A walk in the park

We went to East Park yesterday. It was a a bit cold and damp, but the walk outside was pleasant. We walked around the paths which cover the park, some of them have only been added recently. There's a lake with a bridge over it and the expected pitches and playground. I had to improvise the southern edge until I've completed a few roads that make inroads into the park. Take a look.

Electric fish, hedgehogs and spy cars.

We had some shopping to do this morning and on the way out we saw a strange car with a mast on the roof. The mast had a sort of box on it. In the afternoon we went out again and there was this car again (in a different place). Then it dawned on me that it might be the Google Streetview camera car. I thought that was on hold in the UK. Hmmmm. I wish I'd managed to get a picture of it.

We set off to map Preston, a village just east of Hull. On the way into the centre of the village we saw an odd sign at the entrance to the Cock and Bell pub carpark. I'm not really sure what Electric Fish and Chips are. Are they both electric? Why would you want them? And then there's the dilemma of how to map them. I chickened out and left them off the map for now.

A bit later we saw a hedgehog scuttling across the road. I picked it up from the road and put it back onto the grass verge. It seemed a bit small so it might not make it through the winter hibernation, but I didn't run it over.

It took longer than I expected, so the road to Sproatley and beyond will have to wait.

Mapping and blogs

We went out into Hull to divide up some of the remaining space by putting a few roads and roundabouts in. We added a few residential roads too. We mapped a rather strange junction which could have just been a simple T junction, or even a small roundabout, but it all adds to the mix.

Croda, a large multi-national, has built a large wind turbine for its plant in Hull. It's attracting some attention, partly because it's so big. The picture does not do it justice. I've yet to add it to the map - it will have to be a guesstimate based on triangulation because I can't get access to the site.

I've also been working on some code to draw tiles, entirely for my own pleasure and interest. I thought I'd write a blog about that too: codeblog.cjhill.co.uk

A tale of two villages

On the south side of Hull there used to be a glorious piece of waste ground, right against the Humber bank. At one time it had been a dock, but it was long abandoned and it was very overgrown. There was wildlife here in abundance, butterflies, moths, weasels, stoats and loads of birds. The river Humber is a magnet for migrating birds and this bit of waste ground was a good place to see some of them very close to the city centre and close to where I worked. That was was twenty years ago and now it has been developed into the Victoria Dock Village. I can't think of any where less like an English village, but still it is popular and this week we added it to the map. I have sketched in a footpath that I know runs along the riverbank, but I haven't walked it yet with a GPS to get an accurate track. I think the riverbank is a bit out so it would tidy that up too. Map

Today we took a look at Sutton. This is rather incongruous as it was a village on the outskirts of Hull but it has been subsumed into the city fairly quickly and yet retains the feel of a pleasant village, something the developers of places like Victoria Dock would probably give good money to know how to emulate. Map

Mapping Sutton has helped to improve the track of the national cycle network route 65 which passes through Sutton on its way to Hornsea. It follows an abandoned railway line which I traced originally from the low-res Yahoo photos and I've been slowly improving it. I also need to improve the Hornsea end too.

Edging along

We've been working our way through Hull, and there's still quite a lot to do. I thought it might be a good idea to trace the outer edge of what remains, so we set off in the rain to check it out. We saw more new developments, though mostly small with a few unsold houses.

We followed the roads that are furthest east, some were the outer edge of the city like Noddle Hill Way but others were little residential roads. It was a bit of a different way to operate and I enjoyed it, but especially the result. We really now have the complete outside edge of the whole city on the map. It shows that the eastern boundary of the city is quite a long way from the edge of the houses. We just have to fill in the gaps towards the centre now ...

Road to nowhere

We combined a shopping trip with a bit of mapping around the Kingswood area of north Hull. The estates around the Kingswood shopping area are still being built. I think it could take a long time to finish because lots of houses are standing complete but unsold. Still others are started as foundations and then covered. Yet more roads are laid out, with roundabouts and street lights in fields.

I couldn't get to all of the roads, some of the small roads are not yet complete. Some of the bigger routes that lead into these fields were blocked with a gate or drums. I think the fields will remain green for a couple of years yet as the building boom has drawn to an abrupt halt. There are a couple of developments that we have thought that we need to revisit when they are complete, but that might be a long time yet. Still, if new developments are at a standstill it's easier to keep the map up-to-date.

Estates, bleak or not

We've been out a few times in the last week or so and the map of Hull is slowly improving. Greatfield is now complete, another chunk of Stoneferry is mapped and now a piece of Bransholme is on the map.

Greatfield was straightforward and went well. At the end of a road there was a large space for buses to turn round. I still haven't added it to the map - I'm not sure how. Greatfield is not the smartest part of city but there is a feeling of pride in some parts.

The part of Stoneferry we completed borders East Park, which we have not added yet. Westcott street was a bit of a pain, with many very short stubs sticking out at both sides, but they're on the map so we don't have to return there now.

Today we ventured to Bransholme again in the rain. We completed the roads of the northern part of the estate, but there are loads of footpaths that could be added, the whole estate is a maze of paths. There were more derelict houses on show. I read today that there is a shortage of social housing in Yorkshire, what I saw was that a large estate has a lot of empty houses. I don't suggest that people are housed there, just that the architect who replaces it understands that people want to live in communities not estates. There is a lot of large, empty grass spaces that look tidy enough, but the word that springs to my mind is bleak.