enhanced colour techniques used, readers are directed to Richard Oliver’s comments in Sheetlines 32 (1992), 6, and to Yolande Hodson, Popular Maps, London: Charles Close Society, 1999, 26-7. There is a copy of 'Sidelights' in Cambridge University Library at CCS 403/5.

From a copy in a private collection