Project-116 is something I’ve been toying with for many years…
Basically, the idea was / is to try and drive every greenlane on the Ordnance Survey Landranger Map Sheet 116 which includes my hometown of St. Asaph…
The circle represents a 10 mile radius from my home
The drawing pins are lanes driven at the time of the photo
(March 2021)
The idea was / is to compile a table of them all with notes of the date they were driven, conditions, problems, etc…
Looking at the Trailwise2 resource – available to GLASS (the GreenLaning ASSociation) Members – that shows these ‘lanes “available” -in the same area as Landranger Sheet 116 –
(screen Grabbed end of March 2021)
The blue lines are UCRs (Unclassified County Roads, sometimes referred to as “White” Roads) and the red lines are BOATs (ByWay Open to All Traffic).
I hasten to add that there are more lanes than those shown on TW2, and also that all these lanes might not be physically passable (too narrow, blocked by nature or landowners, locked gates, etc), or have TROs (Traffic Regulation Orders – closed for repairs, etc) on them to stop their use for a period of time. So a lot of research is needed before venturing out. The TW2 resource has notes on it to notify users of these restrictions. Local knowledge, and contacting the relevant local council are also needed.
So… I need a way to catalogue all these lanes?…
An Excel Spreadsheet!
But how to reference them?… Grid References –
Lanes (start and end) are normally referenced by Grid References, which are an easting and a northing, so for instance my house is located at SJ 032 743, more details here on Wikipedia.
So my spreadsheet looks like –
(ORPA Dots – Other Route with Public Access)
So the first two columns are the Easting and Northing, so taking every square on the Landranger Map one at a time (all 1,600 of them!), examining every route in each square, and cross referencing… So the third column is my findings, the fourth column is my notes, and the fifth column is the corresponding TW2 reference, if it’s already on there…
The plan is then to mark all the ones I have driven, and then go and see the ones I haven’t driven… Yet!
I obviously can’t publish or send anyone the full list, because as soon as I write it it’s out-of-date and needs researching again before driving, etc… Greenlaning has always been some sort of secret society I’m afraid. But I will update TW2 with my findings as I go along… 😉
Future entries in the Blog section of this, errr, blogpage will be of me wandering around locally investigating and hopefully driving some of these ‘lanes that I haven’t driven… YET! 😉
A little on Research Tools
Mostly inspired by long chats with Alan my usual co-pilot in my previous greenlaning Jimny…
(This is at 1:50,000 scale)
Routes can be downloaded from the desktop version, and emailed to each other too as GPX files, and the iPad shows me exactly where we are and the route we are following… (and also useful for showing Landowners too!)
We’ll take this one ‘lane as an example, this is a BOAT (ByWay Open to All Traffic) between the north of Rhuddlan and the south of Rhyl. I tried to drive this MANY years ago in a Vitara, but was thwarted by bollards on the north side.
This shows the view of the bollards at the northern end, pedestrianised 😦
(The GreenLaning Association)
Shown as a BOAT on TW2
I’ll add some after re-visiting it – read on! 😉
So then we jump to…
an OS Explorer Mao level (1:25,000 scale) view of the area…
This confirms the route is indeed a BOAT (Byway Open to All Traffic)
Satellite aerial view shows me the ‘lane.
The yellow arrow is where I started the ‘lane many years ago… I drove to approximately where the black arrow is, and then walked down to the orange arrow which is where the bollards are shown in the previous Street View screen grab… and is the direction of the BOAT indicated on all the other maps.
If I then zoom-in on Google Earth to where I was parked all those years ago in the centre of the screen… What’s that to the right… under cover of those trees…
Back to Street View and “drive” around the block without leaving my desk in my study… and there’s a vehicular gate?! 🙂
That’s where the black arrow is pointing to on the Google Earth zoomed in photo shown earlier…
I figured they couldn’t just close a BOAT with bollards? So after all these years I plan to go and drive it again from south to north, stop where I stopped all those years ago, and have a little walk and see if that gate is unlocked…? And the BOAT may therefore be drivable, in it’s entirety!
Amazing what you can do from home on the Internet these days!!!
Updated 13/04/21 – I managed to get out today to the northerly edge of the ‘lane mentioned above, and found…
That gate… is LOCKED! 😦
I walked back to where I stopped years ago, but came to the realisation this is yet another ‘lane we may have lost… I will check with the county council though, as this is supposed to be a BOAT (Byway Open to ALL Traffic) so should be accessible on foot, on a horse, on a (motor)bike and in a four wheeled vehicle too… but obviously it’s NOT! 😦
I’ll keep you posted 😉
Updated 26/05/21 – Having reported this to GLASS via their Trailwise2 resource, I got a reply from one of the moderators –
I stand corrected… my point was that it’s a BOAT – Byway Open to All Traffic… but it isn’t is it? 😦
26/05/21 – Anyway, moving on, that was just an example ‘lane I chose to demonstrate research tools… I got a new map and some map pins today –
The yellow pin is where I live, the green ones are the ‘lanes I’ve driven so far in the Boogie, the red ones are ‘lanes that don’t go for some reason, and I have some blue pins to marl fords when I’ve driven them too…
I decided that Project-116 should be ‘lanes I’ve driven in the Jimny Buggy, not historically… 🙂
JimnyBuggy 