Secret sites put on the map, courtesy of KGB

British mapping and environmental information specialist Landmark has added maps of the UK created during the Cold War to its portfolio.

Produced by the Russians between 1950 and 1997, using aerial photography, satellite imaging and spies, the maps could prove invaluable in tracking the history of land that may have had a military use and need to be treated for possible contamination.

The purpose of the maps was to pinpoint military installations, which were purposely left off Ordnance Survey maps.

Landmark said that over 1,000 sites could be contaminated, and a further 3,000 sites had never been disclosed on OS maps, including military buildings and warehouses.

Landmark said the maps covered 16,000 square kilometres of the UK and all the major cities.

How Landmark obtained the maps is straight out to the script for an episode of Spooks.

“There were 100,000 paper maps in a railway carriage in a siding in Estonia when the communist regime collapsed,” said Landmark MD Richard Pawlyn. “Whether they were there by accident or entrepreneurial design is unclear.”

Pawlyn said the growth of environmental awareness had created a market for historical land data. “Professionals are looking for maps, geology, flood risk and related databases.”

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