Regional

Thursday 9 – Sunday 12 September
www.heritageopendays.org.uk – fully events listing and details

Later this week properties across England will throw open their doors for free as part of the country’s annual celebration of local architecture, history and culture.

Supported nationally by English Heritage and run locally by an army of volunteers and community champions, Heritage Open Days takes place on people doorstops and is the country’s leading grassroots cultural event.

One million people are expected to take advantage of the four day event, exploring more than 4,000 properties of every style, period and function, many of which are normally closed to the public or usually charge an admission fee.

Participating properties in North West England include:

Barrow – Dalton Castle (Dalton-in-Furness)
Birkenhead – Birkenhead Park, Birkenhead Priory, Lady Lever Art Gallery
Blackpool – Blackpool Tower, Winter Gardens
Bolton – Bolton Steam Museum
Burnley – Gawthorpe Hall (Padiham), Queen Street Mill Textile Museum
Bury – Fusilier Museum, East Lancashire Railway, Peel Tower
Carlisle – High Head Sculpture Valley
Chester – Chester Racecourse, Grosvenor Museum, Little Moreton Hall (Congleton)
Kendal – Abbott Hall Art Gallery, Museum of Lakeland Life, Sizergh Castle
Lake District – Beatix Potter Gallery (Hawkshead), Blackwell (Windermere),
Liverpool – St George’s Hall, Cunard Building, Liver Building,
Macclesfield – Quarry Bank Mill
Manchester – Victoria Baths
Morecambe – Morecambe Town Hall
Oldham – Saddleworth Museum
Penrith – Acorn Bank
Preston – Samlesbury Hall
Rochdale – Healey Dell, Rochdale Pioneers Museum, Touchstones,
St Helens – World of Glass
Stockport – Hat Works, Staircase House, Air Raid Shelters, Bramall Hall
Warrington – Norton Priory (Runcorn)
Wigan – Museum of Wigan Life, Trencherfield Mill Engine

On Thursday, 11th March Google will increase availability of its Street View service in Google Maps, by adding new imagery covering almost all of the UK’s roads, both rural and urban.

People will be able to view and explore 360 degree street-level imagery of places as far North as Shetland and as far South as Penzance; from Pembrokeshire in the West of Wales to Ipswich in the East of England or over the sea to Northern Ireland and many places in between. With this imagery update around 238,000 miles of public road are now available in Street View in the UK. Visit maps.google.co.uk.

Google first launched imagery for 25 cities in the UK in March 2009 and since doing so has been working hard to process and stitch together more imagery collected by its cars. By increasing availability to cover almost all of the country, the UK joins countries like Spain, France, Italy and the US, which already enjoy nationwide coverage in Street View.

People can check out a restaurant before arriving, make travel plans, arrange meeting points, get a helping hand with geography homework, or just get to know their town better.

Businesses of any size can make the most of this technology for free by embedding Google Maps into their websites. An owner of a local B&B can promote it to visitors for example, or a local library or restaurant could ensure people can find them on a street level map. Many UK businesses have already benefitted from having Street View technology on their sites, enabling their customers to easily find the information they need.

Street View has already proved both popular and useful across the UK, with more than a 30% sustained increase in Google Maps usage since launch.

Today, new findings from YouGov reveal how people use it in their daily lives. It shows almost two thirds (60%) of people who have used Street View have done so to find out where they’re going and get directions; one third (33%) have used it to look at places in other countries and one in five (21%) have already used it for house-hunting, despite up until now only being available in 25 UK cities.

Ed Parsons, Google’s Geospatial Technologist said, “Street View takes mapping to a level not possible before. And with so many practical applications it’s no wonder that over two thirds of people who had tried the service said they would use Street View again. This new imagery of so many stunning British places means it’s the ideal time to start planning a trip, kick start a house-hunt or simply ensure you never arrive late to a meeting again.”

Google has gone to great lengths to safeguard privacy while allowing all British users to benefit from this feature. Street View only contains imagery that is already visible from public roads and features technology that blurs both faces and car number plates. Google provides the easily accessible ‘report a problem’ tool for flagging inappropriate or sensitive imagery for review and removal – that includes giving users the choice to remove themselves, their car or their house completely from Street View if they like. Where our blurring tools have missed the odd face or car number plate anybody can report these to us and we’ll apply extra blurring. Google UK has consulted extensively with many privacy and community groups in developing the feature and privacy safeguards.

Budget hotel operator Travelodge is currently offering rooms at just £9 per night.

The offer is available on this special page on their website and is valid for bookings made now for stays between February and April 2009.

Rooms for other dates are also available from £19 and £29 provided bookings are made 7 and 21 days ahead respectively.