Since issue 100 of the new series of Newsletter there has been a regular item “Observations and Discoveries”. This is a collection of small articles about mining related sites in our region. Adam Russell has transcribed an index to the entries into a spreadsheet which Rob has converted to a database.
The database was then made available on the new (2017) web site. As the file included Ordnance Survey Grid References for the sites Rob converted those to Longitude/Latitude coordinates and linked the individual entries to OS1:50k mapping and the Longitude/Latitude coordinates link to Google maps.
A further development (2018) was to aggregate all the locations onto a single Google Map and then to a single OS map with clickable links to show more detail of the individual locations. Logged in members will see links below from this page to the database and the Google and OS aggregate maps.
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Detail about the O&D database and maps below, return to this page should you need clarification. The links to the database and maps pages are here:
Usage notes: database
“N/L” relates to the newsletter in which the article appeared. It is a clickable link to the corresponding newsletter.
“O&D” indicates which issue of Observations and Discoveries held the article. It is a clickable link to the corresponding newsletter.
“OSNGR” is the grid reference of the site and is a clickable link to show the location on OS1:50k mapping.
“GridDesc” is the grid reference as shown in the newsletter. That column remains because in some cases it was a list of NGRs where the article related to several points of interest across a small area. Others have no associated individual location.
“Coordinates” are the longitude & latitude of the site and is a clickable link to Google maps.
Usage notes: Google maps
Hopefully Google Maps zoom and pan facilities are intuitive and familiar. The specific advantage of Google maps is that you can switch view between “satellite” and “map” view. As Google maps show little detail beyond roads, rivers, railways the satellite view helps locate the site. In addition “Street view” can help with sites close to roads, finding parking spots or fingerposts identifying footpath access.
Usage notes: OS maps
The specific benefit of OS maps is the detailed coverage of features not visible on Google maps. These are the “free” OS map service 1:50k (Landranger) maps as well as several other scales but with less detail. It doesn’t include the more detailed 1:25k OS (Explorer) maps.
The OS interface seems unreliable, sometimes for no good reason it gives an error (HTTP Referrer not valid) but a different web browser will work OK. Others have reported the same issue, it comes & goes and OS programmers said “will look at it” (in 2017!) .
Usage notes: the aggregated OS map
The aggregate OS map is here. OS have changed their programmer interface so this feature doesn’t work – pending coding updates to the new version.
Clicking on a marker will open a popup showing site name, note. O&D links to the newsletter featuring the full article. There is a problem with how PDFs are displayed, it’s influenced by the end-user’s PC software configuration (whether the PDF should open inside the web browser replacing the current page, in a new tab or in an external “helper” app, typically the Adobe PDF viewer or just downloading the file to your PC). Returning to the map overview MAY reset the map to original center and zoom, the preferred behaviour would be to go back to the map at your already chosen center and zoom.
If the newsletter opens in a new tab or in an external PDF viewer the map should remain open in the original tab. Otherwise the same effect can probably be effected by clicking the middle mouse button if you have one or right-clicking and selecting “Open in new tab” or similar.
Usage notes: the aggregated Google map
The aggregate Google map is here.
Moving the mouse-pointer over a marker will show the site name, clicking the marker will open a popup showing site name, note and the newsletter number. Unlike with the OS map the number does NOT link to the relevant newsletter .
Mobile & Tablet view
This part of the web site content needs a big screen and a mouse, there is no special coding to facilitate use on mobile phone or tablet computers.
Location accuracy
The location should be regarded as indicative rather than precise. Regard them as showing the relevant 100 metre square.
There may still be some errors in the Grid reference (some have been corrected in OSNGR but not in GridDesc). The gross errors have been fixed (e.g correcting wrong 100K square designators), smaller errors may remain but are easy to fix (email the webmaster).