Recycling old football pitches

In honour of the 2014 World Cup final, BBC’s Countryfile team recently met the locals who have turned the old Swansea football pitch, Vetch Field, into a haven of growing and community spirit.

A year long project that started in September 2011, commissioned by Adain Avion, Cultural Olympiad Wales, Vetch Field was a defunct sports and music venue has been converted into a community garden/allotment. 

Over 100 Beds fill the 2,500 metre sq. site, where members of the community, families, organisations, churches, retirement centres and charities can grow their own food. The site also contains a kitchen, numerous communal beds and polytunnels. The gardeners care for the site, learn bee keeping, and cob oven building skills as well as keeping chickens and preparing food in the kitchen.

The garden has become a centre of community, where cultures, neighbours and families meet and tend their plots, swap recipes and share meals.

As part of our DMGT Green Week, we took this opportunity to look into our data. Did you know…

• We hold over 300 planning application features relating to the development of allotments
• Our local plan data identifies over 2,100 land allocations for allotments, existing and proposed
• OS Mastermaps identify almost 18,000 allotments across Great Britain
• Our Points of Interest Data shows:
• Over 2,500 points of interest that detail horticultural services
• Over 7,800 points of interest that detail gardening, landscaping and tree surgery services
• Over 1,800 community projects and networks

Landmark’s data team solve latest OS mapping mystery

Celia Craven, a key part of Landmark’s data team, recently solved a mystery surrounding an unrecognised symbol on an OS map, alerted to us by one of our clients.  The symbol (※) seemed to have no objective reference in historic map legends and subsequent googling only lead to more misinformation. 

It seemed like there would be no resolution…until Celia got her hands on the mapping.

The mapping in the area is derived, as Mr Peter Hobby from Ordnance Survey informed Landmark, from multiple map sheets. Using this information, combined with the indication that these are hand-drawn annotations, Celia was able to analyse the area logically to and determined the potential nature of the symbol. The addition of line features to distinguish map sheets from one another was also useful in this instance, both as a visual aid and a significant clue.

If we consider the nature of surveying and the methods applied to this process (historically at least) we can hazard an informed guess that the symbols are indicators of field area values where only partial elements of the field were available to the surveyor.

An example of this is depicted below – the coloured partial field object contains the mystery symbol. The line cutting through the map indicates the boundary of a map-sheet.

The red polygon and the symbol (with associated value) conform to the measure of the field only as it’s depicted on the southernmost map-sheet.  Perhaps the surveyor at the time was not able to measure the full extent of the field and was only able to capture the extent of the field as it appeared on their map? We can’t say for certain - that’s just speculation on our behalf.

The northernmost map-sheet and its acreage value (2.971) is for the entire field. The shaded area value (1.198) is for only the field area available on the map-sheet.  Applying this logic to the other areas divided by the map-sheet line is also true.

The original query map corroborates this finding as it’s divided by four map-sheet divisions.  Here we can see a total field measure (3.914 acres) and the partial values in each map-sheet.

The south-western map sheet (from 1918) shows .388 and .128.

The south-eastern map sheet (from 1919) shows a total of 4.112 and a partial value of 2.728.

The north-western and north-eastern maps sheets were surveyed at the same time  (1923) so depict the same value of 3.914.

We can’t say for certain, but it seems the symbol represents a marker for a partial field measure.

Whilst some of us were excited at the prospect of X marking the spot Celia provided the balance of intelligence and logic that resolved the mystery. Whilst there is no buried treasure (seemingly) this minor revelation does indicate something previously hidden to us in the present, the ingenuity and diligence of mapping surveyors and the real-world work carried out by Ordnance Survey and their team of experts. These symbols were marked on maps by an individual, or group of individuals and the results of their work are still visible to this day.

 

 

 

 

 

At Landmark, we live and breathe data 24/7 – it’s our DNA after all. If you have any mysteries you need help solving, please contact one of the data team via askdata@landmarkinfo.co.uk.

