Purpose of the project

Many of these historical maps are available in libraries and can even be found in second-hand book shops around the U.K.. However, they often remain a rather under-valued and under-studied source of information about Britain and its history. The Old Sussex Mapped page is part of a continuing project, coordinated by Dominic Fontana of the University of Portsmouth Geography Department. This project builds upon the pioneering work of Martin and Jean Norgate who started The Old Hampshire Mapped project with the aim of providing historical mapping of Hampshire to a wider audience. The ultimate goal for the project is to collect a database which will allow for the careful inspection and comparison of as many old maps as is possible and will hopefully include maps from all or most of the counties in the U.K.. In due course it is intended that the maps should also be analysed using various GIS (Geographic Information Systems) techniques which will further our understanding both of the maps and their accuracy, and of the history of the counties. The Gazetteer list (available in this project) is a first step in that direction as it provides a comparative list of the modern town names, and the names of these same towns as they appear on each of the old maps. Through linking the modern names and locations to the old maps it also allows an analysis of the geographical accuracy of the old maps.

Please email Dominic Fontana at The Department of Geography, University of Portsmouth, UK.