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The National Grid

The National Grid is a unique system which applies a rectangular grid to the whole of Great Britain. Using it you can define the location of any object or geographic feature.

The grid lines are aligned north/south and east/west. From them a location is measured as the distance (in metres) to the east (easting) and to the north (northing) of the grid's origin.

The grid's origin is located to the south west of the Isles of Scilly, so that all parts of great Britain have positive eastings and northings.

For instance, The war memorial in Parliament Square, Hertford, has a grid reference of 532600212536. This will often be quoted as TL3260012532, refering to a position of an object within a map square. Large objects, such as buildings and towns, will usually be referenced by less accurate figures, Hertford could be TL325128.

These formats are not suitable for computer use, so all grid references for Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are given as full 6 digit eastings and northings. Hertford would become 532500,212800 while the war memorial would be 532600,212536.

For more information on the National Grid follow the links to the Ordnace Survey website below.