Author Topic: Explorers and Landrangers  (Read 17309 times)

Hugh Westacott

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Re: Explorers and Landrangers
« Reply #30 on: December 28, 2013, 05:22:19 PM »
Many thanks to CP and Adi for their lucid responses to my questions about raster and vector maps.

Adi wrote
<I was under the impression contours were 5 meters on all 1.25000 and 10 meters on 1.50000. Is this no longer the case. I do know contours only appear on 1.10000, 1.25000 and 1.50000 scale maps.>

All 204 sheets in the 1:50,000 Landranger series have contour intervals at 10 metres.

Of the 403 Explorer sheets, 333 have contours at 5 metres and 70 have contours at 10 metres.

So of all the 607 Ordnance Survey maps in these two series, 333 have contour intervals at 5 metres and 274 have contour intervals of 10 metres.

This information was supplied to me by the Ordnance Survey on 13 November 2013.

Hugh

adi

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Re: Explorers and Landrangers
« Reply #31 on: December 28, 2013, 06:46:42 PM »
On the 1.25000 the ones that have 10 meter contours is that across the whole map or just in steep locations. The reason I ask is because if you look at the Key of a 1.25000 map it suggests a mixture of both across the whole map. I only have a couple of 1.25000 maps of low land areas local to me. When I go to the high land areas I have only ever used 1.50000 maps. In fact most of my maps are 1.50000, I prefer them for some reason, may be that's an Army thing?
« Last Edit: December 28, 2013, 07:09:17 PM by adi »
"We do not belong to those who only get their thought from books, or at the prompting of books - it is our custom to think in the open air, walking, leaping, climbing or dancing, of lonesome mountains by preference, or close to the sea, where even the paths become thoughtful." Friedrich Nietzsche

Hugh Westacott

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Re: Explorers and Landrangers
« Reply #32 on: December 28, 2013, 07:53:03 PM »
Adi

Contour intervals are never mixed on the same map sheet. But you have to careful when using mapping software because there are no sheet lines and you can have both intervals on the same screen and print-out.

Explorers have a standard key printed on every map in the series. Thus, my local Explorer map covering Amersham has the same information about coastal features, such as sand, shingle, saltings etc., in its key as does a map of Brighton. Similarly, all maps in the series have the same information about rights of way including the statement Rights of way are not shown on maps of Scotland.. BUT the stated contour interval is specific to that particular map sheet i.e. it is either Contours are at 5 metres vertical interval or Contours are at 10 metres vertical interval.                                                   

Landrangers, too, have a standard key for every map in the series that is compiled on the same principles.

According to information supplied by the Ordnance Survey to Lyle, the test that decides the contour interval is the angle of slope (but he omitted the value from his post on the subject - nudge, nudge).

The scale of map that you use is a matter of personal preference. The great majority of map-readers who walk in lowland countryside use Explorers because they show field boundaries which are essential navigating tools. I always use Explorers irrespective of the terrain, but I use Landrangers for planning purposes especially when working out a long-distance route.

Hugh

The proper pursuit of accuracy should not be confused with pedantry. Horace

adi

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Re: Explorers and Landrangers
« Reply #33 on: December 28, 2013, 08:36:10 PM »
Yeah I know they use a standard key across a series. The reason I asked was because attached is the height info on a 1:25000 map.  That is why I thought they were mixed in High land areas from the illustration provided. I personally very rarely need or use field boundaries for navigation. There are normally enough features to navigate from even in poor weather conditions. If you are in Highland areas and there are no field boundaries, they are never an aid to navigation. I see they might be of use to people that follow maps but don't use or know how to use a compass. It amazes me how many people I have seen with only a map. And it seems it is mostly these people that stop you and hold out their map and ask where are we. Years ago a couple stopped me on North moor Dartmoor and held their map out and demanded I showed them where we were. So I obliged by saying "This is Brecon Beacon and the map is for Dartmoor!". The look on their faces was priceless.       
"We do not belong to those who only get their thought from books, or at the prompting of books - it is our custom to think in the open air, walking, leaping, climbing or dancing, of lonesome mountains by preference, or close to the sea, where even the paths become thoughtful." Friedrich Nietzsche

