Country boundaries (again!)

[+Fuchsiamagic]

I know this debate has been brought up before, but can anybody point me to an accurate map which shows the current county boundaries between Somerset, Bristol and Gloucestershire which includes towns and villages?

 

I am trying to work out how many caches I have found in each county, but since Avon was abolished, each web-page I look at seems to give a different result as to the current county borders.

 

The INATN site is not much use either as the last 18 caches I did in what I though was Gloucestershire simply went into the "Uncalculated" stats area and it only show 6 found for that county.

[+dino-irl]

Have you tried the maps for GSAK's FindStatsGen Macro? I'm not sure of there is a UK Counties one but as there is one for Ireland I'd be pretty sure there is

[+Fuchsiamagic]

Have you tried the maps for GSAK's FindStatsGen Macro? I'm not sure of there is a UK Counties one but as there is one for Ireland I'd be pretty sure there is

The only maps I can find on there are for the USA...My version is 3.8.03. Don't know if a later version is any better?

[+Bear and Ragged]

GSAK does have UK maps (Check my profile) and if you check out Follow the Arrow, that wonderful site by Graculus, which is full of resources for UK cachers, there is a link to a Google Earth overlay which shows the UK Reviewers/Groundspeak 'approved' boundaries.

 

edit to add:

FindStatGenMapUnited_Kingdom V0.3 Astartus 2008-10-29 United Kingdom

FindStatGenMapUKCounty V0.4 Guanajuato 2009-10-13 United Kingdom - County

 

Can be found here

Edited May 23, 2010 by Bear and Ragged

[+Flyfishermanbob]

Alternatively , on GSAK ....you could just select

"View"

"Add/delete columns"

"County"

 

When you import PQs select Y in county update box and B in State update box....

[+Fuchsiamagic]

Alternatively , on GSAK ....you could just select

"View"

"Add/delete columns"

"County"

 

When you import PQs select Y in county update box and B in State update box....

 

That works great thanks, but it still shows many Gloucestershire caches as being in Avon - which doesn't exist any more. My original question remains. Anyone got a good modern map?

[+Bear and Ragged]

GSAK.

Filter on 'County' contains 'Avon' then:

Database >Global Replace. Set County and replace with the name you want.

 

Then lock the file to stop it changing back to Avon.

 

(If it's not Avon, what is it? I ask 'cos I've found four in Avon...)

[+maxkim]

Alternatively , on GSAK ....you could just select

"View"

"Add/delete columns"

"County"

 

When you import PQs select Y in county update box and B in State update box....

 

That works great thanks, but it still shows many Gloucestershire caches as being in Avon - which doesn't exist any more. My original question remains. Anyone got a good modern map?

It will only be good if it clearly shows the three Yorkshire Ridings....

[+Bear and Ragged]

It will only be good if it clearly shows the three Yorkshire Ridings....

And Leicestershire AND Rutland!

[+Chaotica_UK]

GSAK.

Filter on 'County' contains 'Avon' then:

Database >Global Replace. Set County and replace with the name you want.

 

Then lock the file to stop it changing back to Avon.

 

(If it's not Avon, what is it? I ask 'cos I've found four in Avon...)

 

If it helps, quote from Wiki

 

Avon was, from 1974 to 1996, a non-metropolitan and ceremonial county in the west of England. The county was named after the River Avon, which runs through the area. In 1996, the county was abolished and the area split between the Bath and North East Somerset, City of Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire unitary local authorities. The Avon name is still used for some purposes and the area has a population of approximately one million people.

 

Mark

[+redsox_mark]

Thanks Mark. Yes, essentially, those in former Avon no longer have a "county" - we have a single unitary local authority.

 

But generally when asked for my address (e.g. online), "county" is a mandatory field. I tend to fill it in with "Bath and North East Somerset" (as that is where I live), though this is not actually a county. And it sometimes doesn't fit in the box.

 

In terms of Geocaching, I think keeping it as Avon is as good as any... unless you really want to treat each unitary local authority as a separate "county".

