Site Directory 2021/22 and OS references

I agree directions matter and some are truly terrible making a positional reference very important. The actual amount of time needed to convert either way is minimal. What would take time is checking if they are correct ( no idea if they do) and that would take as much time however they were provided.

But that’s my point PD. The Club does provide a map with the supposed locations on it, but those of us who use CLs as our first choice, know that the dot on the map, the directions given and the actual grid referenced location can differ!

I don’t knock technology, and do in fact use it. But gadgets cost, and some CLs don’t offer a good signal. So a mobile is as useful as a chocolate fireguard in those circumstance. We only have a Sat Nav because our posh Jeep came with one. They are still useful. And if it’s right, the Grid reference will be there as long as the CL is, so it’s once only exercise.

However they are provided they are unlikely to be error free. I have already noticed an error in the latest POIs. The point of my posts is to point out not all of us need an out dated system of OS grid references.

JohnM, a lot of supposition in your post. Fishing happens to be the most popular sport in the UK.

peedee

Apparently more people go fishing than watch football. Given the all-pervasive coverage on TV and in the papers, you would never guess. Why is the media so obsessed with football?

Erm..............money? 

There might well be more people actually go fishing, but I doubt there are more who watch it. Twice I agreed to get involved in my youth. Once on land (warm and sunny, I got a decent tan, but no fish were harmed that day😂) and then on an ill fated sea fishing trip.............(oh deary  me............🤢🤢🤮) It was a relationship that didn’t last.

I like watching football live. It’s as close as being a Roman going to the Coliseum as you can get! Slightly less blood of course, but very funny watching multi millionaire’s running around in snow and rain while the masses bay at them to run faster.😁

The whole problem stems from the fact that the world we live on is, more or less, round yet most people think about places locally on it as if it were flat.  Latitude and Longitude is a simple way to reference a point on a sphere but the "lines" of Longitude are all curves that meet at the poles and are widely seperated at the equator. Think Terrys Chocolate Orange.

To make a map that appears on a flat surface requires some form of "projection" and there have been hundreds devised over the years. All of them have to introduce a level of distortion. The National Grid as produced by the Ordnance Survey has grid lines that are parallel on the map and a consistent one kilometer apart. So the distance on the ground between two adjacent lines running north to south is the same at Land's End as it is at John o'Groats.

This makes for easy and consistent estimation of distance on the map. Try doing that with lines of latitude and longitude and you need to involve considerable calculations because they taper together the further north they are. Electronic devices will work it out if you specify points but are no use for looking at a general view.

The limitation of this far superior NGR system is that it can only work over a limited area, such as Great Britain. Ireland has a different grid but on the same principle. So for international use there would need to be many seperate grid systems, so Latitude and Longitude get the widespread use. Perhaps the next name change will be to The Worldwide Caravan Club?

It is interesting to note though that the Club's bi-annual map is still using a location grid based very closely indeed on the National Grid of the Ordnance Survey. Should one know a Grid Reference one can actually plot it directly onto that map with no electronics required.

By the same token not all of us need or in fact use the new fangled system either.

As for keeping fishing folk happy then refer to my suggestion in the OP. It would save space and keep both factions happy.

It might be the most popular "sport" in the UK, participation wise, but once again I have yet to come across anyone who I have seen with fishing tackle on a CL, save for a couple of fishing lake sites. Cleaning walking boots yes, getting bikes out and going off cycling yes, even someone setting up a telescope for star gazing but fishing never.

I really miss the NGRs and hope they will be replaced. When I plan a holiday I like to buy the local OS map and then use the NGR's to pick a site with local footpaths etc. I usually rely on the site instructions when navigating to the site because they tend to avoid difficult stretches of road. My vote is, please bring the NGRs back

The NGRs are available on the web site. If you can post on here there is no reason why you cannot get them for use when undertaking planning at home.

peedee

The NGRs are available on the web site.

. . . where they are referred to as "OS field ref". This says a lot about the knowlege of the people who are putting the information on the web-site and in the handbook, and may be at the bottom of the omission of NGRs from print.