Ship of Fools: Putting churches on Google Maps

Thread: Putting churches on Google Maps Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by Panda (# 2951) on :

I've been tasked with putting the 17 churches in my deanery (in the UK) on Google Maps, to add their contact details and put some photos up. Problem is, none of them really have a post code - I'm using the nearest for a different map, but in some cases it's half a mile away because the church is on its own.

Is there a straightforward way of doing this? A few of them come up in red with a pointy blob already - I don't know how they got there - but how do I get the rest of them?

[ 29. June 2014, 19:27: Message edited by: Panda ]

Posted by Net Spinster (# 16058) on :

I think you want the mapmaker tool

mapmaker.google.com

It has help to guide you through.

Posted by Net Spinster (# 16058) on :

I am assuming you know where the churches are and not just by street address. If not, you'll need someone who does or good ordinance survey maps.

Adding pictures seems to be done after you've added a place. So in cases where a red flag already exists, click and the info should show up with an option to add photos. You may need to correct some of the info.

Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :

Could I suggest they get a postcode pdq?

We had an elderly gentleman collapse in church and when we phoned for an ambulance, were told they needed a postcode to be able to dispatch paramedics / ambulance. Saying "you can't miss it, it's the big building with the spire in the village square; it's the only church in the village; you can see it from some distance away" wasn't enough. They needed to programme in a postcode.

(We did get am ambulance, and all was well, but we also got ourselves a postcode which is pinned up next to the phone in case of future need.)

Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :

Missed edit window-
We didn't have a postcode, because the church doesn't have a letterbox; the "postal address" of our church is the Manse (vicarage).

Posted by Panda (# 2951) on :

Because I've already produced a tourist leaflet, I've assigned the churches the post code of the next nearest building, so that tourists can find it on sat-nav. If it's next door, that's fine, but in a few cases the church is on its own next to the road, half a mile away from its supposed post code. Augh!

Posted by Jengie Jon (# 273) on :

Postcodes can be pretty broad rural areas in the UK. I happen to know that Chatsworth House shares it with an industrial estate on the edge of Bakewell!

Actually if you want to do it correctly get an OS map for the area and work out the Northings and Westings. Google will accept these and plot it highly accurately. Can you tell I have played in the past?

Jengie

Posted by dj_ordinaire (# 4643) on :

Hi Panda and all,

Ecclesiantics is reserved for discussion of worship practices. Although we sometimes have threads concerned with finding a church in a particular locale, setting up directories like the one in the OP does not really fit our scope.

Hence, following some backstage discussion, it's off to Heaven with us! Enjoy...

dj_ordinaire, Eccles host

Posted by Schroedinger's cat (# 64) on :

The best answer is, I believe, a lat/long (or Northings/Eastings as JJ suggested), because these are far more accurate than postcodes.

I believe that if you click the location on google maps, then the URL will show the lat/long values.

(I have just been working on some mapping processes myself!)

Posted by Zacchaeus (# 14454) on :

quote:
Originally posted by North East Quine:
Could I suggest they get a postcode pdq?

We had an elderly gentleman collapse in church and when we phoned for an ambulance, were told they needed a postcode to be able to dispatch paramedics / ambulance. Saying "you can't miss it, it's the big building with the spire in the village square; it's the only church in the village; you can see it from some distance away" wasn't enough. They needed to programme in a postcode.

(We did get am ambulance, and all was well, but we also got ourselves a postcode which is pinned up next to the phone in case of future need.)

It is not so easy to get a postcode, a church I was a member of in the past tried desperately to get one. However as we didn't have a post delivery, the post office refused to give us a postcode.

Posted by Zacchaeus (# 14454) on :

Another problem is that as you rarely write to a church and very few people know the postcode anyway, in the event of needing to tell the emergency services..

Posted by Adeodatus (# 4992) on :

I think Net Spinster's reply should do the trick. Go into Google Maps (I still use the old version - I'm not sure you can do this with the new one) and click on "Edit in Google Map Maker" in the bottom right hand corner. That lets you stick pointy red blobs and other things on the map. If you know the approximate location of the church, you could use satellite view or street view to pinpoint it exactly.

Posted by dj_ordinaire (# 4643) on :

(I would also add that not all countries have post codes - see here).

Note that this includes most of the developing world, plus Ireland ('cept Dublin)...

