To use download and use data from DIGIMAP you must have a personal ATHENS username (this is not the same as you college username).
If you do not have a personal ATHENS username you can obtain one from OUCS. you can register online using the Online Self-Registration at: :https://register.oucs.ox.ac.uk/athens/
You will need your University Card barcode number when you register.

You can then access the DIGIMAP Historic Map Collection.
To access the current OS mapping and data, you will then need to register with DIGIMAP - see the main DIGIMAP pages for more details..

The DIGIMAP Historic data collection contains both 6" (imperial and later metric sheets), 25" (1:2500) and 50" (1:1250) scale mapping of England, Wales and Scotland. Both 'county' series (up to ca.1949) and National Grid (1949- ) sheets are available.

The earliest sheets date from 1846 (Lancashire 6") and coverage continues to the last printed National Grid mapping (late 20th century).

Maps can be selected by:

clicking on a map
entering a modern name or postcode
or entering a historic parish or county

Map sheets can be viewed singly or you can display two or four editions simultaneously of the same location.

You can also download a single sheet or multiple sheets to cover a selected area.

The pre-war 'county' series mapping was so called because it was mapped on a county-by-county basis (although some counties were grouped). Maps were surveyed from a central vertical line (meridian) using a Cassini projection, which produced increasing distortion away from the central meridian. As a result, adjoining counties on different meridians did not match up. You should be aware of this when selecting locations which cross the old county boundaries. If you are offered two counties for the same area you may need to view one or the other to avoid un-matched overlaps.

National Grid sheets are on a single national coordinate system.

County series mapping can be downloaded either as Derived National Grid tiles or the original County series sheet lines. National Grid sheets download as National Grid tiles.

If you download multiple county sheets for your area, be aware that they may be slight edge-matching errors, as MapInfo cannot 'rubber sheet' the image to fiit exactly to the National Grid, it simply scales and positions each tile to a 'best-fit'. For this reason it may be better to download as county sheet tiles rather than derived NG, to reduce the number of tiles.

This mismatch also means that modern OS data will not match exactly when overlaid - the error will vary across the image, but is generally acceptable if you are looking at changes over time for example.

Opening downloaded tiles in MapInfo
When you have downloaded and unzipped your files, open each one as normal by selecting the .tab file. You will probably find that you are presented with a blank mapper window. The reason for this is that MapInfo by default only displays raster images between specified zoom ranges - if the image will be too large (pixellated) or too small (unreadable) it will be hidden.
To reveal the image, open the Layer Control and you will see that the visible checkbox has a purple check mark, indicating that restricted display is active. Double-click the layer (or click once to select it then click the Display button) to show the Display Options dialog.
Uncheck the checkbox labelled 'Display within zoom range' and click OK, then click OK in the Layer Control to display the image. If you save a workspace the visibility option will be saved so you will not have to reveal it each time in future.

Remember that the projection of raster images cannot be changed - it will always be OSGB36.