19 replies to this topic

[flybyknight]

Has anybody got any old maps with a way of superimposing new maps on top of them? (Did I say that right)?

[Stiffknee]

Hi,

Sorry I don't know how to do that on a pc. I can only think of printing them to scale onto acitate and lining them up. Maybe some clever clogs has a fancy programme that can do that sort of thing. However, I came across this site and it's too interesting to not put it up here as you have asked. Never said 'how old' and these are 'old'.


http://www.lancashir...ldmap/index.asp

[Griffin]

There's also this place:
http://www.old-maps.co.uk
Don't know about superimposing, but they have old maps of various sizes and dates, and you can also get a new map of the same place. It used to be a cracking site, but they modified it a few months ago, and it doesn't seem to be as easy to navigate around. However, it's been quite useful for some purposes on here. For St. Helens, there are some old maps on the St. Helens Photographs forum.

[Stiffknee]

Thanks Griffin, I was looking for that very site. The Lancashire one up there is pretty easy to navigate around, as I've just discovered. Very similiar. I still haven't figured out how to print them smaller though. Lots of glue sticks and sticky tape required!

[flybyknight]

Cheers, I was wondering if anyone was clever enough to suss a way to do it for this site...I mean I'm sure someone must be able to assemble a GUI to do this with maps or even photos, so us end users (hate that phrase) can see what certain areas of the town looked like at random dates of the timeline.

[Griffin]

I don't know if you're based locally, but they have some fantastic old maps in the local history library in the Gamble Institute. These are huge maps, showing parts of the town from the 19th to the 20th century, and are unbelievably detailed.

[Stiffknee]

It's a very good idea. I've struggled to make sense of some of the old maps. Wouldn't it be great if you could see a 'then and now' map of the town? There are dozens of old places that I would like to see mapped out in relation to the town as it is now. I came across a census in Sutton that had vessels on it with the Captains and shipmates listed and it amazed me. I just couldn't grasp it. Ships floating through Sutton. (well barges maybe) The point being though, that I looked for the canal and tried to track it's course on the old maps and couldn't relate it to anything. I'd be really curious to see how it used to run through there, as much of it must be filled in now or built over. There are all sorts of places and things that must have changed. Looking through the new photos on this site I wondered if they were supposed to be then and now or just modern pictures? That's another thing I wouldn't mind having a look at. Old side by side with new. For example, isn't there one of Factory Row? I've not got a clue where it is but it looks so industrial and quaint in the picture. Like to see a modern photo with the old one, assuming it's still standing?

[Griffin]

Factory Row is certainly still with us, and I don't think it's changed very much externally, although I imagine the houses will have been much modernised inside. It's had a rather unfortunate new development built opposite, though, as I discovered this year when I passed it for the first time since I used to live in the area some years ago. It's off Prescot Road, right down Stafford Road, which is the one just before the filling station on the left as you approach the Toll Bar.

[Le200]

I'll resurrect this thread because it sounds like an excellent idea and I missed it first time around

Can't we use an image editor like Gimp or Photoshop to resize and overlay one map on top of the other at a lower opacity?

[Dave]

I tried it a while ago. Admittedly It wasn't a serious wholehearted go, and I gave up because it was hard in trying to scale the images to the same size and orientation. It's a great idea - so long as somebody else does it.

[Le200]

The 1906 maps is at a scale of 1:4340 (15" to the mile) so if we could get a newish map that is the same scale I think t could be done.

[Dave]

Maybe. I'd like something even more ambitious, like a virtual 3D world where the old town could be constructed in one of those mapping utilities that you sometimes get with games. I hope that the council have kept the records of the dimensions of all the old houses and buildings...

[Le200]

Steady on, Dave, do you really expect this council to have owt like that

[Dave]

I'd like to think that there are dusty basements piled high with boxes filled with every planning decision made since 1868. If there aren't then charges should be drawn up to prosecute the offenders for conspiring to destroy our heritage.

[llanyb]

It's probably too huge a project but the Archive at the Gambol has all the old planning department archive. Probably worth asking what form it's all in and what might be done with it.