The Ordnance Survey project to produce the first national maps of England and Wales at one inch to the mile was launched in 1825 and by 1838 the survey of Wales was almost complete as well as English counties south of the Wash. The triangulation of Great Britain and Ireland was completed in 1841.

In 1836 Parliament passed the Tithe Commutation Act. This provided for the payment of tithes in goods, such as crops, to be converted into the payment of a tithe rent, to be paid in money. Under the Act, accurate maps were needed to show the apportionment of rent to land and the circumstances were thought by the Ordnance Survey to merit government authority to produce the necessary a large-scale survey of England and Wales. However, funds were being raised locally, with individual parishes bearing a charge based on acreage. The Ordnance Survey pointed out that it would be just as easy to make a complete survey of the country rather than a piecemeal survey, and that the resulting maps 'instead of being wasted for all other public purposes, shall be so expended as to be the means ... of supplying all the wants of the Nation as connected with survey'.

Private estates, at this time, were commonly mapped at 1 inch to 3 chains (26% inches to 1 mile, or 1 : 2376) and the Tithe Commissioners agreed that this was 'the smallest which can faithfully show all the detail required'.

Although the Tithe Commissioners were convinced about the overwhelming merits of a national survey, the Select Committee set up to consider the issue was not . They concluded that not only was a general survey not required, but that it would be unfair on the landowners to insist that they should pay for the survey of areas not affected by the Tithe Act. The tithe surveys went ahead and were carried out by contracted surveyors whose charges were levied on the parishes. This enabled them to pay higher wages than the Ordnance Survey who lost many experienced men to the tithe surveys and had to introduce a 'working pay' allowance to try and minimise losses of staff.

The passing of the Enclosure Act in 1845 also generated a need for maps and it was here that the false economy of the 'cheap' tithe survey was exposed. Only a small proportion of the tithe maps were found to be accurate enough for the later enclosure survey and most areas had to be resurveyed. Again Ordnance Survey staff were attracted away by higher wages paid by contractors.

It was not until 1870 that the mapping of England and Wales on a 1 inch scale was complete. The first edition of the 1:2500 and 6 inch maps were made available to the public in 1853 and 1858 respectively. These maps describe local boundaries in great detail as required under the the Ordnance Survey Act of 1841.

The Hundred Boundaries of course are simply the joined up sections of the relevant parishes at the boundary, and were not consistently emphasised. From time immemorial boundaries were never written down or plotted on a map, and we shall never know how close the first maps come to giving the accurate disposition of these folk divisions. As far as Suffolk is concerned the only map to show the hundred boundaries was that produced for the county by Hodgkisson in 1783. It is this map that will be used as the base line for tours around the Hundreds.