adi

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Re: Explorers and Landrangers
« Reply #34 on: December 28, 2013, 09:23:15 PM »
Interestingly all Keys are not the same. As can be seen on this map it clearly states all contours are at 5 meters. So can I surmise that it would state all contours are at 10 meters
"We do not belong to those who only get their thought from books, or at the prompting of books - it is our custom to think in the open air, walking, leaping, climbing or dancing, of lonesome mountains by preference, or close to the sea, where even the paths become thoughtful." Friedrich Nietzsche

captain paranoia

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Re: Explorers and Landrangers
« Reply #35 on: December 28, 2013, 10:50:41 PM »
"I see they might be of use to people that follow maps but don't use or know how to use a compass."

Which goes to show that different people, and different environments summon up different navigational techniques.  In complex lowland, especially in forested areas, I use field boundaries extensively, along with other supplementary techniques. In upland areas, I'll use terrain association, since, as you say, there usually aren't any field boundaries.  And I generally only use a compass in restricted visibility.

Interestingly, Wally Keay has this to say about the use of the compass (admittedly in the context of setting the map), in his book 'Land Navigation' for the DofE:

"There are other ways of setting a map - you could use your compass - but to have to use your compass, in good visibility in normal or open country with a surfeit of landmarks, is an admission of failure. Moreover, it would deprive you of the necessity to continually compare map and landscape which is the basis of all sound land navigation."

I think Wally is suggesting that a compass is only used by those who can't navigate by landmark or terrain association...

I'm of the opinion that it's good to be able to use a multitude of techniques, and choose the technique, or set of complementary techniques to suit the navigation task in hand.  Like Wally, I try to discourage over-reliance on the compass to merely set a map, and encourage my DofE students to look around them, and set the map based on where they've just come from, and what's around them.  But we do need to strike a balance between techniques, to ensure they're competent in all.

adi

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Re: Explorers and Landrangers
« Reply #36 on: December 29, 2013, 03:31:34 AM »
Personally I don't take much notice of what people say in books. They only give their own opinion and often try to make it their own and in doing so over compliment things. I am not saying I have never learnt anything from a book because I have but normally by going out and practicing the technique and refining it to a way that works for me.

When I am on a planned trip I rarely have the map out because I write a route card and take bearings at the start of each leg. I try to avoid footpaths if I can walk on a bearing because I find paths boring (That is not always possible).   

One thing I do enjoy when in open country is once I have my bearing to put the compass away and use natural navigation to keep me on the bearing. I got very comfortable with this however I am rusty now.

I have had people walk up to me in some very remote open country with only a map and ask where are we. I find this shocking and worse than walking with only a mobile phone of GPS unit.
"We do not belong to those who only get their thought from books, or at the prompting of books - it is our custom to think in the open air, walking, leaping, climbing or dancing, of lonesome mountains by preference, or close to the sea, where even the paths become thoughtful." Friedrich Nietzsche

Hugh Westacott

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Re: Explorers and Landrangers
« Reply #37 on: December 29, 2013, 09:12:49 AM »
Adi wrote

<Interestingly all Keys are not the same. As can be seen on this map it clearly states all contours are at 5 meters. So can I surmise that it would state all contours are at 10 meters.>

Yes, if it were any Landranger or an Explorer of an upland area.

I suspect that the two keys that you helpfully reproduce are both Explorers but of different editions. Although map keys are standardized they may change between different editions. An obvious example is information about the grid magnetic angle.

