• Black outer margin latitude and longitude coordinates.
• Inner margin grid coordinates eastings along the top and bottom, northings left and right hand sides of the map sheet.
• Top left corner, heights in metres (Contour Interval).
• Top centre of the map, magnetic, grid and true north pointers. Also the information required to calculate the grid magnetic angle or magnetic variation.
• Right hand side of the map , sheet number,scale title of the map, customer information, communications information,general information,tourist and technical information.
• Bottom centre of the map measuring scale in kilometres, statute miles and nautical miles  

REPRESENTATION OF DETAIL

Types of Detail.

Detail is usually considered under general headings as follows:

• Natural features, including vegetation.
• Communications.
• Buildings, villages and towns.
• Miscellaneous cultural detail.
• Boundaries.

Methods of Representing Detail

• Area Detail  Areas such as lakes, woods, built up areas, are usually shown by a colour tint
• Line Detail  Where detail has length rather than width, eg roads, rivers and tracks, conventional signs are used when the width of the feature cannot be shown adequately to scale
• Point Detail  When detail has significant positions but no significant size at a given map scale, eg trig points and spot heights, conventional signs are used.
• Conventional Signs.  Different types of detail can also be shown by conventional signs used in combination. Thus a river may be shown as tidal or non tidal by the colour used to represent its banks. Woods may be shown as deciduous, coniferous or mixed, by tree symbols within an area of colour tint.
• Colour  Different colours are used to represent different classes of detail and some conventional uses are given as follows:
• Blue - All water features.
• Green - Vegetation.
• Brown - Contours and sand.
• Black - All outlines, cultural detail, but may be used in conjunction with other colours.
• Descriptions Where no other method is available, items of importance may be described in words or abbreviations eg, ford, FB (foot bridge).
• Buildings,villages and towns When scale permits buildings are shown in outline with a filling. Small buildings may be shown by solid black conventional signs.
• Coastal Features Coastlines are usually shown in black to represent the mean high water mark, however some map series show the high water mark in blue and the map user should always refer to the marginal information. The low water mark may also be shown, and the nature of the foreshore may be indicated by symbols representing sand, mud or rocks. Coastal cliffs are shown by symbols, black usually otherwise brown the same colour as the contours.
• Railways Railways are shown in black by line symbols which may take various forms. (1) Plain Lines (2) Lines with single or double crosses, (3) Diced lines.
• Vegetation At 1:50,000 scale a green tint is used frequently in conjunction with symbols to indicate the type of trees, i, e conifer or deciduous.
• Water Features and Roads and Tracks. See seperate page.

Remember if in doubt look in the margin

Hachures

Hachures were used on many earlier maps but are seldom used, except to depict cuttings and embankments and steep slopes: when used for these purposes they are usually shown in black.

Index to Adjoining Sheet The location of the map sheet relative to other maps sheets in the series is shown in a diagram in the margin, thus enabling the user to identify immediatley the surrounding sheets.

Printing Note The printing note will usually be found in the bottom right hand corner of the map and will consist of a string of numbers in the form 4000/5/86/4270R. This indicates that 4000 map sheets were printed in May 1986. Again this can be a useful clue to the user. If the production note indicated that the map was produced in 1976 and the print note was dated 5/86 the probability is that the map would still be substantially up-to-date, i,e there had been little change that it had  not been worth producing a new edition.

Map Identification

Every map sheet carries identification panels in opposite corners of the margin. These panels show the series number, sheet number and the edition number. These three elements of information identify the map sheet uniquely; typical examples are; see below:

The map series number identifies both the area and the scale of the map. The sheet number identifies the particular sheet within the series and the edition number indicates the number of times the map has been revised.

The suffix to the edition number identifies the publisher of that particular edition, eg, GSGS = Geographical Section General Staff.