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CHATHAM AND MAIDSTONE IN KENT

Map 172

MILITARY SITES SUCH AS RAF AIRFIELDS MARKED FROM THE 2ND WORLD WAR, MAY BE SHOWN ON THIS SERIES HAVING BEEN REDACTED ON PREVIOUS MAPS



THIS IS A VINTAGE ORDNANCE SURVEY SHEET MAP : Seventh Series

of

North Kent around the Lower Medway, with the port cities of Chatham, Rochester and Gillingham, the County Town of Maidstone and the entire Isle of Sheppey. It includes the ancient port and boat building town of Faversham and runs south to Lenham, Cranbrook and Bonnington


featuring:

ISLE OF GRAIN, QUEENBOROUGH, SHEERNESS, HIGHAM AND THE HOO

 PENINSULA, CHATHAM, STROOD, ROCHESTER, GILLINGHAM AND THE ROYAL

 NAVY YARDS AND BARRACKS, ECCLES, AYLESFORD, MAIDSTONE, BORDEN,

 MINSTER ON SHEPPEY AND ALL SHEPPEY, HARTY AND ELMLEY, SITTINGBOURNE,

 FAVERSHAM, ASHFORD, WYE, CHARING, HEADCORN, HIGH HALDEN, BIDDENDEN,

 GOUDHURST, MARDEN, STAPLEHURST, WEST AND EAST FARLEIGH, LENHAM AND

 HARRIETSAM.

A MAP PUBLISHED IN 1957 WITH

NEW ROAD CORRECTIONS 1964

from survey work undertaken 1954-1955 and revised 1963


OF PARTICULAR INTEREST ON THIS MAP:

Notice that this is from a revision of 1954-55, it is therefore the first true post war survey of the region- The series 6 surveys of circa 1947 have referred back to 1930's revisions.

Yet, on the same map one sees the first sections of Motorway being opened from the west as far as Faversham.

So this covers an important transition in modern English history: As it emerged from the War, as Its railways became nationalised and closed down by the government where not cost effective- and yet the dawn of the modern motor age.


This is the first survey of North Central Kent to show the full British Railways network and also the last to do so for the closures were just about to start. By the next survey many of these lines were already gone.

This is the first survey not to mark the Company names for the railways- not so important here in Kent for the whole area had been Southern Railway.

Here is Sheppey in its entirely- an island mapped by Ptolemy and the geology of the map shows that Elmley and Harty are still separate islands- and the Isle of Grain almost is.

Here also is that fascinating geography of the Medway and its plethora of island which look so unnatural and in need of explanation- which is probably provided by the local place names: I count about 148 islands and islets before loosing count, between Queenborough and Gillingham.

Here is a vast space north west of Chatham which contains no features at all: this is clearly redacted Royal Navy Dockyard and it is considered in 1950's-60's still to sensitive to map.

Here is Nagden (Faversham) and the site of that strange tumulus wantonly destroyed for soil in c 1954 and possibly (say some) the burial mount of Beowulf.

Here is the main Roman Road- Londinium to Durovernum and many Roman sites.

Here is the vast orchard plantings of Kent in the 1950's- possibly much changes now.

Historically, here is the first county of England to receive Gregorian Christianity (St Augustine) and according to Bede a region of Jutish people .

Here is the centre and engineering works of the old Southern Railway at Ashford, formerly this would have been the SE&CR.


RAF AND THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN


Some of the RAF fields of Kent are old and were used by the RFC or RNAS in the Great War: one such is Detling. This map also contained the site of a Sea plane station the the Medway just upstream from Rochester.

In theory the RAF fighter stations of the Battle of Britain should be on this map, having been redacted from Series 6 and generally missing from later surveys when they are returned to farm land and other use. This should be the best survey for the RAF in the 2nd World War. However this map tends not to mark them openly.

Here are the Kent RAF bases; those definitely off this map area are in red: and those that should be find-able on the map in black. 

