Historic maps showing how Bradford district developed from Victorian times to the 1950s are now available free online.

The detailed, six-inch-to-a mile, Ordnance Survey maps show road and rail networks, buildings and streets, and smaller things like postboxes and mile posts.

They are available on the website of the National Library of Scotland – nls.uk – as a result of an extensive programme that has digitised historic maps across the UK.

Chris Fleet, senior map curator at NLS said: “These new maps cover all of England and Wales and are immensely valuable for local and family history. People can search for the street their grandparents lived in or see how 19th century farmland has turned into today’s suburbs.”

Mary Twentyman, projects and publicity officer for Low Moor Local History Group, said: “I think it is good, but I worry about people who have been selling them commercially.

“I can understand it must be very frustrating for people who are selling the maps.”

Mrs Twentyman also said her personal preference was to have a map actually in front of her, rather than on a screen.