ZOS 71908Ordnance Survey of Great Britain: Copy of the Down Survey of Ireland of 1655 to 1658
This series contains a reproduction of the Down Survey of Ireland made by the Ordnance Survey Office in Southampton in 1908. The Down Survey (1655-1658) was recognised as the best and most carefully executed record of the earliest survey of Ireland, and was the legal basis for the identification of Irish lands. This set is bound in six volumes, and was formerly held in the PRO library.
In 1977 it was decided to make part of the PRO library collection of maps available to the public; hence the arrangement whereby the Ordnance Survey copy of Down Survey maps was placed on open access shelves in the Map Room, at Kew. In the early 1990s, the maps in the PRO library were sorted and listed; the present series is a product of that exercise.
The material in this series is non record material originally held in the Library.