Daniel Lewis-Carter

Data Information Co-Ordinator
Landmark Information Group

Promap Labs: Early access to new and innovative digital mapping datasets and concepts

We are pleased to announced the launch of Promap Labs; a new online portal that gives architects, surveyors and land or property developers the ability to test brand new digital mapping product concepts before they are launched to the market.

The Promap Labs portal showcases new beta mapping datasets and applications that can be tested before they are fully launched. This enables clients to contribute valuable feedback or suggest new ideas, for future development. 

The first new application to feature on Promap Labs is ‘Promap Labs View’; this provides the ability to easily view a wide range of data in one single map interface. Examples include natural environment data such as Sites of Special Scientific Interest and Control of Major Accident Hazards (COMAH) sites.  It is designed to provide a simple way to quickly view a location and understand what environmental factors may affect it, without needing to be a Geographical Information expert.

Visitors to Promap Labs will also have an early preview of the new multi-browser, multi-device Promap digital mapping service, which is scheduled to launch next month.

Carole Ankers, Product Development Director, Landmark Information Group said, “Promap Labs offers our clients and the wider property and land development community the opportunity to access brand new digital datasets or services, before they are fully launched. It provides early access to new and innovative ideas so they can be tested and reviewed – this includes first sight of our new multi-browser and multi-device Promap service, which is set to launch very soon.  We believe it is important to work in collaboration with the industry when developing new digital mapping tools and datasets, and the Promap Labs portal provides a fantastic platform for us to do this. ”

Dan Hughes, Sector Manager of Land and Property at Ordnance Survey: “Promap Labs is a great concept. It provides the industry with access to new digital mapping innovations and a platform from which ideas and feedback can be openly shared, paving the way for future product development. We are fully behind new innovation in our industry and so we applaud Landmark for delivering this by introducing Promap Labs.”

Adds Carole Ankers: “The first application to be showcased on Promap Labs is Promap Labs View: we encourage as many people as possible to visit Promap Labs and test out the new concepts.  We welcome feedback, so please let us know what you like about it, would change or how you might use it. We’ve made it as easy as possible to post your comments and we look forward to receiving as much feedback as possible!”

With over 27,000 users, Landmark’s Promap service is used by surveyors, architects, property and land developers, builders, engineers and industry professionals that require instant access to Ordnance Survey maps and related digital mapping data, including 3D models, height data, aerial photography and geo-data, including environmental, planning and geological reports to identify potential site issues.

To access Promap Labs visit: http://labs.promap.co.uk.  Alternatively, for more information: visit: www.landmark.co.uk, read the Landmark blog, or follow the team on Twitter.

Landmark launches Promap Plug-In for AutoCAD 2014

Landmark Information Group has today announced a free new AutoCAD 2014 plug-in for its Promap digital mapping service, which simplifies the process of integrating digitised Ordnance Survey MasterMap data directly into the CAD application.

Within the AutoCAD 2014 environment, users can now access the ‘Promap Data Services’ plug-in to digitise their area of interest using Bing Maps, and from this, request pricing for purchasing Ordnance Survey’s MasterMap. Once the file format and gridlines have been confirmed, the required dataset is then downloaded directly into AutoCAD for immediate use.

Carole Ankers, Product Development Director, Landmark Information Group said, “For anyone looking to incorporate accurate OS mapping into their AutoCAD projects, the new Promap plug-in creates a seamless and simple way of doing this. Within a few clicks, accurate topography data can be integrated within the CAD system, saving time. We have developed this in response to our clients’ feedback and so are pleased to launch the new plug-in today.”

The ‘Promap Data Services’ plug-in is available for PC users and can be downloaded from today via http://www.promap.co.uk/autocad.php.  The plug-in is available free of charge.

With over 27,000 users, Landmark’s Promap service is used by surveyors, architects, property and land developers, builders, engineers and industry professionals that require instant access to Ordnance Survey maps and related digital mapping data.   It also provides access to 3D models, height data, aerial photography and geo-data, including environmental, planning and geological reports to identify potential site issues.