Woodland census 1918

Date Added: 08 April 2019 Contributor: Norman Davidson Year of Photo: 1918 Picture No: 4422

One of a series of maps and drawings found in old ex military map cases stored in the loft of the Fort August Forest office and recovered by Grant Macintosh.

The details of this census are not known so far and any information is most welcome. This could well have been one of the first full national woodland surveys of UK or GB and may have been undertaken by military staff as the signature in the bottom right hand corner is that of D R Thomson (Lieut) dated June 1918.

The details on the stamp above the signature are unclear but are that of the Board of Trade Timber (Office or Officer or Department –hard to make out?) There is a second signature below the word Surveyor of that of William Gray C2 with address possibly reading as 1 Queen Street but city name is unclear. It could read as Aberdeen, London or some other. Again any suggestions welcome.

The actual census area and location is that of part of Corrour Estate and covers some of the forest areas established by John Stirling Maxwell and his staff over the previous 35 years. The notes in the margins read as ‘Top part of this plantation is planted in clumps on dry places' and also ‘Plantation marked as ‘B’ is Natural Birch and very poor quality’. A note in the bottom left hand corner indicates that A refers to Coniferous, B to Hardwoods and C to mixed woodlands.

See large image and also signatures in the attached PDF

Can anyone provide any more information?

Download Large Version (4.7MB)

Download PDF (138kB)

Groups: Maps of Forest and Woodland Areas

2 Comments

This is fascinating. I would be very interested to see what other maps are also available. I'm part of North of Scotland Archaeological Society, and we've recently been involved in scanning the entire map archive (>400) maps of the Lovat Estate, now on the NLS website. We have a particular interest in the lands around Fort Augustus. How would I/we get to see the other maps that you've found? Comment left on 15 April 2019 at 10:56 by Roland Spencer-Jones

Roland - Most of the maps were hand drawn civil engineering drawings, or forest area maps and there were a few (7-8)OS maps with hand drawn additions. I have photographed most of them and will in time be placing them onto this website.

I plan to ask the Highland Archive Centre if they wish to take custody of the original maps. You can email me direct at nandh.davidson@btopenworld.com Comment left on 15 April 2019 at 19:58 by Norman Davidson

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