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In pictures: British landmarks from the air

News imageOrdnance Survey A pilot's cockpit eye view of Government Communication Headquarters in Cheltenham.Ordnance Survey

Ordnance Survey surveyors have taken aerial photographs of Britain's landscape since World War One. Last year, they spent 800 hours in the air, covering 190,000 miles of Great Britain and capturing 150,000 images.

News imageOrdnance Survey Arundel Castle, West SussexOrdnance Survey
Arundel Castle and Cathedral, in the South Downs National Park
News imageOrdnance Survey Connel Bridge, Argyll & ButeOrdnance Survey
Loch Etive, in Argyll
News imageOrdnance Survey DundeeOrdnance Survey
Dundee’s V&A museum, on the banks of the River Tay, opened in 2018
News imageOrdnance Survey BirminghamOrdnance Survey
OS planes flying out of East Midlands Airport often pass over Birmingham
News imageOrdnance Survey Durdle Door, DorsetOrdnance Survey
One of Britain’s most popular walking sites, on the Jurassic Coast
News imageOrdnance Survey Ailsa Craig, Firth of ClydeOrdnance Survey
This uninhabited island located west of the Scottish mainland is one of about 6,000 islands off the coast of Britain
News imageOrdnance Survey Portland, DorsetOrdnance Survey
The Portland Bill lighthouse, in West Dorset, is not too many miles away from the Ordnance Survey headquarters, in Southampton
News imageOrdnance Survey RAF Cranwell, LincolnshireOrdnance Survey
When aviators in flight have a chance to pass over the headquarters of the RAF’s Central Flying School, they do not want to pass up the opportunity
News imageOrdnance Survey Oban, Argyll and ButeOrdnance Survey
The flying unit often refuel at small airstrips whenever they survey the outer islands off the Scottish coast. This unusual image of a vintage US mail plane was captured last summer at Oban Airport, in Argyll
News imageOrdnance Survey Tenby, PembrokeshireOrdnance Survey
The Pembrokeshire town of Tenby, with St Catherine’s Island and Napoleonic fort off the coast. The fort doubled as maximum-security prison Sherrinford in the final episode of BBC One’s Sherlock series.

All photographs courtesy Ordnance Survey