From Higham to Frinsdbury the North Kent Line runs underground- marked as about 3 1/2-4 km on this map

A small branch line runs north to the bank of the Medway at Gillingham Reach.

None of the Chatham Dockyard railway is shown- still redacted.

Queenborough Pier Station is marked as closed on Sheppey as is Sheerness Pier but not the town station- There is no east running line on Sheppey down to Leysdown.

From Kingsferry, there is an industrial railway and an aerial Ropeway serving a large mill north of Sittingbourne.


COASTAL ISLAND.

There are several pottery sites marked from the Roman age in the vicinity of Sittingbourne, the North Kent Marshes and the Medway. There are also extensive Brick yards and works. It seems reasonable, therefore, to assume that the odd tangle of linear, indented and cut odd headlands, islands and banks in the Sharfleet, Upcurch and Stoke on Grain region are the result of brick kilns and potteries over about 1000 years. Notice ow some coastal features and island have names which suggest inland features- such as Chetney hill. Notice Roman Pottery sites (plural) marked actually on Ham Ouze in the Medway- Notice “Works” at Mothy Hill (another coastal feature near Rainham). It seems likely that this Medway and Thames mud has baked bricks and made pots over a considerable period of time and the coast has been eaten away by the industry. Possibly half of London with its characteristic Black and Yellow sulphur bricks comes from a small area of this map.


BEOWULF

The theory that Beowulf was a folk tale about this map area and not Denmark is not mine, it was published in book form by the Faversham History Society who compared it to existing local myths which seem to be a mangled version of the same tale:

In 1953 this coast flooded as did Holland and Canvey with devastating effects. In the sea wall work that followed, Nagden Hill was demolished for sea wall material and Saxon pieces were found within. Its position echoes the description in the epic poem. Some say the geology fits the Beowulf Saga very well with the Leates of the saga being the Jutes of Kent and Beowulf sailing to slay Grendle , his mother an a dragon from here or to here. The Myth is ambiguously Danish English- but that is what the Jutes of Kent were. Heorot- the Mead Hall, one might speculate, could have been on this map- Note the island over the creek is called Harty- which is cognate to Heorot- Heorot means Hart- a male deer or stag. The King whose hall it was was Hrothgar. Nagden Mound might, therefore have been the most important single place in the history of Early English Literature- It would be easy to rebuild it. On this map Nagden Marshes and Nagden are named.


Dickens.

On page 1 of Great Expectations a grave complex is descrived with many small choldrens graves in a row. This can be seen still in Cooling Churchyard at 757-760 on this map. Magwich must hav been loose on the Marshes just north of there and Pip lived there with the family of a blacksmith

Rochester is Cloisterham in Edwin Drood, and the town has a Dickens festival annually.

.

GEOLOGY:

The escarpment of the North Downs is followed by the Maidstone to Lenham railway. It is steep on the south side. South of it is Holmesdale- or its eastern extension and due south of the dale is a Greensand ridge- not a pronounced as in Surrey and West Kent where rag and hassock stone was quarried.

South of the Greensand is the North weald, disected on this map by the River beult- the major eastern tributary of the Medway. Soyh of that the land rises again in the south of the map towards the Wealden Ridge.

The Great Stour runs North east across the eastern half of the map heading for Canterbury, Fordwich its ancient port and then east to Sandwich and the Sea near Ramsgate, where formerly it met the Watsum Channel a navigate waterway between Thanet and Kent.

In the east of this map Challock and Lyminge Forests are westerly remnants of Blean Forest which covered much of North Kent.


Interestingly north of Ayleford several ancient stones are marked- The Countless Stones, Kits Coty House ( which is a remnant long barrow) and Cossington is still marked- there was a stone circle here but that is gone. On this survey it is still marked as an unspecified site. The White Horse Stone is also marked- said by some to be the tomb of Horsa in a battle with the Britons, whose leader Caradoc was buried at Kits Coty (hence the name) this is all myth: the stones predate the battles between Saxons and Britons by about 3000 years. There was a second stone just north of the White Horse Stone which is now gone, but that is not on this map. It is said there was a stone avenue between Kits Coty and the Medway but no vestige of that is to be seen here.


