Information about Hampshire
LONGITUDE OF WINCHESTER
HAMPSHIRE COUNTY MAP SIZE
PAPER MAP SIZES
MAP SCALES
MARKET TOWN POSITIONS
HAMPSHIRE DISTANCES
LONGITUDE OF WINCHESTER
The longitude of Winchester has been measured from maps of Hampshire in the Map Collection. The longitude is expressed in degrees and decimal minutes; the readings are in map date order.
Bertius 1616 19° 24' E
Bill 1626 23° 9.5' E
Morden 1695 1° 17.5' W
Morden 1708 1° 10.3' W
Moll 1724 1° 17.4' W
Cowley 1743 1° 11.3' W
Simpson 1746 1° 17.2' W
Hutchinson 1748 1° 20.0' W
Kitchin and Jefferys 1749 1° 10.9' W
Kitchin 1750 1° 14.4' W
Kitchin 1751 large 1° 13.5' W
Kitchin 1751 small 1° 15.2' W
Bowen 1755 1° 11.1' W
Kitchin 1763 1° 13.4' W
Hogg 1784 1° 13.6' W
Harrison 1788 1° 14.3' W
Lodge 1788 1° 13.6' W
Cary 1789 1° 8.6' W
Tunnicliff 1791 1° 18.4' W
Tunnicliff 1791 1° 24' W
Baker 1792 1° 12.5' W
Faden 1796 1° 18.3' W
Cooke 1802 1° 17.0' W
Wilkes 1806 1° 12.6' W
Cary 1809b 1° 16.7' W
Cole and Roper 1810 1° 17.8' W
Wallis 1810 1° 18.2' W
Wallis 1810 1° 18.5' W
Wallis 1812 1° 17.5' W
Rowe 1816 1° 17.1' W
Robins 1819 1° 12.6' W
Pigot 1828 1° 18.4' W
Greenwood 1829 1° 18.5' W
Darton 1830s 1° 17.1' W
Murray 1830 1° 17.7' W
Lewis 1831 1° 17.4' W
Hall 1833 1° 21.1' W
Hall 1833 1° 21.5' W
Pinnock 1833 1° 18.9' W
Bell 1834 1° 8.8' W
Dugdale 1835 1° 18.7' W
Pigot 1835 1° 16.6' W
Walker 1837 1° 18.4' W
Hughes 1840 1° 18.3' W
Fisher 1845 1° 18.6' W
Ramble 1845 1° 14.9' W
Wyld 1846 1° 18.2' W
Cruchley 1856 1° 16.8' W
Hughes 1860s-70s 1° 18.4' W
Dispatch 1863 1° 18.8' W
Letts 1884 1° 18.2' W
Pratt 1905 1° 18.6' W
Bacon 1907 1° 18.8' W

The measurements were made from a large image of the map and are good estimates, but no better.

The accepted position of Winchester is:-
1° 18.4' W
from the Greenwich Meridian. I am not sure what is the centre position of Winchester. I have read the 'middle' of the city as shown on the maps.

Readings away from the correct number might indicate:-
  • error in my reading
  • error in the map maker's plotting
  • a different prime meridian
The last is the most interesting possibility.


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HAMPSHIRE COUNTY MAP SIZE
The overall size of the county of Hampshire on a map is quickly measured and provides a rough but rapid guide to the scale of the map. These figures use the county boundary of the 1986 revision of the 1974 Administrative Areas Diagram. This is not the same as the boundary on old maps of Hampshire; you must make whatever allowances are necessary! in particular the left side of the county was lost to Dorset at the local government reorganisation of 1974. The overall size is of the county, not the sheet of paper the map is printed on.

left/West edge (Martin) = SU0619
right/East edge (Aldershot, Rushmoor) = SU8650
top/North edge (Mortimer West End) = SU6363
bottom/South edge (Milford-on-Sea) = SZ2892

width x height = 85.6 km x 75.7 km

The following table compares scale as a fraction or as miles to 1 inch, and the approximate size of Hampshire on a map:-
     
