Saturday 12 February 2011

House or road

More name checks today, the target was the Barmby Moor area near Pocklington. As we have seen before, the OS Locator data is very useful. It showed up a few small new developments in Barmby Moor. It also showed up a number of oddities which we have sorted out.

When I originally surveyed Barmby Moor we did it quite quickly and some street names were missing. Today I wanted to correct that. One area that was a bit awkward was the main road through the village. It only bears a name plate at the north east end, where it says Front Street. According to OS Locator it is called Main Street. We couldn't see any other name boards, so if the name changes it was difficult to see where. I looked at the house numbers for clues, but for once that didn't work - the houses have names and no numbers. I decided to ask the locals.

A very helpful elderly chap was tidying the garden of his bungalow and he explained, at some length, how the name of the street had changed in his lifetime. He explained where Front Street changes to Main Street and how, when the bungalow he lives in was built 30 years ago, the end of the street became West End. Sure enough the few bungalows at the end of the street have a numbering scheme that fits.

The main A1079 that runs by the village is called York Road on OS Locator. There are no signs to that effect that I can see, but it does go to York. Oddly there is a small piece of the road that seem to have a name Gale Hill within the section that is also called York Road. Looking closely I spotted a house called Gales Hill in just the right spot. I have seen this elsewhere with OS data. Near Molescroft there is a road OS think is Constitution Hill, but that is the name of a nearby farm. The road is called Malton Road, I know someone who lives there.

If you are using OS Locator for road names, beware of surveyors who can't tell a house name from a road name.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not only do the OS think it's called Constitution Hill, so do I. Constitution Hill along Malton Road. The farm was/is called Constitution Hill Farm, I know someone who lived there.

Coppleflat Lane - the 1892 OS map shows it as a short section from the Newbald Road / Walkington Heads crossroads, towards Killingwoldgraves Lane. Did the OS surveyor make it up? I prefer to think that it really was called that at some time, though the name has been applied, presumably incorrectly, to Mill Lane. Next time I see my elderly Aunt, who was born and lived at Killingwoldgraves Farm, I must ask her about it.

Chris Hill said...

Thanks for your feedback.

Constitution Hill.
The road name can be Malton Road (as it is signed) and change to Constitution Hill at some point but there are no signs to indicate where this happens. The way the OS describe the change with OS Locator is clearly wrong, since houses that definitely are on Malton Road (that is their address) are shown as on Constitution Hill. Since there are no signs I have to act according to what is on the ground, unless extra evidence comes to light. OS Locator can be used as extra evidence, but it is sometimes wrong and certainly somewhat wrong in this case. If you have better evidence I would be delighted to incorporate it - or you could change it yourself.

Coppleflat Lane
Again, There is no sign on the road name on the ground and plenty of contradictory evidence on signs. If you find extra evidence I would be pleased to incorporate it.

My aim is a quality database and map, based on evidence that is consistent with our open licence. Local knowledge fits into this evidence. Things change over time, and some of these changes are due to OS making mistakes that, because of OS's reputation for accuracy, become held to be the truth. I am keen to be sure that OS data is not just used without being checked. OS naming of rural roads is far from perfect and errors often goes unchallenged because it does not directly affect the address of a property. Any mistakes that are found are being fed back to OS for them to investigate and they may yet not agree.

Please comment further if you have more info.

Anonymous said...

Hey - this is really interesting to read. I'm a young guy from Beverley, East Yorkshire. Stumbled upon here searching for Coppleflat Lane. It's fascinating to learn how things change and develop! Thanks