Cornwall Maps

There are many sorts of maps, both modern and historical, that are used by genealogists. Maps will help you to locate properties found in census pages, wills, and other documents. They are also vital in noting nearby parishes and properties. The GENUKI pages for all the parishes have on-line links to many maps, including the historical maps. Google Earth also provides the well-known images that can be used with map overlay, and Google Maps can be used to find specific addresses and places.

The most useful printed maps are the OS maps and a good street atlas. The latter, such as Philip's Street Atlas of Cornwall, is more useful for finding streets in the larger towns. The best resource for locating the more rural properties, hamlets, and farms, is the OS (Ordinance Survey) map series. The most detailed is the Explorer Series, which is on a scale of 1:25000 and provides extremely useful detail of property boundaries, roads, paths, trails, water and woods features, as well as topographical information. Cornwall is covered by 11 of these maps, numbers 102-109, 111-112, and a small part on 126. Some historical OS maps can be found from sources that deal in used books and maps. More information on the OS maps is found on their website http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/

Useful reproductions of historic OS maps on a 1:50,000 scale are available from Cassini Publishing Ltd at Www.cassinimaps.com  The "Old Series" are from 1813, and the "New Series" are from 1900. The scale matches that of the modern OS Landranger maps, and has the same detail as that mentioned above as they were at the date of the original maps. The scale is such that several maps are necessary to cover all of Cornwall.


 * A map of the Cornwall parishes can be found online at http://www.cornwalleng.com/parishmap3.gif It is important to understand that a modern map, such as an OS map, will show the current civil parish, and that the boundaries are often different from those of an ecclesiastical parish.
 * England Jurisdictions, 1851is an interactive map of all the parishes in each of the counties of England. Learn about its features and functions. This map also includes OS maps for the country.
 * 1885 County Map: Eastern Section and Western Section: Courtesy of London Ancestor