scale 1 to miles to inch wxh cm
     
  24 6x5
  20 7x6
  18 8x7
1000000   8.5x7.5
  15 9x8
950000   9x8
900000   9.5x8.5
850000   10x9
800000   11x9.5
  12 11x10
750000   11x10
700000   12x11
650000   13x12
633600 10 14x12
600000   14x13
550000   16x14
  8 17x15
500000   17x15
450000   19x17
400000   22x19
  6 23x20
350000   25x22
  5 27x24
300000   29x25
  4 34x30
250000   34x30
200000   43x38
  3 45x40
150000   57x51
  2 68x60
100000   86x76
63360 1 135x119
50000   171x151
1 to inches to mile wxh metre
63360 1 1.35x1.19
50000   1.71x1.51
25344 2.5 3.37x2.98
25000   3.42x3.02
10560 6 8.10x7.16
10000   8.56x7.57
2534.4 25 33.77x29.86
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PAPER SIZES
One of the influences on the choice of scale of a map is the size of the piece of paper it can be printed on. Paper is/was made in a range of standard sizes. Nowadays the common paper sizes, in Europe, are the A sizes. Previously there was a whole lot of sizes, with names like imperial, royal, elephant, etc. Some paper sizes are listed below. At least one atlas, The Royal English Atlas with maps by Bowen and Kitchen published in 1762/63, is called Royal because it was printed on royal size paper, it has nothing to do with royalty.

Paper Sizes, british, untrimmed sheets for printing. Metric sizes are calculated using 1 inch = 25.4 mm.
Crown 15x20ins = 381x508mm
Double Crown 20x30ins = 508x762mm
Quad Crown 40x30ins = 762x1016mm
Small Demy 15.5x20ins = 394x508mm
Demy 17.5x22.5ins = 445x572mm
Double Demy 22.5x35 = 572x889mm
Quad Demy 45x35 = 1143x889mm
Small Foolscap 13.25x16.5ins = 337x419mm
Foolscap 13.5x17ins = 343x432mm
Double Foolscap 17x27ins = 432x686mm
Quad Foolscap 27x34ins = 686x864mm
Imperial 22x30ins = 559x762mm
Medium 18x23ins = 457x584mm
Double Medium 23x36ins = 584x914mm
Post 15.5x19.25ins = 394x489mm
Double Large Post 21x33ins = 533x838mm
Royal 20x25ins = 508x635mm
Super Royal 20.5x27.5ins = 521x699mm
Double Royal 25x40 = 635x1016mm
Elephant 23x28ins = 584x711mm

Remember that the map image has a border round it on the printing plate, and the printing plate will be smaller than the paper sheet. The size of a book using these papers might be something like Royal Folio 20x12.5ins, a folio is a sheet folded once. Drawing papers and brown paper for wrapping have different sizes. Whitaker's Almanack has a fund of useful notes on paper sizes.

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MAP SCALES
Some common map scales are listed below:-
inches to 1 mile miles to 1 inch 1 to how many
0.02 50 3168000
0.02112 47.348 3000000
0.025344 39.457 2500000
0.03168 31.566 2000000
0.04 25 1584000
0.04166' 24 1520640
0.04224 23.674 1500000
0.05 20 1267200
0.05555' 18 1140480
0.06336 15.782 1000000
0.06666' 15 950400
0.08333' 12 760320
0.1 10 633600
0.12672 7.891 500000
0.2 5 316800
0.25 4 253440
0.25344 3.946 250000
0.3168 3.156 200000
0.3333' 3 190080
0.5 2 126720
0.6336 1.578 100000
1 1 63360
1.2672 0.789 50000
2 0.5 31680
2.5 0.4 25344
2.5344 0.395 25000
3 0.333 21120
4 0.25 15840
5 0.2 12672
5.0688 0.197 12500
6 0.167 10560
6.336 0.158 10000
8 0.125 7920
10 0.1 6336
12 0.0833 5280
12.672 0.0789 5000
15 0.0667 4224
20 0.05 3168
24 0.0417 2640
25 0.04 2534.4
25.344 0.0395 2500
50 0.02 1267.2
50.688 0.0197 1250
60 0.0167 1056
126.72 0.00789 500
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MARKET TOWN POSITIONS
21 towns There are 21 towns of long standing in Hampshire which are regularly referred to by the Old Hampshire Mapped project.

The positions of the towns are tabulated below. But notice that there are serious problems in judging where a town is. Towns have extent, they are not at a mathematical point. On both new and old maps the plotted position of a feature may not be just where the feature is, or was, remember that the feature, especially a settlement, may have spread and its centre shifted as time passes. The parish church might be a good point to use for comparing old and new positions? but in many cases the choice of where has to be a subjective judgement.