This is what I have to say about Explorer and Landranger editions in my forthcoming book The Walker's Handbook; everything you need to know about walking in the British Isles which should be published next spring (puff, puff!):

<Maps in both these series are revised regularly and this information, together with the copyright date of the edition, is shown on the key. The extent of the revision is indicated by a code made up of a letter followed, in some cases, by a number:
a)   When a sheet is fully revised the edition letter is advanced, e.g. from A to B, and the copyright date is changed.
b)   When a sheet is revised with significant changes the edition letter is unchanged but a number is added or advanced, e.g. A to A1 or B2 to B3, and the copyright date is changed.
c)   When a sheet is reprinted with minor changes the edition is underscored, e.g. A2 to A2, and the copyright date remains unchanged.
d)   Note that the copyright date alone appears on the 1:50,000 and 1:25,000 maps published by the Automobile Association and Geographia.
   Information about the latest edition of any Landranger or Explorer map may be obtained from the Ordnance Survey website (www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk).>

Hugh

The proper pursuit of accuracy should not be confused with pedantry. Horace


Lost Soul

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Re: Explorers and Landrangers
« Reply #38 on: December 29, 2013, 10:05:57 AM »
CP wrote:

I'm of the opinion that it's good to be able to use a multitude of techniques, and choose the technique, or set of complementary techniques to suit the navigation task in hand.  Like Wally, I try to discourage over-reliance on the compass to merely set a map, and encourage my DofE students to look around them, and set the map based on where they've just come from, and what's around them.  But we do need to strike a balance between techniques, to ensure they're competent in all.

This goes back to the Seven Safe Practices thread I started.

http://micronavigation.com/forum/index.php?topic=619.msg4452#new

In particular item 2.

Multiple Choices - Safety in Numbers.

There are numerous methods of fixing your position / navigating, ancient and modern.  Use them, but know each has its strengths and weaknesses. No one system has proven to be entirely good enough on it's own.


captain paranoia

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Re: Explorers and Landrangers
« Reply #39 on: December 29, 2013, 10:15:59 AM »
> When I am on a planned trip I rarely have the map out because I write a route card and take bearings at the start of each leg.

Again, this shows how different people use different navigation techniques; whilst the route card is a staple technique, discussed in all the books, and recommended for safety reasons, and prepared religiously by DofE groups, it's a technique I only use when forced to (e.g. taking part in organised events such as the Water Aid Munro Challenge).  I don't follow a 'route' when walking, but know where I want to go, and work out how to get there by looking at the ground in front of me, and the map.  I will look at a map beforehand, and figure out a rough route, but I don't prepare a route card.

Books, as you say, are the author's opinion, but the author is usually experienced and knowledgeable in the subject, which is why they wrote the book.  Like Lyle, for instance...  Whilst books are only a starting point in learning, they"re usually a good starting point, collecting subject knowledge in a handy, well-organised form.
« Last Edit: December 29, 2013, 10:24:34 AM by captain paranoia »

captain paranoia

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Re: Explorers and Landrangers
« Reply #40 on: December 29, 2013, 10:18:46 AM »
> This goes back to the Seven Safe Practices thread I started.

Indeed, or almost any field of human endeavour:

'There are many ways to skin a cat'...

Hugh Westacott

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Re: Explorers and Landrangers
« Reply #41 on: December 29, 2013, 01:06:45 PM »
I endorse everything that Lost Soul and Captain Paranoia have contributed to this thread.

Great Britain has much more lowland countryside than upland areas as can be proved by the contour intervals on Explorer maps (333 with 5 metres and a mere 70 with 10 metres). Yet many dedicated hillwalkers seem to assume that only upland areas are worth exploring on foot. How wrong they are! In the course of a long life Ive walked in most of the upland areas of Great Britain yet I'm equally passionate about the delectable lowland countryside of England.

Last October, my wife and I spent a few days in the East Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. One Sunday morning we walked from Beer to Colyton to attend the harvest festival and as we approached the little town of Colyton through the fields beside the river Coly, the octagonal lantern on the St Andrew's church could be seen above the trees, and the sound of its bells could be heard. I’m not ashamed to admit that the exquisite beauty of the scene moved me to tears. Even as I write this I can feel a pricking behind my eyes as I recall the moment.

