This is a lovely series of mapping. Surveyed 1949-1950 and 'corrected' (read minor updates) in 1959. This is a War Office issue of sheet 120, which covers Brownhills, Tamworth, Burton and Derby. It's a handsome document, drawn at inch to the mile scale - 1:63360.

While I was getting the Yates map scanned the other day, I took the opportunity to get some other great maps scanned. This one – an Ordnance Survey sheet covering East Staffordshire – features Brownhills, largely as it would have been in 1950, in the bottom left. This series of mapping was probably the most gorgeous visually ever produced by the Ordnance Survey – drafted by hand with bold colours, this is the series of map I lay on the sitting room floor poring over as a child. This is the map I fell in love with.

This particular issue is a War Office/Air Ministry issue version which has the northings and eastings printed on it in red. Such issues are widely available now from map dealers, and have no cover. I prefer them, as they’re easier to scan and don’t usually have scribbled notes on them.

The map is in .PDF format, for which you’ll need Adobe Reader or similar – but most folks have that installed already. I recommend right-clicking the links below and selecting ‘Save as…’ to save the file to your computer. All of them will take a while to download on slow connections, so please be patient. The high quality one is 250 DPI resolution and should print fine up to A3/original size. The medium one is 200 DPI, and should be good to A4. The basic is 150DPI and is best suited to on-screen use.

OS sheet 120 1959 – high quality download, 19MB

OS sheet 120 1959 – medium quality download, 12.8MB

OS sheet 120 1959 – basic quality download, 4.3MB

Please enjoy this map, there’s more to come.

The legend key alone is gorgeous. I could frame this and put it on the wall.