Cadastral Parcels

OpenStreetMap United Kingdom provides a raster tile layer of GB Cadastral Parcels (Land Registry index polygons) for use as an overlay in OpenStreetMap editors. The layer is perfectly aligned* and can be used to realign the aerial imagery before mapping.

iD Editor

Start editing; click on the layer selector; scroll down; under ‘Overlays’ select the ‘OSMUK Cadastral Parcels’ layer; zoom in to at least 18 and you should see blue land parcel outlines; scroll down in the layer selector to the ‘Imagery offset’; click-and-hold on the 0,0 numbers; drag the background imagery until it lines up (my offset was 4.19,-2.22 but it will differ around the country)

JOSM

The layer is available in the Imagery menu. Once enabled, hide/show it using the ‘eye’ gadget in the Layers pane. When adjusting the offset of your chosen imagery take care to not adjust the offset of the Cadastral Parcels.

Other editors

Add this template url to your map editor:

https://tiles.osmuk.org/PropertyBoundaries/{zoom}/{x}/{y}.png

It works at zoom levels 18-20 so you will have to zoom quite close in.

*Perfectly aligned

We tested the INSPIRE data against OS Open Data (e.g. the OS Open Greenspace data) to check that the data aligns. It also aligns to OS MasterMap.

The OS Open Data, and therefore the INSPIRE data, use OS National Grid map projection. To view the layer in OSM editors it needs to be transformed to a worldwide projection. The OSM community helped identify the absolute correct transformation that must be used (note that it may not be the simple one you think it is). We tested several points in an OS online tool to confirm that the transform was indeed correct and as per the OS recommended method. These tests passed with exact matches.

Given these two things, plus the fact that the data is GB wide, we feel it is a good source to align all of UK OSM mapping and imagery layers.

Feedback

If you have feedback on this tile layer, including if you spot areas that are missing, please contact info@osmuk.org. We are particularly interested in finding similar data for Northern Ireland, Isle of Man, or the Channel Islands.

Privacy policy

There is no logging of personal data (such as IP addresses) on the server. No information is stored.

Attribution

The tile layer uses data from HM Land Registry and Registers of Scotland published under the Open Government Licence v3. The relevant attribution statements are:

This information is subject to Crown copyright and database rights [year of supply or date of publication] and is reproduced with the permission of HM Land Registry.

The polygons (including the associated geometry, namely x, y co-ordinates) are subject to Crown copyright and database rights [year of supply or date of publication] Ordnance Survey 100026316.

© Crown copyright. Reproduced with the permission ofRegisters of Scotland.Contains OS data. © Crown copyright and database right (year).

At the time of writing, the year of supply of data in our tile layer is 2021.