Catalogue description Ordnance Survey: Boundaries Branch: Field Files and County Files: Series II

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Date range

Details of OS 77
Reference: OS 77
Title: Ordnance Survey: Boundaries Branch: Field Files and County Files: Series II
Description:

This third series of boundary documents consists of Ordnance Survey files recording changes affecting the Public Boundary Archive as recorded by the Ordnance Survey Boundaries Branch.

The files contain copies of Acts, Orders, Statutory Instruments and correspondence with Local Authorities and Central Government bodies relating to public boundaries. They also contain historical information relating to a variety of topics which influence boundary legislation. These include: Harbour Acts; Private Bills; London Boroughs and Greater London; 'unusual features' including islands, and water boundaries; proposed works (features that do not yet appear on the ground); New Towns; boundary decisions books (referred to as 'field files'); the River Dee; superseded and current petty sessional divisions; Parliamentary Boundary Commission and constituencies; Proper Officers (as defined in the Local Government Act, 1972); probation, coroners, magistrates courts; House of Commons; Europe; Isle of Man; and boundary policy and staff training.

Most pieces contain maps.
Date: 1391; 1700; 1798; 1844-2006
Arrangement:

Arrangement is by former reference within the Ordnance Survey Boundary Archive. This reference as to box files containing the papers, several of which have been subdivided to form multiple pieces.

Related material:

Deposited Maps for England and Wales are in OS 38

Deposited Maps for Scotland are in OS 39

Boundary Perambulation Cards are in OS 79
Held by: The National Archives, Kew
Legal status: Public Record(s)
Language: English
Creator:

Ordnance Survey of Great Britain, Boundaries Branch, 1849-
Physical description: 244 file(s)
Restrictions on use: 3 days notice to produce
Access conditions: Open
Immediate source of acquisition:

in 2010 Ordnance Survey
Selection and destruction information: 3.2 Interaction of the state with its citizens and its impact on the documentation of the physical environment.
Accruals: No further accruals are expected.
Publication note:

J R S Booth, Public Boundaries and Ordnance Survey 1840-1980 (Southampton, Ordnance Survey, 1980) is a full account of the work of the Boundaries Branch. It contains a useful glossary and a complete key to authorised abbreviations.
Administrative / biographical background:

The Ordnance Survey Boundaries Branch (formerly the Boundary Division) is responsible for ensuring that all changes to public boundaries made or approved by Parliament are incorporated into OS mapping. But the work developed as a co-operation between various OS departments: Boundaries Branch staff update the Record Archive (containing all the latest boundary information contained in the Acts and Orders supplied by Order-making bodies) and inform the Field Surveyors who perambulate and mere the boundary, and obtain the agreement to the legal alignment from the authorities on both sides of the boundary. Boundaries Branch then complete the Record Archive and Carto and Repro Branches produced the basic scale mapping incorporating the latest boundary information.

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