• Guides to using Maps in Research
• Town and Parish Maps
• The County of Norfolk: Old Maps
• The County of Norfolk: Modern Maps

See also the map of County Boundaries (before 1974).
There may be more Norfolk information in the Genuki/England Maps section.

These pages are for personal use only. They may not be copied, and the links within them may not be harvested for use on your own web pages. Please see the Copyright Notice.

Copyright © Pat Newby.
February 2006

Guides to using Maps in Research

This is only a small selection from the many publications available.

Foot, William

Maps for Family History: a Guide to the Records of the Tithe, Valuation Office and National Farm Surveys of England and Wales, 1836-1943.
Public Record office Readers' Guide, No. 9.
[ISBN 1873162170, PRO Publications, London, 1994]

Harley, J.B. and Phillips, C.W.

The Historian's Guide to Ordnance Survey Maps.
[British Association for Local History, 1972]

Oliver, Richard

Ordnance Survey Maps: a Concise Guide for Historians.
[Charles Close Society for the Study of OS Maps]

Town and Parish Maps

• Map of Norfolk Parishes.
  The Norfolk Record Office (NRO) publishes a map of Norfolk, showing all parishes. You will need to search for your parish, though the image is in PDF format and can be enlarged for easier viewing. (The image is 6mb).
• Norfolk Historical Map Explorer
  Online maps and aerial photographs, including 19th century Ordnance Survey maps, tithe maps, and enclosure maps.
• Historical Maps of Norfolk Places (Old-Maps - Landmark Information Group)
  Online Ordnance Survey Maps, from 1846 to 1899, for individual towns and parishes.
• Every Genuki Norfolk parish page has a Nearby places icon at the top. Start at the List of Towns and Parishes and select the town or parish, Then select Nearby places, then on the results page select the grid reference (which looks similiar to this TG400100). You will then see links to several maps.
   
• Faden's Map of Norfolk 1797
  A topographical map of the county of Norfolk, surveyed and measured in the years 1790-94 by William Faden, at a scale of 1 inch to 1 mile.
     - Norfolk Record Society - Vol 42, Facsimile of 1797 edition, 1973.
     - Lark's Press - Facsimile of 1797 edition. ISBN 0948400099, 2001.
     - Digital Redrawing - Andrew Macnair, 2005.
• Bryant's Map of Norfolk 1826
  A map of the county of Norfolk, from an actual survey by Arthur Bryant in the years 1824, 1825, and 1826, at a scale of 1.25 inches to 1 mile
     - Lark's Press - Facsimile of 1826 edition. ISBN 0948400714, 2000.
   
• There are some more specific online maps for towns and parishes, both modern and historical. These are linked from the individual parish pages. Start at the List of Towns and Parishes and select the town or parish, then look under the headings for "Maps", and also under "Description and Travel" for web sites dedicated to the place, as these sometimes include maps.
• Find a present-day House, Street or Place.

See also the links and information below.

The County of Norfolk: Old Maps

These maps show the whole county, so the scale is very small.

• 1638
• 1805
• 1836
• 1885 Boundary Commission Map for Eastern Norfolk
  showing parliamentary and petty sessional divisions.
• 1885 Boundary Commission Map for Western Norfolk
  showing parliamentary and petty sessional divisions.
• 1892

Sites with collections of old maps. Some allow searching; others sell reprints of maps.

• Genmaps: Old maps of Norfolk, with some individual places
• Historical Maps (Old-Maps - Landmark Information Group)
  Online Ordnance Survey Maps, from 1846 to 1899.
• Ordnance Survey
  Look for Historical Resources.
• British Library Map Collections
• Alan Godfrey Maps
• "David and Charles", Brunel House, Newton Abbot, Devon, UK.

Other Publications

Chubb, Thomas, b.1858?

A descriptive list of the printed maps of Norfolk 1574-1916; with bibliographical notes and a tabular index: and a descriptive list of Norwich plans 1541-1914 by Geo. A. Stephen.
[Norwich: Jarrold, 1928]

Cox, Thomas

Magna Britannia et Hibernia, antiqua & nova: or, A new survey of Great Britain.
Vol.3: Containing the counties of London and Middlesex, Norfolk, Northamptonshire and Northumberland
[London, printed by E. and R. Nutt; and sold by T. Cox, 1724]

Frostick, Raymond

The Dutch connection: some Norfolk maps and their makers.
[ISBN 0903181045, Norfolk County Council Library and Information Service, 1988]

Jarrolds

Jarrolds' map of the rivers and broads of Norfolk and Suffolk.
Scale 1:63,360, 1 inch to 1 mile.
[London, Jarrold, 18--?]

Kain, Roger J.P. and Oliver, Richard R.

Historic Parishes of England and Wales.
An Electronic Map of Boundaries before 1850 with a Gazetteer and Metadata.
[ISBN 0954003209, Colchester, History Data Service, 2001]

The County of Norfolk: Modern Maps

Online Maps

The following sites are for searching. They provide area maps, location maps, street maps, postcode searches, etc. You may need to restrict your searches to "England" or "United Kingdom". They will probably show similiar maps to each other. They are listed in alphabetic order.

