Catalogue description Ministry of Food: National Farm Survey Maps

Maps prepared in conjunction with the individual farm records of the National Farm Survey. The maps show the extent of each farm, or other agricultural holding, with its boundaries. They are Ordnance Survey sheets at either the 6 inch (1:10560) or 25 inch (1:2500) scales (but in the latter case reduced photographically to 1:5000 (13 inches approx. to the mile). Certain map sheets are missing or were never completed. Areas not covered were, of course, large urban areas and areas generally of waste land and maps concerning areas of sea.

The area of each farm is indicated on the map by the use of a colour wash, and its code number is added in black ink. The Ordnance Survey sheet references where detached portions of a farm may be found are also often given. Reference to the individual fields of a farm is through the Ordnance Survey parcel numbers which form part of a 1:2500 map sheet but not sheets at the 1:10560 scale. Where the latter have been used, the parcel numbers have been added in manuscript. Sometimes the names of farmers and their addresses, and details of land usage, have been included on the maps.

Further records of the National Farm Survey and individual farm returns are held in MAF 32

Ministry of Food, General Department, Statistics Division, 1941-1947

Geraldine Beech and Rose Mitchell, Maps for Family and Local History (Kew, 2004), chapter 4. Brian Short, Charles Watkins, William Foot and Phil Kinsman, The National Farm Survey 1941-43 (Wallingford, 1999).

A copy of the county index map sheets is available in the reading rooms at The National Archives, Kew.