Online historical maps
A way to look back at South Tyneside
I have had a number of requests recently from Corner Shop customers for information relating to past addresses and places that are no longer there. These tend to come from people researching family trees, one of the hottest online hobbies these days. The difficulty comes in finding addresses on old historical maps, there are very few online useable versions for this part of the world.
South Tyneside Council has a mapping service on it’s website, but it is only for current day applications, there appaer to be no historical maps on their website. So does this make an inconvenient trip to the central library in Denmark Square, South Shields necessary?
The answer is no!
Durham County Council has a very good online historical map service here
It’s geographical information system (GIS) has nine historical maps going as far back as 1856 and because South Tyneside was once part of County Durham you will find plenty of historical information about the borough here. The GIS is relatively simple to use if you remember these simple steps.
- Start with the current day map
- Search using a current postcode
- Click on the drop down menu and choose one of the nine historical maps
- When using the zoom tools, drag and draw a square.
- Use the centering tool to drag the map around, rather than the arrow tools.
It’s a pity that we don’t appear to have this service available from South Tyneside Council’s website, it really is very informative and useful.
Thanks for providing the link Curly. I suppose rather than provide a separate service on historical mapping, relevant local Councils could provide a link to the Durham County Council website (if they don’t already). I wonder what will happen to the DCC website when the county system is abolished
S Wilson
January 14, 2008 at 8:03 pm