Landmark Information Group: historical maps

Tuesday, 21 October 2014

Wildfire TV takes a walk through history with Landmark

Television production company, Wildfire Television has selected Landmark Information Group to source and supply a range of data terrain images for a series commissioned by Channel 4.

‘WalkingThrough History’ is the third series of six history documentaries that are presented by Sir Tony Robinson. The programmes start broadcasting on Saturday 25^th October at 20:00hrs on Channel 4 and will focus on locations across the UK, including the Cairngorms, Sherwood Forest, Pembrokeshire, the Yorkshire Moors, and the Channel Islands.

Landmark has worked closely with the production team to produce a series of images showing stylised terrain data overlaid with reference features including key road networks and coastlines. This has been produced using a combination of Ordnance Survey open data and OS Terrain® 50 datasets.

Marisa Verazzo, Production Manager of Walking Through History for Wildfire Television said: “We are pleased to be working with the team at Landmark Information Group to provide us with a host of contoured terrain maps for Walking Through History. The maps really put the areas that we will be focusing on in the series into context, and by working with Landmark we have been able to access exactly what we need.”

Matt Wills, Senior GIS Analyst at Landmark Information Group said: “We are pleased to be able to deliver a host of hill-shaded and coloured OS Terrain 50 maps to Wildfire Television for use in the new Channel 4 documentary. It just goes to show another great way that our extensive range of datasets and maps are being put to use in the commercial world – so, as well as supporting the environmental, land and property industries, our data and mapping tools are also here to support media, marketing and other similar industries in piecing together the history of a given location.”

www.promap.co.uk

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/walking-through-history

Thursday, 11 September 2014

A Race Through Time

As I watched Mo Farah power his way from Newcastle, through Gateshead and ultimately cross the finish line in the coastal town of South Shields at this weekend’s Bupa Great North Run, it made me wonder how the area has changed over the years.

The region has seen rapid development in recent times, moving away from its industrialised past, and the regeneration of the area is clear to see as we watched the runners make their way along the half marathon route. I’m sure that if the same route was followed 50 years, 100 years or even further back in time, the runners would have certainly seen a completely different ‘north east’ from what we see today.

Starting in Newcastle, the course takes in the iconic Tyne Bridge which was opened in 1928. As runners descend down the A167(M), historic maps show us that a reservoir was located on the exact same spot as the route back in 1864 – a swimming costume would certainly have been needed for this leg of the route.

1864 OS map and Open Street Mapping

Dodge a reservoir

Carry further along and runners may have had to hold their noses back in 1864, as the Corporation Manure Depot was located en route. Residential housing would have made the route impassable, with Alma Street residences located on what is today the main route towards Gateshead.

1864 OS map and Open Street Mapping

Alma Street residences would make this impassable

The main ‘Newbridge’ station was located in what today is a motorway out of the city, and this was surrounded by coal depots, unstable ground and yet more residences, which has since made way to accommodate for the main arterial route around the city.

As the runners continue through the route, approaching South Shields on the A1300, it would have become a much more ‘cross country’ affair, as much of the surrounding areas were simply farmer’s fields. A view towards Simonside Hall would have been clearly visible – according to reports, this was the seat of Robert Wallis who opened the first shipyard in South Shields in about 1720. After his death, his second son John developed Simonside Hall in 1784, which had fine views of Jarrow Slake. South Shields A.F.C took a lease on the estate in 1947, and the main block of the Hall was eventually demolished in about 1973 – today the site is made up of residential housing.

As we approach the finish line in South Shields on the coastal A183 road, the ‘cross county’ theme would have continued back in the 1800’s. There were virtually no roads in place in 1858, and instead the area consisted of marsh land, quarry land, tracks and wells.

The Great North Run route would certainly have been difficult, in fact near impossible, back in the history books and it really helps to demonstrate just how the lay of the land, industry and urban development has really changed in the last century.

Andy Noble

Head of Data