The ngr coordinates are only accurate to 100m, the coordinates expressed in metres are for the convenience of GIS users but must NOT be taken to imply accuracy to 1m:-

ngr coords  

21 Towns NGR Coordinates

               
  town   code ngr   coords in metres  
             
  Alton   ALT SU718393   471800 139300
  Andover   AND SU365458   436500 145800
  Basingstoke   BSK SU634527   463400 152700
  Bishops Waltham   BWM SU556177   455600 117700
  Christchurch   CHR SZ159925   415900 092500
               
  Fareham   FRH SU575061   457500 106100
  Fordingbridge   FDB SU150145   415000 114500
  Gosport   GOS SZ621996   462100 099600
  Havant   HVN SU717062   471700 106200
  Kingsclere   KCL SU525586   452500 158600
             
  Lymington   LMG SZ322954   432200 095400
  New Alresford   ALR SU588326   458800 132600
  Odiham   ODH SU740509   474000 150900
  Petersfield   PTF SU744235   474400 123500
  Portsmouth   POR SZ632993   463200 099300
             
  Ringwood   RGW SU149054   414900 105400
  Romsey   ROM SU351212   435100 121200
  Southampton   SOT SU417122   441700 112200
  Stockbridge   STB SU355351   435500 135100
  Whitchurch   WHC SU460478   446000 147800
               
  Winchester   WIN SU478293   447800 129300
lat and long  

21 Towns Latitude and Longitude

The 21 town positions using latitude and longitude are listed below using two conventions; degrees and decimal minutes, and decimal degrees:-

                 
  town   code lat d m   long d m   lat d long d
                   
  Alton   ALT 51 09.0 N   0 58.7 W   51.150 N 0.978 W
  Andover   AND 51 12.4 N   1 28.7 W   51.207 N 1.478 W
  Basingstoke   BSK 51 16.0 N   1 05.4 W   51.267 N 1.090 W
  Bishops Waltham   BWM 50 57.2 N   1 12.6 W   50.953 N 1.210 W
  Christchurch   CHR 50 43.9 N   1 46.9 W   50.732 N 1.782 W
                   
  Fareham   FRH 50 51.3 N   1 11.9 W   50.855 N 1.198 W
  Fordingbridge   FDB 50 55.7 N   1 47.7 W   50.928 N 1.795 W
  Gosport   GOS 50 48.0 N   1 09.4 W   50.800 N 1.158 W
  Havant   HVN 50 51.2 N   0 59.1 W   51.853 N 0.985 W
  Kingsclere   KCL 51 19.4 N   1 14.8 W   51.323 N 1.247 W
                   
  Lymington   LMG 50 45.5 N   1 32.4 W   50.758 N 1.540 W
  New Alresford   ALR 51 05.3 N   1 09.9 W   51.088 N 1.165 W
  Odiham   ODH 51 51.4 N   0 56.0 W   51.857 N 0.933 W
  Petersfield   PTF 51 00.3 N   0 56.3 W   51.005 N 0.938 W
  Portsmouth   POR 50 48.5 N   1 04.3 W   50.808 N 1.072 W
                   
  Ringwood   RGW 50 50.9 N   1 46.8 W   50.848 N 1.780 W
  Romsey   ROM 50 59.5 N   1 29.7 W   50.922 N 1.495 W
  Southampton   SOT 50 55.1 N   1 23.8 W   50.918 N 1.397 W
  Stockbridge   STB 51 07.0 N   1 29.6 W   51.117 N 1.493 W
  Whitchurch   WHC 51 14.0 N   1 20.1 W   51.233 N 1.335 W
                   
  Winchester   WIN 51 03.7 N   1 18.5 W   51.062 N 1.308 W
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HAMPSHIRE DISTANCES
To help work out the scale of old maps of a county it is useful to have, ready to hand, some known distances. 
              crow flight distances, Km

    FDB GOS HVN KCL LMG ALR ODH OVT PTF POR RGW ROM SOT STB WHC

WIN   36  33  33  30  37  11  34  21  27  34  41  15  18  14  19
WHC   45  51  49  13  54  20  28   6  37  51  53  29  36  16
STB   29  44  46  29  40  23  42  22  41  45  36  14  24
SOT   27  24  31  48  19  27  50  39  35  25  28  11
ROM   21  35  40  41  26  26  49  33  39  36  26
RGW    9  48  57  65  20  52  75  58  62  49
POR   51   1  11  60  31  34  53  52  27
PTF   60  27  18  41  51  18  27  35
OVT   51  52  48   9  58  19  23
ODH   69  53  45  23  69  24
ALR   47  33  29  27  46
LMG   26  30  41  66
KCL   58  60  56
HVN   57  12
GOS   49
Winchester to ... Distances from Winchester to places just outwith the county. 

Winchester          SU483303       Km        miles
to 
Poole               SZ013908       61.4      38.2 
Christchurch        SZ160925       49.7      30.9
Salisbury           SU142295       34.1      21.2
Newbury             SU471671       50.2      31.2
Reading             SU714734       48.9      30.4
Guildford           SU998495       55.0      34.2
Chichester          SU859047       45.5      28.3
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