HERE ARE THE CARTOGRAPHIC DETAILS OF THIS OS POST WAR SERIES 7

The Ordnance Seventh Edition was the first true survey after the 2nd World War; the Series 6 maps having been from surveys of the 1930’s. Series 7 maps were usually published from Chessington following bomb damage to the Southampton OS Office.

They doe not cite revision from earlier survey work.

The standard dates are c1952 with revisions to c.1966 The earlier publications of the 1950’s tend to have shorter covers and the sheet folds to 30 rather than 24.

Series 7 maps tended to be about 27 inches by 32 inches and show an area of 40 km of longitude by 45 km of latitude.

The maps were lithographed. It is said that in the preparation of the 6th series, maps south of Birmingham used masters which were already lithographic, but north of that latitude the masters were still engraved. By Series 7, the age of the Engraved or electrotyped map was gone.

There were 190 maps in the Series, numbered north to south. No 1 was North Shetland; No 190 was Truro. The last maps published were of Shetland, and one often reads on the back cover a 1961 “expected completion date” for the entire series.

The National Grid of 1 and 10 kilometre squares did not alter from Series 6 - Point “00” on the grid was located off South West of Cornwall. This was referred to as a False Datum- because the point was arbitrary- unlike the Sea Level Datum. It was fixed there to make all map references “positive”: that is, east or north of the Datum . The exception was Rockall.

The scale was expressed as 1 inch or 1:63,360. Scales in yards and Kilometres are also given. For many decades the Ordnance Survey had been metric but the maps were given an Imperial measurements gloss for the public.

The datum for measurements of altitude is not stated except as “Mean Sea Level” but since 1915 this was LWMMT at the Tidal Observatory, Newlyn, Cornwall. Series 7 is fully re-levelled, so no reference is made to the older Liverpool Datum.

This re-levelling to the new datum at Newlyn LWMMT from the old datum at Liverpool LWMMT was slow; often large scale maps cite dates as late as 1950-52 for re-levelling. The new readings were undertaken as civil engineering projects were carried out. Thus a 1932 re-levelling date on a 6” map probably indicated the year that mains water entered a rural district.

Series 7 did sometimes revise using aerial photography, which had been introduced in the 2nd World War. Like the National Grid, it was a spin-off of military usage.

AIRFIELDS

In this series, RAF and RNAS airfield from the 2nd World War are shown, usually if they are redundant. Operating military airfields may still be redacted, as are naval bases. Old RAF fields are usually shown blank and crossed by footpaths with the word “Airfield” on them. Rarely are they surveyed and when they are, they usually show a runway plan in the form of a number “4”. Some research is needed to establish the original airfield name, which might not have been that of the nearest village. A few are named thus: “Wattisham Airfield”. All military airfields were RAF or RNAS- even if operated by the USAF, RAAF, RCAF or RNZAF.



COVERS

Covers were 8 ¼ inches by 5 inches. Some early ones are shorter and fold the bottom margin in-to accommodate the same sized sheet. The shorter format is roughly 7 1/2 inches by 5 inches.

On Series 7 covers, Scottish Maps had a different coat of arms: a Lion Rampant.

Original Series 7 covers are vermilion and off-white with red and black lining and lettering, the Royal Arms do not say either GR or ER. The edition number was at top right and on the front cover was a cartouche map of the district shown. The cover aesthetic was not unlike that of Penguin Book. They only have gloss covers in the latest Series 7 maps.

All editions cited revision and publication dates on the cover. Note the Edition date is not the printing date which was generally later.

The covers of Series 7 maps were all hinged; Scottish maps had floating covers on Series 6 maps.

