Maps

This page presents the maps of Seaton Ross that are currently available and dated between 1771 and 1961. Interpretation of some of these maps may be found on other pages. CLICK on any map to enlarge.

1771 – Jeffrey’s Map of Yorkshire

The earliest map is part of Jeffrey’s Map of Yorkshire – published in 1771. Seaton Ross is on plate xiv and this is available to purchase from the North Yorkshire County Council website.

This significant map shows Seaton Ross with a different road layout – as it was prior to enclosure of Seaton Common and the construction of the Bubwith to Holme-on-Spalding-Moor turnpike road. See A village tuned around for a discussion of this.

1811 – William Watson map of the village

In time sequence, the next map is the William Watson’s 1811 map of the village – so accurate that it almost exactly superimposes on modern O/S maps. Here it is with a transcript.

1814 – John Foster plan of Common and Carr

The 1814 plan of Seaton Common and Carr is essentially the enclosure map of 1814. At this point, there was only Seaton Common and the village green left in the parish to be enclosed.

c1817-1842 – William Watson’s parish maps

William Watson drew a series of maps of the parish showing all the field boundaries and indicating land ownership. Although the keys to the maps have unfortunately not survived, the earliest and the partial map actually have the farmers’ names marked. Unfortunately two are also undated and the date of a third (c1817) has had to be inferred from other sources. The series starts with the common land still only partly enclosed.

1828 – William Watson’s Book of Roads

This is a linear map of the parish. The full Book of Roads can be downloaded as a 16.8 Mb pdf file. Click on the image below to view it and then the three dots for a menu to download. The image to the left is the KEY to the book.

Book of Roads KEY (left) and pdf download (4.7 Mb). Book of Roads compiled form various sources.

1828 & 1831 – Greenwood & Maxwell county maps

Although relatively low resolution, these county maps are informative about the road network around Seaton Ross. The left hand (Greenwood) map is available free from the National Library of Scotland.

1851 – Plan of titheable lands in Seaton Ross

This map of 1851 shows the titheable lands of Seaton Ross – i.e. who owned which land. The vast majority was owned by William Constable Maxwell Esq. of Everingham Hall.

1851-1966 – Ordnance Survey maps

All the published Ordnance Survey maps between 1851 and 1966 are available copyright free from the National Library of Scotland.

SurveyPublished25 inch6 inch1 inch
1851-5218556 inch
1889189025 inch
rev 189318981 inch
rev 190519071 inch
rev 190819106 inch
rev 1908191025 inch
1920-2119241 inch
194019431 inch
rev 195019536 inch
rev 195019551 inch
rev 1950-6619671 inch

Here are the 1851-2 and 1908 6 inch maps of the parish. They can be viewed in higher resolution through the National Library of Scotland site.

WWII map of the Seaton Ross/Melbourne Airfield

The WWII airfield was situated in the most northern part of the parish and Halifax bombers were based there. The edge of the village can be seen to the bottom left of the map.

Food production was very important during the war and maps of the airfield were produced to show the areas that farmers could use to grow crops in between the runways. This map shows the land allocated to the Henleys (in green).

Map reproduced courtesy of Jane Henley.

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