Interesting...and looks like I'm wrong. I'd always assumed digital reproductions held copyright.
Sadly I can't edit my comment now to acknowledge my erroneous assumption. zerocrates comment below links to the Bridgeman case which has in fact a section on UK copyright:
...is fairly specific about restrictions on "Commercial" use of their images, not non-commercial use which by omission in their statement would suggest you're free to do as you wish:
Any commercial use of the images on this website is subject to written permission from Royal Collection Trust and the applicable Licence Terms and Conditions displayed on this site. In particular, but without limitation, no images may be reproduced, communicated to the public, distributed, re-used or extracted from this website for commercial use (including without limitation any storage, reproduction, linking or indexing for the purposes of any search engines) without the prior written consent of Royal Collection Trust.
Whether that would hold up in court, I've no idea.
The National Library of Scotland (a tremendous resource for old maps) has a pretty decent and fairly clear statement on re-use/licensing:
some folks have claimed that digital reproductions have their own rights (esp. if cleaned up or "digital development" of negatives was done) , but I've heard that called "copyfraud" -- it is a big issue in the cultural heritage institutions who want license fees as a revenue stream. Most publishers are willing to pay for reproduction rights, even if they are not needed, just to be on the safe side.
Sadly I can't edit my comment now to acknowledge my erroneous assumption. zerocrates comment below links to the Bridgeman case which has in fact a section on UK copyright:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridgeman_Art_Library_v._Corel...
Interestingly the RCT "Copyright" page:
https://www.rct.uk/about/policies/copyright
...is fairly specific about restrictions on "Commercial" use of their images, not non-commercial use which by omission in their statement would suggest you're free to do as you wish:
Any commercial use of the images on this website is subject to written permission from Royal Collection Trust and the applicable Licence Terms and Conditions displayed on this site. In particular, but without limitation, no images may be reproduced, communicated to the public, distributed, re-used or extracted from this website for commercial use (including without limitation any storage, reproduction, linking or indexing for the purposes of any search engines) without the prior written consent of Royal Collection Trust.
Whether that would hold up in court, I've no idea.
The National Library of Scotland (a tremendous resource for old maps) has a pretty decent and fairly clear statement on re-use/licensing:
https://maps.nls.uk/copyright.html
Again, Commercial Use of some sources (via third parties such as Ordnance Survey) mentions you need to get permission.