TOWNS

Urban areas were grey with white roads. This allowed major buildings to be rendered black, named, and clearly seen: thus solving a major fault on the Series 6 maps which has rendered urban areas black.

One inch maps do not show bomb or war damage- though a considerable amount remained as this survey was being carried out. One has to fine 25” or 50” surveys- used by the Land Registry and Planners for the word “ruin” to be seen on buildings, plots and parcels of land into the 1960’s. Roman names were written under the modern name thus “CAMVLODVNVM”- using that Latin form.

WOODLAND

The greatest ambiguity on any Series 7 map concerns land use.

Woods were shown as deciduous, coniferous or mixed (that was a change), Parks were grey stippled, as were tidal reaches, perhaps these might be seen as the last aesthetic remnants of the engraved or electrotyped map. Arable land was not differentiated from pasture and orchards were not differentiated between Apple, Pear, Cherry, Plum, and Damson. Hop gardens were not shown as orchards, they were marked as open arable land. Deciduous or Coniferous woods did not indicate age. One cannot prove the existence old, primeval or ancient woodland from the symbols an OS map. On English maps one can assume that a coniferous wood is a plantation as the tree is not endemic.

RAILWAYS

This was the first and last survey to show the full British Railways' network. So the company names had gone and “British Railways” was unnecessary- being universal. The maps were contemporary to many line closures and these were marked with white dots at the stations. On the early 20th century OS maps a white dot just indicated a station. Occasionally the map post dated an early closure and the line was shown only by “track of old rly”. A line with white marked stations was not necessarily a closed line- for it may have remained open for freight use.

A few branch lines were open on Series 6 but gone by Series 7. It was common on series 7 maps to see a line being “rolled back”: closed with white station over part of its course and “track of old rly” over another part. This provided interesting historical information- showing the process of closure and track lifting.

British Railways was formed in 1948 under the Attlee government and dismantled in 1997 under the Major government. It was an amalgamation of the Big Four 1921-1923 companies: L&NER, LM&SR, SR and GWR, as well as some smaller networks such as the Midland and Great Northern Railway, Norfolk and Suffolk Joint Committee Railway, and Cheshire Lines. From 1995 it was known as BR.

The Series 6 maps were contemporary to the phasing out of steam traction- the last steam hauled train was in 1968. Lines were electrified or changed to diesel traction. The Southern Region used the 3rd rail system whereas the rest of the country used overhead lines and pantographs. On the map double lines are shown with a continuous black line and single lines with a black and white dashed line. Principal stations were shown rectangular, other stations were marked as circular- both were red. Level crossings were no longer marked with a red diagonal cross which was a remnant, on Series 6 maps, of their subsidiary used by War time flyers of the ATA

Until 1962 the network was technically “The Railways of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Commission”.

ROADS

Series 7 maps named A & B roads with their MOT numbers. A roads were red, B roads were bisque brown and none numbered minor roads were yellow. Unmetalled roads were white and footpaths, tracks and bridle paths were shown with a dashed black line. Maps always state that an OS marked route does not prove a legal right of access or usage.

Motorways were rare but can appear on late revisions. A dashed red line indicates an unfinished or proposed new road.


GEOGRAPHY, GEOLOGY

Generally Series 7 maps looked less busy than Series 6 because there was less black and finer lines. The paper was more bleached that previously but without the stark whiteness of later maps. The outer border cited degrees and minutes of longitude and latitude.

Contours were surveyed in 100’s of feet: 50 ft contours were interpolated. Contours are russet brown but shown with thinner lines which could clutter Series 6 maps.

HYDROGRAPHY

Submarine contours are still shown to 5 and 10 fathoms.

