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Where In The Uk Is It Then?


Gralorn

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Is there anyway of adding a County to a new cache. There are great lists of new caches, but all just state United Kingdom. Could it not be modified to say a county instead. Otherwise each has to be opened and read to work out its location in this Island of ours. Do the Americans just have USA? or do they at least state which State!!. I could look that up I suppose.

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A lot of people around here seem to put the county name in brackets as part of the cache name, so we can tell that Hellfires Globe (bucks) is in Buckinghamshire.

 

I expect G:UK tell the counties by comparing a GIS file of caches with a polygon file of county boundaries.

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That would be a useful addition - we might then get some friendly rivalry going, or a "counties" ladder somewhere.

 

The info on GC.UK regarding caches logged or set is far from accurate as various types of cache are not included. However, the other statistics are extremely interesting.

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It maybe slightly off-topic but is there anywhere that you can get a map of the UK showing the counties that you have found caches in? I have seen a map where you can do it manually but has anyone written anything that does the same thing automatically?

Hi Chas

 

GC:UK shows a map of where you've done caches... we've just kinda been able to suss out which trip which was on for us... but I know you've done far more than us, so you might find that a little too basic.

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GC:UK shows a map of where you've done caches

 

I know about that one thanks :unsure: I wanted a map of the UK that showed the counties where I have found caches shaded in (no caches marked). I'm sure there was a thread recently that pointed to a map where it could be done manually but I wanted an automatic one. The GC:UK site tells you how many counties you have cached in but I wanted a visual representation of it.

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Not all of the UK has Counties, in Scotland it is Regions, I know being a bit pedantic, but it is all the same.

 

As for America, they can search by State, you just have to look at the search page to see that.

 

I'm interested to find out where the link is for the map that you can list what areas of the UK you have visited?

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Not all of the UK has Counties, in Scotland it is Regions, I know being a bit pedantic, but it is all the same.

 

As for America, they can search by State, you just have to look at the search page to see that.

 

I'm interested to find out where the link is for the map that you can list what areas of the UK you have visited?

And not all of England has counties either! Now Unitary Authorities, e.g. Berkshire no longer exists as a county. Cambridgeshire doesn't include Peterborough (except for ceremonial purposes).

 

Current County Council boundaries are thus...

 

http://www.gwydir.demon.co.uk/uklocalgov/county.gif

 

And what do you count? Pre 1974 reorgaisation (classic counties), post 1974, pre 1996 counties (which included now discarded counties like Avon and Humberside) or post 1996 ceremonial counties (which is a mix of both) plus UAs etc.?

 

Talking counties is not straightforward...

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Have a look at my profile, I have a uk map showing which counties I have cached in, it isn't automatic but you only have to tick boxes. There is a link on the map to the website it came from or you can try where have you cached?.

 

With regard to having the county on the cache page, i'm sure it cannot be that complicated to add a drop down of UK (and Ireland) counties to the cache creation page. It should also be possible to retrospectively add these to existing caches (GC:UK show the county on the search list). If TPTB could just add the counties list I'm sure that as part of our regular maintenance, cache owners would be more than happy to select the county from the dropdown. After all most of us updated our caches when the new attributes icons were released, and we regularly add links or extra info to our pages, so one quick click would not be much trouble.

 

I have used the user data field on GSAK to add counties to my complete database, to do this I export new caches to Autoroute and with the map set to terrain I can see where they are. The downside is that Autoroute is split by Political boundaries rather than counties e.g. Berkshire is split into Bracknell Forest, Reading, Slough, Windsor & Maidenhead, Wokingham and West Berkshire.

However, it gives me an extra item to filter by, so it can be quite useful.

 

Maybe the GC:UK team could come up with a download which could be used to add the correct counties to GSAK? And if we all submitted a request to GC.COM maybe they could add the function to the cache page, after all with 8000+ caches in the UK and rising, we have probably got the highest cache/cacher density and the extra option could help to lighten the load on the PQ server too!!

Edited by 68 GUNS
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The downside is that Autoroute is split by Political boundaries rather than counties e.g. Berkshire is split into Bracknell Forest, Reading, Slough, Windsor & Maidenhead, Wokingham and West Berkshire.

However, it gives me an extra item to filter by, so it can be quite useful.

