I had a chat with JISC today, who primarily deal with centrally funded educational establishments and are not really able to help but could be a possible route.
The nice lady at JISC put me in touch with a company called Landmark (edited from original typo) who actually deal with the map data in a more useful way.
It seems that Old-Maps have removed the enhanced zoom because they believe that it is damaging their sales. I would think that it is unlikely and the removal might be more of an issue since people are going to be less inclined to buy a map they can't see properly. It is possible that the facility might come back but don't hold your breath.
It might be possible for some kind of licensing agreement to be reached with Landscape, I need to have a look at what they do and get back to them to talk in more detail.
What seems fairly likely is that there won't be any free access. It is possible that a reduced rate could be arranged for an organisation that could be set up for the purpose. The cost of the licence and those for hosting the website would need to be covered so some cost needs to come in.
It is possible that this could be done under the umbrella of NAMHO though it is likely to require an increase in organisation subs. Alternatively we could set up a group independently but there is a definite risk that sub paying forgetfulness would result in the service folding.
I will have a further chat with Landmark tomorrow and see what it would be likely to cost. I am currently looking at the old maps and possibly the geological maps as well.
Any ideas or suggestions?
Don't look so embarrassed, it's a family trait...