New Popular Edition Maps

The New Popular Edition Maps website offers a unique and valuable resource for exploring historic Ordnance Survey maps of Great Britain. These maps, primarily dating from the 1940s, provide a detailed glimpse into the landscape of the past. Users can interactively view these maps online, with options to navigate and explore different historical decades. A significant feature of this platform is its integration with crowdsourced UK postcode data, which enhances the utility of the historic imagery.

The platform allows users to overlay and display postcodes directly onto the historical maps, bridging the gap between past and present geographic information. This comprehensive postcode dataset is continuously collected and updated through active community contributions, embodying principles of open data and collaborative mapping. The website transparently displays statistics on the total number of postcodes, prefixes, and sectors collected, demonstrating the project's ongoing progress and reach within the United Kingdom.

Beyond its viewing capabilities, the site actively fosters community engagement through a dedicated forum and mailing list, encouraging discussion and collaboration among users. It further supports data accessibility by providing the option to download the collected postcode data, making it a valuable asset for researchers, historians, and anyone with an interest in the historical and contemporary geography of the UK. The project's recognition in publications like The Guardian underscores its importance as a publicly available geospatial resource built on open principles.