 

Maybe the GC:UK team could come up with a download which could be used to add the correct counties to GSAK?

See my post above :unsure:

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Classic Counties and Scottish regions would suffice nicely, it would at least then give you enough information to know approximately where the cache is situated in the UK. Would you need to fill up the car or not with this expensive liquid to get there. It would just be nice to know if you going to be headed for Cornwall or Suffolk at a glance. I agree with the comment above 'Just add one more fill in field under UK'. KISS, keep it simple surely!

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If people are adding the county name to their caches, then great. Just use a map to make sure they are the right one.

 

I've seen a few which are wrong (at work so no examples), where the placer has obviously just put the county of the nearest town or where they live, and the cache is actually over the border into another county.

 

T

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Although somewhat useful to have the county name, I think it makes the cache names untidy to have to add them in brackets afterwards.

 

Maybe someone with GreaseMonkey skills could write a small app that uses the coords and a small bit of jiggery pokery to place the county name on the cache page?

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I generally scan down the list of new caches and make assumptions about general locality based upon the setter. However, now thanks to this groovy new notifications thing, the message tells me "no, it's too far away, you cannot simply nip out to get this one at lunchtime". :lol:

 

I too noticed that a number of local caches were in the wrong counties (mostly archived now...kharma?!)

 

Also, if a cache tells me it's in Hertfordshire, that may actually be no use to me at all, as it's a big county and it could well be at the Essex end. I shall add (Dacorum) to my caches and confuse you all :mad:

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I must say that adding the county in brackets after the name is bitty and spoils the look. I agree that some techie should be able to fix up something to add it to the page somewhere. Also if counties are so big, perhaps, just perhaps !! Nearest Town as well as county!!! Come on IT Whizz people, feel sure that you can crack it. That Greasemonkey map idea was brilliant, so this must be achievable surely.

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We had this question/problem a couple of years back. So we started to add area/ location to the cache name. But it slowly got forgotten but still a few do add a location.

Good idea, and should be adopted more, maybe a 'Rule' that caches 'Must have a location?

Edited by McDeHack
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Is there anyway of adding a County to a new cache. There are great lists of new caches, but all just state United Kingdom. Could it not be modified to say a county instead. Otherwise each has to be opened and read to work out its location in this Island of ours. Do the Americans just have USA? or do they at least state which State!!. I could look that up I suppose.

A lot of States don't forget are a lot bigger than England.

 

I know if its 30 miles away its 30 miles. If its 6 miles it could be in a different county. If its 60 it could be in scotland.

 

But I may be thick but what use is the county the cache is in?

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At the end of the day, adding the county in brackets is more useful than not!

 

My mentor did and suggested I did and I do. in a list, it stands out, otherwise for a quick scan the only way - not foolproof of course - is to go by the setter. Problem is: New cachers! if you don't know them...

 

Alibags has the other solution of course - sign up, become a Premium member and use the Insta-notification option. You set the limits!

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Still think that we need a techie to add a County and nearest Town slot. It would be such a bonus for the occassional geocacher, not perhaps the obsessed who has every other means at his/her disposal. For instance if one was to contemplate going to say, Suffolk, how do you segregate those caches out when you do not have a waypoint or Postcode even??

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Someone above asked why it would be of any use to know the county.

 

I live in Swansea (Well, for half the time anyway - the other half I'm in Dorset!). As the crow flies,' North Devon is only about 25 miles away from Swansea, meaning that on the 'new caches' list, Devon caches are listed as being closer than those in Carmarthenshire.

 

However, by road, Carmarthen is 30 miles, Devon is more like 150+, so it would make a big difference to me if you could search by county - or even if there were a search to tell me which caches are in Wales, rather than England.

 

We have dial-up Internet access at home, so to go into each cache page to see where it is located takes ages - but until someone builds a nice big bridge from Swansea to Devon, I suppose I'll have to keep doing that. Or get Broadband, I suppose...

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I'll have a look at the interactive map John, but still looking for a techie to give us two extra fields County & Town. Got to be cheaper than a Wales to Devon bridge!!

We don't want another bridge into Wales, do we??? :D

I use "where have you cached" too but i do find there are some discrepancies on the counties.

Geocaching.com should be able to sort this one out for us.

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