OS Grid squares

In my last post I erroneously used the OS grid square TD which was pointed out by BC who I am walking the OS Grid line 38 (SD to TA) with and some exchanges were made on our two posts.

In fact the square TD does not exist. Partly for refreshing my own memory and for others who may have had theirs similarly dimmed here is chart of all the OS squares. It will be seen that our walk goes through SD,SE and TA as I have indicated in red. At least it's less complicated than the Periodic Table. Somebody may make a fortune inventing a new board game based on this? Endless variations including endless combinations of squares to visit may be used for inventing new long walks - oh! don't get me started.

Beware the Yellow Peril

At 9:45 am on Thursday, my erratic brain suddenly triggers “Christmas cards”.

Thursday is my walking day with Pete, I pick him up at 10:00. We both attach importance to punctuality and what my mother called, “a proper going on”.

I buy Mountain Bothies Association cards, and realise I had missed the order form in their last magazine. I raid the pile of unread magazines, can only find the one before, asking for photos for the cards.  I email the guy for an order form, then look again and find the form, and send a cancelling email. I hastily complete the form and write a cheque. It is now 10:05 and it takes five minutes to get to Pete’s. My reliability rating is under threat - panic.

Another delay at the post box and I arrive at Pete’s where he watches for me from the window. I aplogise, and he says “ok, it’s not as though I was standing outside”, hinting that if that had been so I would have been in trouble.

Our walk from Haverthwaite had a strange occurrence. Look at the map in the south-west corner. I have plotted the route on a yellow road running south-east to Greenodd. Look further north on that yellow road and you will see that it is not a road but a blue river - the yellow Lake District National Park boundary line has re-coloured the river yellow. Arriving at that point I was expecting to find our yellow road, very unusually, crossing over the top of another yellow road. If things don’t fit you should always stay put until you have worked it out. I have rarely been so perplexed with a map, and was well relieved when I sorted it.

We have been avoiding footpaths recently in view of wet weather. Thankfully this one was not part of our route

Bouth

Greenodd and the Leven estuary 

Zoom to Greenodd

Footpath ostensibly crossing river

The Leven bridge at Haverthwaite - it is still tidal a few hundred yards downstream

Ordnance Survey maps on blog

A comment on my last post advised caution on possibly infringing copyright by using OS maps on the blog.

I searched the OS website and found their licensing facility called Open Space. For me at least it was incomprehensible, so I made a phone call. The guy who took my call could give no definitive advice and suggested I should email Customer Services.

Here is a copy of the correspondence. The reply does not indicate the status of the writer, and demonstrates an inability to write a proper sentence. How do these people get a job when they can't write properly and it is reputed to be a buyer's market? One would have thought OS could employ people with a first in English Language, even for mundane jobs from what one reads about graduates difficulty in finding employment.

I am a private person, and I do a personal blog related to walking. I already have all the UK on Memory Map at 1:50000 on my computer, which of course I paid for, and as far as I understand this is above board and legitimate. From time to time I would like to use OS mapping extracted from Memory Map on the blog to illustrate my posts. I emphasise that my blog is non profit making and carries no advertising, and the kind of use I am referring to would be perhaps half a dozen times per year. Can I go ahead with this, or do I have to set up something more formal with yourselves?


Dear Conrad


Thank you for your email regarding using mapping on your blog.

As the mapping you wish to use you must belongs to Memory Map you must
obtain copyright permission from them.

The contact details are as follows:
Memory Map
Unit 3/4 Mars House
Calleva Park
ALDERMASTON
RG7 8LA 

Tel: 0844 811 0955
Website: http://www.memory-map.co.uk
Email: mailto:info@memory-map.co.uk


I hope this helps

Kind regards

Lesley


I looked on Memory Map's website. They have a Terms section, and there is no mention of limitations on use and I see no point in contacting them. I intend to continue using OS maps on the blog when it suits. 

OS 1:50000 versus 1:25000

I have never liked the Ordnance Survey 1:25000 map. The colouration is too uniform and anaemic, and I don't get the immediate picture of the terrain as with the trusty 1:50000, and the one kilometre grid lines are difficult to see.

I have a bad memory of my 1:50 Northern Lakes which I spent good money having laminated. Those maps are massive, and this should never be opened in wind of more than an ant's breath. On top of Hallsfell Ridge nearing Blencathra summit with Tony I disobeyed the rule - the wind was so strong I was carried several feet off the path - the map set off northwards like a paraglider. I imagined some guy in a street in Carlisle heralding its arrival on air, and wondering. That is the second time I recall abandoning a summit attempt because of wind. Now here's a thought: perhaps that wretched map could be put to good use doubling up as a paraglider saving knees on those punishing Munro descents?

My post op walking, has been relegated to farmer's-field-footpaths with hedges, walls, barbed wire fences, and rickety stiles, and gates tied up with orange furry string impossible to unknot.

On Saturday I walked  seven miles with about 850ft of ascent across such terrain, which whilst pleasant to view is irritating to navigate. I was using my Memory Map 3500 which carries OS 1:50 mapping.

The GPS projects a direction of travel arrow, so when following a footpath on the map you can adjust your direction to keep the  arrow on the path on the map, and yourself on the path on the ground. If you let the arrow deviate by, say three millimetres that is enough on the ground to have you on the wrong side of a hedge, necessitating wearisome backtracking. The paths I was walking were new to me, and apparently rarely used being indiscernible on the ground. Now I have to concede the denigrated 1:25 map can be of use on this terrain because it shows field boundaries, but to have the whole country on Memory Map as I have for the 1:50 would be outrageously expensive.

The thin red line is my route  plotted on the map.
Compare the proximity of the path to the field boundary after the small circular wood just to the east of the path by looking at the 1:25 map below where the field boundary can be seen.

I am looking forward to paths above the cultivation line where I know what I am doing, with my route printed on A4 from the 1:50 map which is usually enlarged from the original, because my printer is set to fill the whole of the A4 if the selected area from the map is smaller, which it usually is.