But to explore the dense network of public rights of way (PRoW) that crisscross the fields and woods of lowland England and Wales you have to be aware of certain facts. Outwith the relative small areas of open access countryside you have to keep to the PRoWs to avoid trespassing.  PRoWs are quirky and delightful but are not always easy to follow because, apart from popular walking areas such as the Chilterns, the North Downs, the Sourh Downs etc, there is no guarantee that they will be visible on the ground. They are mostly signposted from roads but are not always waymarked. In some areas, such as the South Downs, you can navigate reasonably well using a 1:50,000 map but once you descend to the Weald you are making navigation unnecessarily difficult if you don’t use a 1:25,000 map. Some popular walking areas have numerous paths that are not PRoWs and may not be marked on maps. This can make navigating difficult and confusing.

Consider this situation. You are relying on a 1:50,000 map to navigate through fields and woods. You come to a lane. The map indicates that you should follow it for approximately 325 metres and then turn off along a bridleway. The signpost is missing but there are two gates one each side of a hedge at the approximate location. You can’t tell from the map which side of the hedge the path runs, and contours, even supposing that there are any, cannot possibly help. But if you were using a 1:25,000 map the hedge (field boundary) would be depicted and you would know which gate to open.

A walker using a 1:50,000 map in lowland countryside is not using the best tool available and I suggest that anyone who really believes that contours are more important than field boundaries should join me in a walk in North Buckinghamshire.

I invariably navigate with a 1:25,000 map irrespective of the terrain because I prefer that scale and it gives more information about the countryside through which I’m walking. I always carry a compass which is often useful even in lowland countryside. Occasionally you may come across a junction of PRoWs in the middle of a field. If none of them are visible on the ground than a compass will point you in the right direction. I never use a route card although I carry one when leading walks.

We are all so delightfully different!

Hugh

The proper pursuit of accuracy should not be confused with pedantry. Horace

adi

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Re: Explorers and Landrangers
« Reply #42 on: December 29, 2013, 04:21:43 PM »
At the end of the day we are all individuates and we have individual ways of doing things. There is no such way as carved in stone.

"We do not belong to those who only get their thought from books, or at the prompting of books - it is our custom to think in the open air, walking, leaping, climbing or dancing, of lonesome mountains by preference, or close to the sea, where even the paths become thoughtful." Friedrich Nietzsche

Hugh Westacott

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Re: Explorers and Landrangers
« Reply #43 on: February 02, 2014, 07:41:35 AM »
Lyle, n his contribution to this thread (Reply 7 on 20 December at 1205) posted the following quotation from a statement he had received from the Ordnance Survey:

Contours 1:50 000 (1 to 50,000) aka LandRanger maps:

Metric contours at 10 metre vertical interval are shown on all Landranger maps. They are shown in screened orange. See “Screens” etc specification. Contours are derived from the following sources:

   •   Contours surveyed at 1:10 000 scale and at 10m vertical interval.
   •   By interpolation from contours surveyed at 1:10 560 scale which are at 25ft vertical interval.
   (The following sheets in Northern Scotland still contain interpolated contours: 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 39, 41 and 42).
   •   Field Revision.
   •   Development plans


I knew that the legend on the latest edition of these maps stated that contours were derived from 1:10,000 maps and I speculated that Lyle might have been sent out-of-date information. So I contacted the OS and received the following reply:

Contours on OS Landranger Maps
 
I can confirm that the contour information on most OS Landranger Maps is derived from our 1:10 000 scale data.  However, a few maps still contain interpolated contours, derived from the old 1:10 560 scale mapping.  The note explaining this was removed from the legends in the mid-nineties, which was when the legends were produced digitally.  This was mainly because the legends were also revamped to cater for new features that were added to the mapping, thus requiring additional space within the legend.  The area of the legend could not be expanded, so selected information had to be excluded from the legend instead.

 
So it was lack of space that required the OS to provide incorrect information on a few of its Landrangers!

I doubt whether this has any significance for micronavigators.

Hugh

The proper pursuit of accuracy should not be confused with pedantry. Horace