Series Seven maps did not show Admiralty soundings, as much earlier terrestrial Ordnance 1” maps had done. But the shallows and tidal flats were shown in great detail in a grey stipple- and the major tidal flats were named. The marine contours of a Series 7 map were drawn at 5 and 10 fathoms. Inland waters were measured in feet not fathoms (if measured at all). Bathymetric surveys can be quite old- 1870’s-1900’s and were seldom repeated. Some inland waters were cited with a height above sea level at the water surface. Fathoms were measured from the almost the same datum as land altitude: LWMMT Newlyn. A sea chart defines: “Chart Datum is the level below which the tide never falls”. which is not quite the same as the terrestrial LWMMT (Low Water Mark of medium tides). A fathom is 6ft (1.8288 metres), anciently defined as the distance between a man's outstretched arms; so the two contours on a Series 7 OS map equated to 30ft and 60ft sea depth. A “shallow” is water which can be measured by plumb line: called a “sounding”. Water deeper than 100 fathoms is “beyond sounding”. Interestingly, burial at sea had to be at least 6 fathoms or “Deep Six”. Technically a Royal Navy fathom is 1/1000 of an Imperial Nautical or Sea Mile, which is 6.08 ft.

The hydrographic significance of the 5 fathom line on a Series 7 map was that water less than 5 fathoms was measured in feet. Of course sea depth needs a datum, but fresh water depth cannot have one- for its surface never equates to a standard datum and can be at any altitude.

The altitude of a lake bed must be calculated arithmetically; it equals terrestrial altitude at the lake’s surface minus the greatest bathymetric measurement.

Bathymetric data, common in Scotland, is rare in England and Wales with the Lake District being a notable exception. Any lake adapted for reservoir use- such as Hawes Water or Thirlmere, did not have bathymetric data because its water level was variable. Reservoirs, such as Abberton, often showed intricate parish boundaries, following then flooded fields and lanes.

MAP STATS:

OLDMAPSHOP IS MY SOURCE ON-LINE FOR MAP & CARTOGRAPHIC HISTORY


Sheet 172 Chatham and Maidstone


TITLE: Chatham and Maidstone Series 7 No 172 DATES: 1954-55- 1957-63-64 PUBLISHER: Ordnance Survey of England and Wales EDITION: 1 inch Series 7 PRINTER: Ordnance Survey, Chessington PRINTING CODE: A, triple underlined with 2 asterisks PRINTING PROCESS: Helio Zincograph SCALE: 1 inch to the mile GRID: 1 and 10 km grid from the 00 datum of South East Cornwall OVERALL DIMENSIONS: Roughly 27 inches by 32 inches. COVER DIMENSIONS: 8 ½ inches by 5 inches COVER DETAIL: hinged : card, buff, red with black lettering cartouche map and Royal Arms – back cover shows index map of the series COVER CONDITION: good, edge nicks MAP PAPER OR LINEN BACKED: paper FOLD WEAR: minimal PIN HOLES AT FOLD JUNCTIONS: minor VERSO: Plain paper FOXING: no REINFORCING:no SURFACE MARKING: minimal FOLDED INTO: 24 sections ANNOTATION: none seen INTEREST: considerable: British Railways, Post War Kent- 1st Motorway_ extensive orchards, redacted airfields and naval dock yards . Some railways already gone but generally last survey of the full network. Clay and pottery- coastal extractions: tectonics and changing coastal landscape. GENERAL CONDITION: Good THE NORTH WEST CORNER OF THIS MAP IS AT: Coastguard Cottages, Cliffe Marshes THE NORTH EAST CORNER OF THIS MAP IS AT: Open sea off Seasalter- Thames River THE SOUTH EAST CORNER OF THIS MAP IS AT: Court at Street near Aldington: must be on a Roman Road THE SOUTH WEST OF THIS MAP IS AT: Kilndown south of Goudhurst must be near or in Bedgebury Forest THE CENTRE OF THIS MAP IS AT: Wrinsted Court near Doddington THE SOUTH WEST CORNER OF THIS MAP IS: 135 km NORTH OF NG 00 DATUM AND: 570 km EAST OF NG 00 DATUM (which is off South West Cornwall)