Digital Images Archive
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MPHH 1/220(3) - Christchurch
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The drawing extends hardly at all beyond the western neatline of the OSD: the surveyor knew what was needed and was avoiding unnecessary work. There is more overlap at the northern neatline: perhaps there was some doubt as to exactly how far north the OSD was to extend. The detail across all this area is very much clearer than on the OSD. It helps that the land-use ornament on the OP is drawn quite faintly. In fact, initially an area may look white; only at full magnification does one see tree symbols, rough-pasture, or arable.
Because of its size, the OSD had to be drawn on multiple sheets of paper which were then stuck together. The red line towards the E edge of this OP marks one such paper join. The area covered by the OP seems to have been designed from the start to correspond to one sheet of the OSD - almost. The detail in the NE corner stops short of that red line. Perhaps this indicates a slight change of plan over the positioning of sheet joins. The southern black line truncates Christchurch Head; this is some way north of the southern neatline of the OSD.
Christchurch Priory is almost absent from the OP: an empty churchyard with something circled in pencil, probably representing an intersected point in the local triangulation which will have formed the first stage of construction this OP. By some means, extra information was conveyed to the draughtsman working on the OP and a cruciform symbol is shown there. Note that this is the standard symbol used for churches; it is not an attempt to represent the ground plan.