What makes contributing to OSM so enjoyable is the unexpected discoveries it throws at you. Today I went surveying in West Bromwich to resolve two OS Locator road name issues. Neither was in any remarkable and apart from adding a few addresses and POIs not very productive. In mitigation the weather was rather foul and not conducive either to writing notes or taking photos.
But once home and conducting some web research on the area I came across this Daily Mail article concerning the misnaming of a road named in honour of a local WWI hero, winner of the VC (Britain’s highest award for bravery).
The soldier’s name was Robert Edwin Phillips and the council had mistakenly named the road Edwin Phillips Drive . Rather than re-name the road correctly, mainly because residents objected according to the Daily Mail article, the council decided to add a supplementary plate reading ‘Commemorating West Bromwich-born Capt. Robert Edwin Phillips V.C., 1895-1968. Awarded the Victoria Cross during the First World War.’
Only three more names road names to resolve in Sandwell ( the council in whose area West Bromwich is located): I wonder what surprises are in store?
Surprise yourself – go out and survey some OS Locator name mismatches!
RobJN
Good find. As there is a wikipedia article [1] I’ve added this to the street using the tag “name:wikipedia”.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Edwin_Phillips
Ed Loach
I’m not sure if you mentioned in a previous blog post, but if it looks like all the names match in your area, you can find the names that have been sourced from OS Locator which may still need checking using http://www.itoworld.com/map/1862 (assuming people have added an appropriate source or source:name tag)