[Talk-GB] Boundaries/Barriers

[Robert Skedgell]

Disappointingly, the very well known ha-ha on Ha-Ha Road, Woolwich
hadn't been mapped at all.

It is  now,
https://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/104189729

On 04/05/2021 20:44, SK53 wrote:
> Oliver Rackham describes them in detail in "The History of the
> Countryside", and I think they get a mention in Hoskins "Making of the
> English Landscape". I both these works I think  they are referred to as
> "wood banks" (i.e., comprising both the ditch and the bank). I showed an
> example in a blog post
> <http://sk53-osm.blogspot.com/2014/03/spring-woodland.html> about the
> Woodland Trust's Bisham Woods, which is probably a medieval boundary.
> However, I never mapped it.
> 
> An analogous structure is the ha-ha, similarly comprising a, usually
> dry, ditch with a retaining wall behind. Despite my best efforts,
> barrier=haha has only about 16 uses, with 3 uses of barrier=ditch with
> ditch=haha. I suspect most ha-has are mapped as one of the two component
> features. A single tag is useful when, as here
> <https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/54566038>, the structure is listed,
> but low-usage tags don't get rendered. I would therefore tentatively
> suggest using barrier=ditch with ditch=wood_bank (or boundary_bank, if
> they are more general). barrier=ditch does render without any
> implications as it being a water feature.
> 
> As has been said, barriers around industrial estates etc are most likely
> missing detail. (I suspect they are very rarely mapped around tennis
> courts too).
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Jerry
> 
> On Tue, 4 May 2021 at 18:18, Brian via Talk-GB
> <talk-gb at openstreetmap.org <mailto:talk-gb at openstreetmap.org>> wrote:
> 
>     Hello All, I'm fairly new to mapping and need a bit of advice please.
> 
>     I have been reading the Wiki and there are two main issues I can't
>     resolve:
> 
>     1. Here in the New Forest there is an ancient system, although still
>     being used and recognised, of a boundary being marked by a ditch (or
>     trench) and bank. I understand it originated from the enclosures
>     where the land owner dug a trench along the boundary and piled the
>     resultant spoil on his/her land to form a bank; the boundary is
>     defined by the bottom of the ditch/trench. The nearest option I can
>     find in the Wiki is barrier = ditch, however its purpose is not for
>     drainage (they rarely contain water except in extreme weather!) so
>     how should I tag these?
> 
>     2. In the local areas I have been looking at there seems to rarely
>     be barriers marked around private, industrial or public buildings,
>     eg fences or hedges in housing estates or fences around industrial
>     sites. Is there a reason for this or is it just that nobody has got
>     around to doing it?
> 
>     I would appreciate your feedback
> 
>     Regards
> 
>     Brian