Posted by Qoheleth. (# 9265) on :

As Panda has a Deanery to cover, we are probably talking the CofE here? A Church Near You may be helpful?

Posted by Carys (# 78) on :

Church in Wales has Deaneries too so A Church Near You is no help there. Problem I had with trying to get my old church onto google maps was convincing it I had the authority to do this.

Carys

Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :

I find the emergency services insistence on postcodes a bit of a problem - if you are out and about, there is no way to find the postcode of the place where you are. (Unless you have maps on your phone. A satnav will give lat/long. An OS map the grid ref. But they want the post code.)

Posted by Panda (# 2951) on :

We are definitely in Wales! Perhaps we need a version of A Church Near You... Thanks for suggestions so far; will try them shortly.

Posted by Pulsator Organorum Ineptus (# 2515) on :

West Yorkshire Ambulance Service was severely criticised by the Office of Rail Regulation after a worker was injured out on the track. The person who phoned for an ambulance was able to give a grid reference, but they wouldn't accept it and took a long time to arrive, considering the location was near the centre of Leeds.

Posted by DangerousDeacon (# 10582) on :

The problem is not just in the UK. My Cathedral is in the middle of the city, opposite the Supreme Court building, next to the City Hall. When calling the ambulance, I had to keep guessing possible addresses. "On Smith Street opposite Supreme Court." Nope. "Next to Civic Square". No. "Cnr Smith Street and the Esplanade". Nope. "2 Smith Street". Nope. "4 Smith Street." Oh yes, we can send an ambulance there. [Mad]

Posted by SimonRockman (# 18155) on :

As postcodes are the staple of sat-navs I would have thought it worth all churches getting one. It will be the easiest way for visitors coming to a wedding, funeral or whatever to enter the address.

Yes, of course you can enter the name of the village and then just look for a building with a supernaturally pointy roof but given that lots of villages have the same name and so you also have to enter a country a six of so digit code is much easier.

Posted by Spike (# 36) on :

I'm sure churches do have a postcode, as does every other address in the country. The point being made is that when calling the emergency services. you don't necessarily know what the postcode is.

Posted by BroJames (# 9636) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Spike:
I'm sure churches do have a postcode, as does every other address in the country. The point being made is that when calling the emergency services. you don't necessarily know what the postcode is.

The situation may have changed in the last two or three years, but our church had no post code because it had no postal delivery point. Once we had a letter box installed for the new church office we had to apply for a post code. For new buildings there is usually a charge, I believe, but not for old buildings which simply haven't been listed on the Postcode Address File (PAF). It took some time to establish what our postcode should be because there was more than one 'walk' which it would have been sensible for us to be included on, and the central office had to refer back to the local delivery office to decide which walk we should be placed on.

Posted by Leorning Cniht (# 17564) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Spike:
I'm sure churches do have a postcode, as does every other address in the country. The point being made is that when calling the emergency services. you don't necessarily know what the postcode is.

Quite. If the emergency services can't cope with "I'm out for a walk and I've found a man collapsed in the street. I'm on the main road in Someplace, just down the road from the Red Lion" then they are not fit for purpose.

Posted by Pigwidgeon (# 10192) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Leorning Cniht:
If the emergency services can't cope with "I'm out for a walk and I've found a man collapsed in the street. I'm on the main road in Someplace, just down the road from the Red Lion" then they are not fit for purpose.

This reminds me of the old joke:

quote:
A man comes across the victim of a hit-and-run accident. He grabs his cell phone, calls 911, and explains the problem to the dispatcher. “What’s the address?” she asks. “714 Eucalyptus Street,” he replies. "Can you spell that?” she inquires. After a pause, the man says, “How about I take her over to Oak Street and you can pick her up there?”

[ 11. July 2014, 14:18: Message edited by: Pigwidgeon ]

Posted by RuthW (# 13) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Zacchaeus:
It is not so easy to get a postcode, a church I was a member of in the past tried desperately to get one. However as we didn't have a post delivery, the post office refused to give us a postcode.

As an American church employee in an urban area, I am puzzled. We get all sorts of stuff in the mail every day -- invoices, pledges, catalogs, junk mail, even the occasional piece of hate mail. Where does this church's mail go?

