Online Map Sources

A guide to online historic maps, modern street maps, GIS maps, satellite photographs and aerial photographs of North East England.

North East Resources
http://communities.northumberland.gov.uk - Northumberland County Council has put online many old plans, photographs and Ordnance Survey maps for over 75 towns and villages in Northumberland.
example - Greenwood's 1828 map of Berwick upon Tweed to Unthank, showing tollbars and a colliery railway.

http://gis.durham.gov.uk/website/interMAP/viewer.htm - Durham County Council GIS maps, with historic maps and detailed modern street maps giving house numbers. Map cover from Berwick-upon-Tweed to Tindale Tarn (Cumbria) and Hinderwell (North Yorkshire). Can be searched using Postcodes.
High-definition aerial photographs of County Durham only (not Gateshead, South Tyneside, Sunderland, Darlington, Stockton or Hartlepool).

www.tomorrows-history.com - local history, photographic collections and online Ordnance Survey (1:10560 or 6inch = 1 mile) maps of North East England. The maps extend from the Scottish Borders down to North Yorkshire and westwards to the Cumbrian border. Map editions include the 1860s, 1890s, 1920s, 1950s, 1980s and 2003. Parts of maps are missing at county boundaries on early editions.
example - Boldon Colliery

www.keystothepast.info - local history, historical maps and archaeology of County Durham and Northumberland, using the same maps as Durham County Council.
example - RAF Thornaby with the 1970s map showing the runways, now built over.

www.dur.ac.uk/picturesinprint/ - Pictures in Print from Durham University.
Includes old maps by Mostyn John Armstrong, Andrew Armstrong, John Thomas William Bell, John Gibson, Christopher Greenwood and the Geological map of Durham by William Smith.
This website requires a plugin to be downloaded to view the maps, which is usually not allowed on public computers in libraries.

National Resources
www.british-history.ac.uk
First Edition Ordnance Survey at 1:2500 scale (not a complete coverage), example - 1861 Newcastle upon Tyne
First Edition Ordnance Survey at 1:10560 scale, example - 1862 Sunderland
The maps are arranged in tiles. If only they were sharper.
Click a place on a tile to zoom in. No navigation from one tile to the next.

www.election-maps.co.uk - Ordnance Survey website of the electoral geography of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Turn layers on and off to show Parish Boundaries, District Boundaries, etc.

www.gazetteer.co.uk - The Gazetteer provides an exhaustive Place Name Index to Great Britain, containing over 50,000 entries.

www.geograph.org.uk - The Geograph British Isles project aims to collect geographically representative photographs and information for every square kilometre of Great Britain and Ireland, and you can be part of it.
Sponsored by Ordnance Survey. Convert Latitude and Longitude to Grid References.
example - NZ1517 - West Tees Railway Bridge.

www.geonames.org - GeoNames is integrating geographical data such as names of places in various languages, elevation, population and others from various sources. All lat/long coordinates are in WGS84 (World Geodetic System 1984). Users may manually edit, correct and add new names using a user friendly wiki interface.
GeoNames uses Google satellite images

www.getamap.co.uk - modern online 1:25,000 Ordnance Survey maps.
example - Morpeth, Northumberland

wwp.greenwichmeantime.com - GMT Greenwich Mean Time and Time in every Time Zone. The clock will automatically re-synchronize every 300 seconds.

www.magic.gov.uk - Multi-Agency Geographic Information for the Countryside.
Includes a readout of Grid References and Map Coordinates.
example - Teesmouth showing National Nature Reserves and Sites of Special Scientific Interest.

http://maps.google.co.uk - Google satellite photographs with hybrid map overlay. There are gaps in the high-definition coverage.
Google Street View now covers many roads in the UK. Drag the little yellow figure and the covered roads turn blue.
example - Newcastle and Gateshead with the Sage completed.

View Larger Map

www.bing.com/maps - Microsoft Bing maps and aerial photographs.
example - Newcastle and Gateshead with the Sage completed.

