Early maps
Our publication A Descriptive List of the Printed Maps of Northamptonshire 1576-1900 (PDF) provides detailed descriptions of almost 700 maps that were created during the period with illustrations of a small number of them. Only a few of the many maps that are not reproduced in the book itself are available online. However, the ones listed below can be freely consulted and downloaded.
- 1587 - Survey of the Manor of Kettering
- 1611 - John Speed's map of the county, which you can reach at University of Cambridge Digital Library or Wikimedia Commons.
- 1630 - Map showing dwellings at Naseby with the names of their occupiers (page 11)
- 1644 - This section of Wenceslaus Hollar's map of England & Wales includes Northamptonshire.
- c.1648 - Joan Blaeu's map of Northamptonshire
- 1712 - John Morton's map of Northamptonshire is digitised as two images.
- c.1720 - Plan of Kettering (reduced from Eayre's plan)
- 1728 - Map of the Manor of Kettering
- 1785 - Plan of the Market Place, Kettering (page 160)
- 1827 - Map of the county of Northampton from a survey by A. Bryant in 1824, 1825 & 1826.
- 1837 - Northamptonshire map from 'The English counties delineated'.
Maps of the town of Northampton are mentioned in the Northampton section of this site.
Ordnance Survey maps
Between 1811 and 1817, William Hyett and three other surveyors drew a series of exquisite maps that cover most of the county. 'Homes and fields over 200 years ago' tells their story and provides links to the digitised versions.
All parts of Northamptonshire are included in The National Library of Scotland's vast digital collection of Ordnance Survey maps. These were originally published between the 1840s and 1970s but the years for which an image are available varies from sheet to sheet.
The most detailed maps are town plans whose original scale was 1:500 - they were generally surveyed in 1883-1885 and published soon afterwards. Local towns in that part of the collection are Banbury, Bedford, Buckingham, Kettering, March, Northampton, Peterborough, Rugby, Stamford & Wellingborough.
Publication and republication
There is much scope for clipping and saving extracts from maps, whether digitised, printed or manuscript. However, before incorporating a map or part of a map in a fresh publication it is important to observe the advice in 'Guidance on copyright and re-use of images'.