Posted by Zacchaeus (# 14454) on :

quote:
Originally posted by RuthW:

quote:
Originally posted by Zacchaeus:
It is not so easy to get a postcode, a church I was a member of in the past tried desperately to get one. However as we didn't have a post delivery, the post office refused to give us a postcode.
As an American church employee in an urban area, I am puzzled. We get all sorts of stuff in the mail every day -- invoices, pledges, catalogs, junk mail, even the occasional piece of hate mail. Where does this church's mail go?

Usually to the vicarage..

Posted by Zacchaeus (# 14454) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Zacchaeus:

quote:
Originally posted by RuthW:

quote:
Originally posted by Zacchaeus:
It is not so easy to get a postcode, a church I was a member of in the past tried desperately to get one. However as we didn't have a post delivery, the post office refused to give us a postcode.
As an American church employee in an urban area, I am puzzled. We get all sorts of stuff in the mail every day -- invoices, pledges, catalogs, junk mail, even the occasional piece of hate mail. Where does this church's mail go?
Usually to the vicarage..

And actually a lot of churches these days have parish offices, to which all the mail goes but which are not necessarily in the church.

I don't actually know a CofE church with a letter box.

[ 11. July 2014, 16:43: Message edited by: Zacchaeus ]

Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Spike:
I'm sure churches do have a postcode, as does every other address in the country. The point being made is that when calling the emergency services. you don't necessarily know what the postcode is.

Like Bro James, we had no postcode, because the church had no letterbox. When the elderly man in our congregation collapsed, I gather we ended up riffling through the phone book while on the phone to the emergency services, to find and provide the postcode of an adjacent business.

We have a postcode now. Apparently we have to accept mail at our postcode, but quite how we do that when the church has no letterbox is anyone's guess.

We have out newly acquired postcode pined to the wall next to the phone.

Posted by Curiosity killed ... (# 11770) on :

Another one echoing that churches do not necessarily have post codes. Here post codes are given that will find the churches of the team for people to use in their satnavs, but they are of the nearest building with a post code, not the churches.

That team has a team office (actually next door to one of the churches) where all mail is sent in theory but mail also goes to vicarages including the one that was sold off, some distance from the church, very unhelpfully.

Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :

Remember too that every building in some small hamlets may share the same post code! (As I have found out, trying to find a house in the dark with no street lights or house numbers ...).

Posted by Zacchaeus (# 14454) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Baptist Trainfan:
Remember too that every building in some small hamlets may share the same post code! (As I have found out, trying to find a house in the dark with no street lights or house numbers ...).

And in some rural areas postcodes may cover very wide areas in terms of space.

one of the churches in our team uses the nearest building postcode, however different church members use different nearby buildings and different postcodes - causes some interesting confusion.

The best one was when a bride put the nearest building postcode on the invites, only to have some very confused guests knowcking on the door of an even more bemused householder...

Posted by Zappa (# 8433) on :

quote:
Originally posted by DangerousDeacon:
The problem is not just in the UK. My Cathedral is in the middle of the city, opposite the Supreme Court building, next to the City Hall. When calling the ambulance, I had to keep guessing possible addresses. "On Smith Street opposite Supreme Court." Nope. "Next to Civic Square". No. "Cnr Smith Street and the Esplanade". Nope. "2 Smith Street". Nope. "4 Smith Street." Oh yes, we can send an ambulance there.

And, in a cathedral like yours, that is doing the right thing by street people and the down and out, there will be emergency service calls ... I'd be interested to know where your local call centre is (in terms of 100s/1000s kilometres away ...)

Posted by DangerousDeacon (# 10582) on :

The emergency call centre is (I think) in Newcastle, which makes it a mere 3,000 km in a straight line (3,800 if you drive). [Mad]

Posted by The Kat in the Hat (# 2557) on :

My brother advises on health & safety in rural areas. His advice to farmers who might need to call emergency services is that they should know the lat/long for the entrance to the farm, since post-codes, as has already been pointed out, can be misleading. He said it has not been unknown for fire fighters to end up carry equipment across the field to the barn on fire, because of where the post-code had taken them (eg nowhere near the farm entrance).

Posted by Panda (# 2951) on :

Rejoice with me! About half a dozen of the churches I'm trying to sort are now there, thanks to Map Maker.

When I was doing it, though, I realised I was doing it as Anonymous, rather than via my own Google log-in, so those ones don't appear to have been validated. But we seem to getting somewhere. And wherever that is, it's on a map!

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