Map Recommendations Please

[camo]

Hi Mike

No problem, glad you was able to eventually get on site.

Roy

[Nicola Main]

I always use this site Get-a-map online free from Ordnance Survey, Britain's national mapping agency just click on the pink circle. It's completely free as well.

[Lancashire Lad]

Originally Posted by Nicola Main

I always use this site Get-a-map online free from Ordnance Survey, Britain's national mapping agency just click on the pink circle. It's completely free as well.

Yes - but as I said in my original post at the top of the thread, Get A Map only lets you view in a very small screen which is not very user friendly if you want to pan around to find something not quite in view.

Multimap's full screen Ordnance Survey map option lets you see much more at any one time (but still at the highest detail).

Regards
Mike.

[Nicola Main]

I know sorry Mike it was my mistake I dind't read the full post and I posted that by accident. I couldn't delete it because I couldn't find the button for doing so. I feel like a complete idiot now

[Lancashire Lad]

Originally Posted by Nicola Main

I know sorry Mike it was my mistake I dind't read the full post and I posted that by accident. I couldn't delete it because I couldn't find the button for doing so. I feel like a complete idiot now

No problem - Try Multimap and click on the Ordnance Survey map view option, I think you'll like it. (Much bigger map view than Get-A-Map).
Regards
Mike.

[Meta menardi]

For a variety of ecological mapping, try Magicmap.gov.uk

[Lancashire Lad]

Originally Posted by Meta menardi

For a variety of ecological mapping, try Magicmap.gov.uk

This is a good site, but can't be used properly unless you turn pop-up blocker off

Regards
Mike.

[jamicu]

I would also have pointed to Multipmap, but here are two more that might be worth bookmarking for yourself or whoever reads the thread.

The first definitely comes under "something to bookmark for next year"
OpenStreetMap
This is an editable or wiki style map, set up a couple of years ago as a direct response to Ordinance Surveys monopoly of mapping data in the UK. It started up, as the name suggests, to map out streets and was dominated by cyclists. But there are no restrictions on what can be mapped and open areas are beginning to be mapped.

The data provided is freely available to anyone (the whole point) and several maps are being created using the data. The website site shows one version of the map using a map renderer called mapnik.

The great thing about this map is it allows you to map out your local patch and make the information available to other people, something which would be very useful on this website. There are still huge holes in this map, which is what everyone spots first, but you can fill them in. There is a problem at the moment with a need to sort out ways of mapping habitat, and then getting the main map renderer to show them.

The following video gives and idea about how the map is "filling in"
OSM 2008: A Year of Edits on Vimeo

The best part for me are the free maps some people are making for Garmin GPSr's. I can go out for a walk with a free detailed map on my GPS which includes contour lines, and I can update this map every few weeks.
FREE UK Maps Home ?(talkytoasteruk)?

But as I said at the beginning OpenStreetMap is something for later, and I expect it has a good chance of becoming the main map for many uses


The second site is useful for getting Grid Coordinates. It shows the OS map and other maps, side by side, and was created to allow people to create gpx files for their GPS recievers.
Where is the path (or street)

There is one big problem, this free site has a limit on how many OS tiles it can take from OS each day, and it usually has to stop showing OS tiles by the late afternoon. But when its working its useful to compare OS maps along side GoogleMaps or OpenStreetMap. It also can show a 1940's OS map.

[poschiavanus]

Originally Posted by jamicu

The first definitely comes under "something to bookmark for next year"
OpenStreetMap
This is an editable or wiki style map, set up a couple of years ago as a direct response to Ordinance Surveys monopoly of mapping data in the UK. It started up, as the name suggests, to map out streets and was dominated by cyclists. But there are no restrictions on what can be mapped and open areas are beginning to be mapped.

I've become a big fan of OpenStreetMap since getting a GPS (Garmin) for Christmas. Don't wait for next year! If you have a GPS, or know a local patch well, I'd recommend not just using it, but contributing to it. Its usefulness increases the more people contribute to it. What's more you can put the stuff which is important to you (e.g., bird hides).

As an example, whilst away in Italy I was downloading traces from one day and re-building the map for my GPS for the next day. I now have all the little paths which the OS will never map for various local patches. Together with the ability to waypoint locations it makes life so much easier to re-find things. BUT more than this: it's fun (and addictive)!

Coverage is patchy: much better in the South East and probably better in cities. So its not yet the resource for wildlife places in the North and West.

posch