Warning - potentially hours of map related distraction. . .

[adjustablewench]

http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=13 ... rs=171&b=1

Slide the little blue bar to adjust transparency of the different layers.

Don't blame me for the hours of endless hours of fun looking for old tracks

[Lawmanmx]

Superb great to see what old wigan looked like

[Fat tyre kicker]

Same here, I do have some old paper maps of various areas but this is ace

[benp1]

Good website that

It looks vaguely familiar though... like there's either something similar that was previously posted up, or the same link has been posted up

Either way, it was bookmarked before so now it is, thanks!

[whitestone]

Yeah, a good site for us cartophiles* I used it to look at the family farm over the years. My mum who (along with her sisters) was born at the farmhouse used to talk about the foundations of a house being visible in the field next to the garden but even in dry spells I never saw anything. Went to the oldest map of the area and sure enough marked in the location she'd said was a building. Interestingly there was also another building in the same field that no-one had ever mentioned, possibly a hen-house as there really isn't anything there now so it must have been a wooden building of sorts.

*made up word, I think!

[DoctorRad]

Blimey... massive detail round our way on the 'OS 25 Inch' series for the South West... thanks!

[Pirahna]

It's interesting looking at the 1930's London estate I was brought up on. The old lanes were kept as alley ways, the field boundaries edge some of the green spaces, presumably where the farmer wouldn't sell.

[Mike]

[whitestone]

It's interesting looking at the 1930's London estate I was brought up on. The old lanes were kept as alley ways, the field boundaries edge some of the green spaces, presumably where the farmer wouldn't sell.

I don't know if it's the same "down south" but round here farms are sold "in lots and as a whole". What happens is that the farm is split up into lots that the farmer and auctioneer think will appeal to neighbouring farmers. Then at the auction these are sold. The auctioneer then adds up the prices of the individual lots and then asks for bids on the whole farm starting at that value. Obviously his job is to get the best price for the seller. Sometimes people living around the farm will club together to try and buy a bit of the land to prevent development, if the farmer and auctioneer are canny then some of the plots will reflect this. These tend to get sold prior to the auction so don't become part of the overall sale. They go for a better price too

[Pirahna]

I don't know if it's the same "down south" but round here farms are sold "in lots and as a whole".

I live in "rural" Herts now, I managed to escape London a few years ago. You occasionally see small plots for sale but the farms are huge. I helped one local landowner who'd dropped the wheel of a trailer off the side of a bridge. He was moaning that the council wouldn't let him put a bigger bridge in, he had two thousand acres one side and two thousand the other. I don't think a four thousand acre farm is considered big either. Most of the hedgerows were ripped out years ago, the main crops are cereals and bigger fields allow bigger machines. When the combines come down the lane at harvest time they two the cutting arrays and the wheels clip both verges. The driver is at roof height of my house.