Microsoft Bing now has "Birds Eye View" oblique aerial photos for some areas including Sunderland, Newcastle, Darlington, Hartlepool, Stockton and Middlesbrough. They are much sharper than the vertical photos. You can view from North, East, South and West.
example - Wear Bridges at Sunderland.

www.multimap.com - modern online maps and high-definition Microsoft Bing aerial photographs, some with "Birds Eye View".
Latitude and Longitude is now used instead of Ordnance Survey co-ordinates.
example - Stobswood Opencast Coalmine, Northumberland
the Ace of Spades dragline excavator can still be seen, until the aerial photo is updated (14 October 2009).

View this aerial image on Multimap.com
Get directions on Multimap.com

www.nls.uk/maps - National Library of Scotland. Access high-resolution zoomable images of over 6,000 maps of Scotland.
example - 1852 Town Plan of Berwick upon Tweed

www.npemap.org.uk - 1940s and 1950s "one-inch" New Popular Edition Maps. A good website.
example - Guisborough Station, closed in the 1960s.

www.old-maps.co.uk - online old Ordnance Survey maps from Landmark.

Latest upgrade has 1:500 scale Town Plans, Post-WWII maps and Russian maps of Britain, 01 October 2010.
Includes map parts missing near county boundaries on Tomorrows History and Keystothepast websites.
example - Carliol Square Station. Select 1862 Town Plans 1:500.
example - Carville Station on the LNER Riverside branch. Select 1896 Town Plans 1:500.
example - Byker Platform, Riverside Junction. Select 1896 Town Plans 1:500.

Rootsweb GenMaps - Old and interesting maps of England, Scotland and Wales
example - County Durham by Joshua Archer, 1835. This map shows railways which were never built.

www.streetmap.co.uk - modern online maps.
example - Durham City

www.terraserver.com - TerraServer has just added thousands of new satellite images from around the world.
example - Fleetwood Pier - now demolished after a fire in 2008.

www.ukaerialphotos.com - RAF post-war aerial photos. These thumbnail views cover a limited area of County Durham.
example - Stanley, 1944 - showing Stanley Engine on the bend in the Stanhope and Tyne Railway.
The incline ran eastwards down to Grange Villa. The Engine site is now covered by Humber Road.
On the left of the photo is the Northern Bus Garage, with the A693 running through East Stanley.

www.uk.map24.com - Route planner with maps and satellite photographs.

www.visionofbritain.org.uk - A vision of Britain between 1801 and 2001. Including maps, statistical trends and historical descriptions.
example - Washington, County Durham

http://world-gazetteer.com - The World Gazetteer provides a comprehensive set of population data, related statistics, flags, etc.

www.alangodfreymaps.co.uk - The Godfrey Edition online catalogue - inexpensive (£2.25) reprints of old 1:2500 Ordnance Survey maps.

http://wikimapia.org - add your favourite places to the Wiki directory of Google satellite photos. There are gaps in the high-definition coverage.

example - Stadium of Light, Sunderland

www.mapygon.com - uses the same Google satellite images as Wikimapia. Add your own place polygons.
example - Berwick upon Tweed

www.maplandia.com - another website using Google satellite images. Add your own placemarks.
example - Shildon

Other County Maps
Calderdale (Halifax area) - Cheshire - Cumbria - Derbyshire - East Riding - Lancashire - Norfolk - Staffordshire -

Ship and Aircraft tracking
www.shipais.com - live ship movements around the British coast, using AIS (Automatic Identification System) and Google satellite photos.

www.marinetraffic.com - similar to ShipAIS, but worldwide. Click "Go to Area" then select North Sea. Click a ship to see its info and previous track.

www.flightradar24.com - live airliner traffic movements around Europe. Click an aircraft to see its info and previous track.

www.radarvirtuel.com - similar to FlightRadar24.

Australia
www.street-directory.com.au - Australian street maps online including Melway and Sydway guides.
example - Moonee Ponds, ancestral home of Dame Edna Everage.

www.whereis.com - UBD street maps of Australia.

France
www.geoportail.fr - Road maps and aerial photographs of French territories across the world.

www.maphistory.info/imagebi.html - Gateway website for maps on the web. Maintained by Tony Campbell, Map Librarian (retired), British Library, London

Internet Explorer 7 sometimes does not show map coordinates in the Status Bar.
Click "Tools", "Internet Options", "Security", "Custom Level".
Scroll down to "Allow Status Bar Updates Via Script" and click the "Enable" button.

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this page updated 26 January 2011