Continuing the work of Gerhold (2014) and Rosevear, Bogart and Shaw-Taylor (2019), this paper establishes the current state of historic transport networks for the British Isles and presents a project undertaking to expand a historical geographic information system (H-GIS) to Scotland and Ireland. Alongside the forthcoming work on historic maritime connections (Litvine, Lewis and Starzec, Forthcoming), the current efforts in digitising the Scottish and Irish road networks will allow for the creation of a multi-modal model covering the entirety of the British Isles.
The dataset is created using an ‘archaeology’ of the road network starting with the Edinburgh Geographical Institute’s (Bartholomew’s) ‘Revised Half-Inch Map of Great Britain (1940-1947)’ and the ‘Quarter-inch to the mile map of Ireland (1940)’. Roads are digitised onto modern Ordnance Survey maps, establishing the ‘vintage’ of modern roads. Subsequent historic maps are used to gauge the existence of roads at a near-decadal basis. Roads are classified in four categories from ‘Major:Primary’ to ‘Inferior/Track’ alongside ferry routes shown at the time. The use of these classifications, alongside the topographically weighted multi-modal model, would enable a network analysis that could differentiate between the least-cost paths for freight or passengers. This finalisation of such a model would provide the foundation for studies on the changing economic and social conditions of the British archipelago from the early modern period onwards.
Mots clés : British Isles|transport|GIS|connectivity|roads
A104383AS