Description:After the evacuation of Dunkirk during World War II the threat of invasion by opposing forces became real.
The military needed maps to help them plan in case of invasion but when they looked at the maps produced by Ordnance Survey they found them to be outdated.
Ordnance Survey quickly produced a War Revision series of 1940 using the latest civilian 1 inch maps; they revised them where they could and added the purple military 'Cassini' grid (also known as the War Office False Origin grid).
Initially the War Revision maps were issued for military use only; in 1943 Ordnance Survey issued this map for sale to the general public - these were stamped 'sales copy'.
Because this map isn't stamped 'sales copy' it would have been issued to military personnel.
War maps were used to mark the local environment and were often used to form parts of operational records.
This map is of Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle-under-Lyme.
The red lines are roads, with some having thicker lines with black markings on the outside, these are to mark 'A' roads, while the black lines are just minor roads. They even marked the thickness of the roads whether good (red with black lines on outside) or bad (just black lines with no red line) and if the road was steep.
They also made signs for landmarks such as churches, post offices, lighthouses, parks, marshes and youth hostel.
Funded by Heritage Lottery Fund