 

There is a newish series of caches called "CUBA" (Counties which Used to Be Avon)... you could call them that...

 

(Another) Mark.

[+redsox_mark]

I guess Ceremonial Counties would be appropriate (so Somerset for Bath, according to this).

[+Guanajuato]

Before this goes WAY off, have a read through this thread - it'll probably cover most points about what's 'right' or 'wrong'.

Basically, the county boundaries & names have changed so frequently that trying to incorporate all the permutations that have happened, even in the last 20 years, would be a massive undertaking. So the GSAK boundaries were done based on a list of counties, I think, from 1974.

 

A similar debate keeps cropping up on the Westmorland gazette forum - with one poster continually insisting that Cumbria is completely imaginary because Westmorland and Cumberland (& bits of Lancashire &Yorkshire) existed before. Completely missing the point that all of those entities are no more or less artificial either. I proposed renaming the areas Gerald & Muriel.

 

Going back to the original post, the best option would be to define polygons for each of the counties and do a filter within GSAK for each county polygon.

It might be quicker if you filter for 'Avon' in the county field first, to narrow down to the dubious caches. If you've only got a handful of caches, it's probably quicker to put a new entry in the county field by hand.

 

But because of historical snobbery, we'll never get a decision on a specific list to use. Surely though, the list should be 'London' and 'Here be Dragons'

[+Team Noodles]

But because of historical snobbery, we'll never get a decision on a specific list to use. Surely though, the list should be 'London' and 'Here be Dragons'

hahahaha , grand!

[tiiiim]

I know this debate has been brought up before, but can anybody point me to an accurate map which shows the current county boundaries between Somerset, Bristol and Gloucestershire which includes towns and villages?

 

I am trying to work out how many caches I have found in each county, but since Avon was abolished, each web-page I look at seems to give a different result as to the current county borders.

 

The INATN site is not much use either as the last 18 caches I did in what I though was Gloucestershire simply went into the "Uncalculated" stats area and it only show 6 found for that county.

 

I'm a little late to this party, but you can see boundaries on a map (as originally requested) here: http://www.gedanken.org.uk/mapping/osm-boundaries/

 

To use, it's fairly straightforward:

1) Choose Administration Level 6.

2) Then choose the county you'd like displayed (called a 'boundary' on this page).

3) Then click Add (towards the bottom on the left) and the boundary will be drawn on the map.

 

I think most of the boundary data is imported from OS or NPE sources. It may not be 100% accurate.

 

Edit: I tried to show the Bristol/Somerset/Gloucestershire boundaries you mention, and I think you want the following:

[*] Bristol

[*] Somerset

[*] North Somerset

[*] Bath and North East Somerset

[*] Gloucestershire

[*] South Gloucestershire

Unfortunately the site doesn't provide the facility to create a perma-link with just those boundaries. It can, however, provide a GPX file of the selected boundaries - I wonder if this could be useful to see if any caches fall within the boundary limits: perhaps something for gpsbabel?

Edited May 28, 2010 by tiiiim

[+Maple Leaf]

 

I'm a little late to this party, but you can see boundaries on a map (as originally requested) here: http://www.gedanken.org.uk/mapping/osm-boundaries/

 

 

That is brilliant - thanks for the link.

 

It has also confirmed that I have cached in Merseyside and got that bit of my map coloured in (as I thought I had, but wasn't showing on INATN) ... only just, but at least I know it is true

[tiiiim]

 

I'm a little late to this party, but you can see boundaries on a map (as originally requested) here: http://www.gedanken.org.uk/mapping/osm-boundaries/

 

 

That is brilliant - thanks for the link.

 

It has also confirmed that I have cached in Merseyside and got that bit of my map coloured in (as I thought I had, but wasn't showing on INATN) ... only just, but at least I know it is true

 

There's a lot of brilliant OpenStreetMap mashups, but unfortunately most are undocumented - I think I only found out about this one by lurking on the OSM IRC channel. It's a shame, because if you want a type of map, chances are someone's done it in OSM...

[+Fuchsiamagic]

Thanks tiiiim. That's great. Shows all the trig-points too!