• Bing Maps
• MapQuest
• Ordnance Survey
• Streetmap

Ordnance Survey Maps on Paper

Probably the best modern maps to begin with are in the "Landranger" Series. The scale is 1:50,000 (1.25 inches to 1 mile; 2cm to 1km), and each sheet covers approximately a square of 25 miles by 25 miles.

Norfolk is covered by 7 sheets:

• 131 Lincolnshire and Northwest Norfolk
• 132 Northwest Norfolk
• 133 Northeast Norfolk
• 134 East Norfolk
• 143 Cambridgeshire and Southwest Norfolk
• 144 Southwest Norfolk
• 156 Southeast Norfolk and Suffolk

Then there are maps in the "Pathfinder" Series, which show far more detail, including parish boundaries. The scale is 1:25,000 (about 2.5 inches to 1 mile, or 4cm to 1km). Each sheet covers approximately 12.5 miles east-to-west by 6 miles north-to-south (20x10km).

Norfolk is covered by 6 sheets:

• 37 Northwest Norfolk and Lincolnshire
• 38 North Norfolk
• 45 Cambridgeshire and West Norfolk
• 46 Central and South Norfolk
• 47 East Norfolk and East Suffolk
• 55 Suffolk and South Norfolk

UK and Ireland: Maps

• The Great Britain Historical Geography Information Service (GBHGIS) provides a mass of information about Britain's localities as they have changed over time. Information comes from census reports, historical gazetteers, travellers' tales and historic maps.
• A Vision of Britain Through Time, in the GBHGIS, provides maps and statistical information derived from census reports covering the period 1801-2001, searchable by place name or post code.
• The Landmark Information Group sell online 19th Century Ordnance Survey maps linked from an extensive gazetteer. These are at a scale of 1:10,560 (6 inches to the mile) and cover all of Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales).
• Maps showing the counties in England, Scotland and Wales and in Ireland prior to the 1974 re-organisation (1975 for Scotland). These maps show the familiar three-letter Chapman Codes.
• The National Library of Scotland provides scanned map images of various series of Ordnance Survey maps of Scotland, England and Wales from the mid-19th century to 1970s.
• Catalogue of British Town Maps - "locates town maps extant in UK public archives and libraries. It provides details of almost 8,000 maps and provides for each the key cartographical and other features and the location of publicly-accessible exemplars. Associated with each catalogue entry is a PDF image outlining the area covered by the map."
  •  Kain, R.J.P. and Oliver, R. British Town Maps: A History. British Library Publishing Division (2015) 240 pp. [ISBN-10: 0712357297]
• Genmaps - a very large collection of scanned maps of England, Wales and Scotland.
• Old Maps Online: "the easy to use gateway to historical maps online in libraries around the world".
• County maps (archived copy) showing the parish boundaries, the probate jurisdiction, and the date of commencement of registers, are available from The Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies.
• The Bodleian Library Map Room.
• Streetmap.co.uk provides up-to-date street maps for all of mainland Britain. A similar service is provided by Multi Media Mapping and Bing.
• A modern map of the United Kingdom.
• The Association of British Counties website includes a very useful map showing the 86 historic counties of Great Britain.
• Alan Gresley provides a set of high quality scans of maps from Baedeker's Great Britain (archived copy), Handbook for Travelers by Karl Baedeker (7th ed., 1910).
• Geography and National Statistics - explanatory pages from The Office of National Statistics
• Cassini publish historical Ordnance Survey maps of England and Wales that have been scanned, digitally re-projected and enlarged to match the present-day Landranger © series - and provide Mapmaker, a web-based search facility that allows a user to centre a map on a postcode or placename, ready for downloading or printing.
• Francis Frith sells Victorian county maps, by the Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis.
• British Isles Maps and Views - "free access to high quality scans of rare and beautiful antique maps and views", from MAPCO.
• Detailed scans of 1950s Ordnance Survey Maps - the New Popular Edition (in England and Wales), and the earlier sheets from the 7th Edition (in Scotland / Northern England).
• Detailed scan of the Map of England & Wales by S. Lewis & Co., London c1840, provided by MAPCO.
• Digimap - a subscription service available to UK Higher Educational Institutions that provides online access to "all available County Series maps at 1:2,500 and 1:10560 scales published between 1843 and 1939; and all available National Grid maps at 1:1,250, 1:2,500 and 1:10560/10,000 scales published from 1945".
• FamilySearch's Maps facility can be used to find parishes and see their parish boundaries overlaid on a modern Ordnance Survey map.
• Advice for family historians, concerning the use of maps and gazeteers, from the History of Cartography pages in WWW-Virtual Library:History.
• Maps for Family and Local History - from the National Archives.
• The Royal Collection Trust 's George III Collection of Military Maps contains numerous maps of England, and some of Wales and of Scotland.
• The British Historic Towns Trust Atlas provides free-to-download Atlases and maps of Britain's historic towns and cities.