South Gloucestershire Council

Published: 23/07/2015

We have officially launched the new digital mapping project ‘Know Your Place – West of England’.

Know Your Place is an ambitious online mapping project that overlays maps from various periods of history, allowing users to compare how streets or areas look today with maps from yesteryear.

We are leading a partnership of local authorities and voluntary organisations in the West of England area which has been awarded £379,800 in funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for the project, with £24,270 match-funding and additional support contributed from us, Wiltshire Council and other partners.

Working with the British Library, local councils, records offices, community groups and volunteers, ‘Know Your Place West of England’ will digitise and transcribe a large number of historic maps and documents. The result will be a public website which will hold all of the historic digital maps of the local authority areas of South Gloucestershire, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Somerset, North Somerset, Bristol and Bath & North East Somerset, many of which have never been featured online before or are too fragile for researchers to access. The Know Your Place website can be viewed at: http://maps.bristol.gov.uk/kyp/

The project will provide unprecedented online access to maps of the historic landscape of the region, on which users will be able to add their own heritage information – building a rich and diverse community map of local heritage for everyone.

South Gloucestershire Council’s Communities Committee Chair, Cllr Heather Goddard, said: “We are grateful for the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund to deliver this exciting project which will use digital technology to enable people to see how their street or community has changed over the years. Through working with the volunteers and neighbouring local authorities we will be able to provide a valuable resource for local people researching their area.”

Nerys Watts, Head of the Heritage Lottery Fund South West, said: “The Know Your Place project is a significant project not just for the South West but in the development of historical community mapping projects. This project will open up access to these wonderful ancient maps and give people a fascinating insight into their local heritage and how the areas they live and work in today have been shaped over the years.”

As well as providing a website available on a range of mobile devices which anyone can contribute to, the project will also provide volunteer opportunities, a programme of outreach events, school learning materials and a touring exhibition across the region.

Follow the project’s progress on Facebook: Know Your Place – West of England and Twitter: @KYPWestEngland