Arcoarena

OSM and why you don’t copy Google Maps

I didn’t mention this in the previous post as I had a confidence attack.

Looking at this road in Beckermet Google maps, and the post office seem to think it’s called “Lowrey Close”. I was quite careful to check the spelling when I recorded it as I got it wrong on my first try.

I’m certain it’s actually Lowry Close,  after non other than L.S. Lowry  whose sole link to the area appears to be “regularly visiting friends in Cleator Moor”, but I suspect is the closest West Cumbria has ever got to a famous artist.

Of course, I could have got the spelling wrong and whoever supplied the data to Google may indeed be correct. But at least if that is the case someone can correct it.

Open Street Maps

So, over Christmas I got a Garmin eTrex (the basic one) second hand from someone on eBay. When I visited my parents I noticed that my Beckermet looked a little non-existent on Open Street Map. So, I though that I’d do something about it. Tracing from the Yahoo images isn’t possible because at any sort of sensible zoom level everything looks like a brown blob so the GPS was the only way to do it.

Here we have Beckermet before

and now after

I do have one confession. I appear to have missed Kirkbeck Drive, oops, I’ll have to do it next time I’m back. I’m also missing some road names, largely because they don’t have signs on them anywhere. I’ll have to look to see if they’re on out of copyright maps.

Care for a look? - Take Me There

Plans for next time include taking my bike to do some of the roads leading away from the village and some of the national cycle routes obviously.