The British Geological Survey has recently released scans of all the early hand-coloured maps of the Geological Survey of Great Britain and Ireland (1835-1905). During this period, the entire mapping output, at the basic scale of 1:63 360, or one inch to the mile, was produced as engraved sheets that were then hand-coloured.

These historical maps are delivered under the Open Government Licence, subject to the following acknowledgement accompanying the reproduced BGS material: “Contains British Geological Survey materials © NERC [year]”.

Murchison’s map of ‘The Silurian Region’

Rodney Murchison’s map of ‘The Silurian Region’ was the first map to show the Silurian formations in South Wales and adjacent counties of England. It accompanied his work The Silurian System published in 1839, although it is frequently missing from the book.

Prints are available from The Geological Society at the price of £25 + VAT & postage for Fellows of the Society or £35 + VAT & postage for non-Fellows. To order a copy, email Paul Johnson: A href=”mailto:paul.johnson@geolsoc.org.uk”>paul.johnson@geolsoc.org.uk</a>

The scanning work was undertaken to a high specification by the Royal Geographical Society.