The Map of My Area...

A map of the area around my house, stitched together after scanning in a few pages of a road map.

Sectors

The area is a circle with a 1 mile radius about my house. Sectors are a way of giving myself clear, achievable targets each time I go out exploring.

Emergency Services Rendezvous Point

I set out on my first exploration trip, accompanied by my sister. We were going to explore the Littledown sector. In Thistlebarrow Road, presumaly in case of some massive accident in the football stadium, I found the first thing I counted as a point of interest.

Bishops Close

The first of many cul-de-sacs we'd come across, according to the map.

A path into Kings Park

We came to a path I never knew was here before. It led into King's Park.

The path

It goes all the way along the back fences of the gardens of Littledown Avenue, and proved to be a useful route.

Giant hopscotch?

We crossed Harewood Avenue and headed towards Littledown sports centre by the usual route. Then we deviated from the familiar path. I'm not sure what's going on here, but giant hopscotch was the first thought that crossed my mind...

Straying from the path

This took us up a hill. There was a lot more undeveloped land here than I'd previously thought.

Avonbourne School

I'd never actually seen the buildings of this school before, although I've always known where the school is.

Portchester school

The two schools are actually right next to each other, and share facilities. I don't know why they don't just merge.

Security

Spikes on the gate? This is a school, not a prison...

Sevenoaks Drive

The houses here were a lot bigger than those in the streets immediately surrounding mine. It's obviously a more expensive area.

Shepherds Way

We saw many examples of large houses around this area.

The TARDIS

I never knew there were aliens living among us in Bournemouth...

A nice design

I liked the curved design of this house. I probably have't captured its best angle here.

Green spaces

It's always nice to see a little bit of green between roads...

A lookout point

We encountered several interesting features on houses around here. I suppose the residents have enough money to design their own homes...

Sock on a wall

Sometimes the most mundane things can be the most interesting...

The main entrance to JPMorgan

There was a security guard in the booth. He didn't let us in.

Abandoned miniature railway

I knew this was here, but I've never taken a proper look at it before.

Turntable

Locked, unfortunately. I wanted to spin it around.

Presumably once the tracks for a model railway

JPMorgan offices

Private property. I didn't risk entering this time. Maybe I will at a later date...

So much for security...

It was a very low gate. The gate wasn't locked. The bolt wasn't even at the right level to make locking possible. There was nobody around. Even so, I didn't venture very far in.

Walking along the rails

Once there would have been a small train travelling along here.

The end of the loop

I think there were also rabbits in shot when I raised the camera. They all ran away.

The railway is overgrown

You can see it hasn't been used for a long time...

The Wessex Way

I could get all the way to the main road through the trees in Littledown Park.

Monkeybars

The lake in Littledown Park

This lake is home to several types of bird.

More great security from JPMorgan

On a different side of the site, this gate didn't even have a bolt. It was easy for us to take a few steps inside.

Beyond the gate

The workers at JPMorgan get their own personal tennis courts. I bet these were public courts once, as the offices are built on part of Littledown Park.

Harewood Gardens

One of many cul-de-sacs off Harewood Crescent. This area is an expensive housing estate, without much variation in the house designs.

Mock tudor houses

I quite like this style of architecture. The whole estate was made up of similarly designed houses.

Maze

There were many small cul-de-sacs off the main stems, in a system similar to the branches of a tree.

Boulders

These have been put up around many open areas in Bournemouth, to keep groups of travellers from stopping there.

Bank Road

Surgery

We stumbled across my local doctors' surgery. I always knew it was somewhere around here, but never knew quite where.

Harewood Avenue

Out of the crescent, we were in proper avenues, with trees along the roads.

Bungalows

The houses along here are all large bungalows.

Regeneration

Someone's having building work done...

Littledown Avenue

Getting closer to home, we return to roads that I recognise.

Variety

Almost every house along this road is different, and also large.

William Road

Leeson Road

Map after the first trip

The obvious white patch is the location of the JPMorgan offices. Now, on to the next scetor...

Grants Avenue

The start of the Springbourne Sector. At the moment it all looks quite similar to my road.

Southbourne Christian Centre

A nice building, although I don't find the purpose useful. Like churches in that respect.

Ashley Close

I had to loop back round to my house to replace the rubbish batteries in my camera. In doing so, I came through this road in the Boscombe Sector.

Spring Road

Back on track, I continued. The housing was changing to terraces of smaller homes.

Lincoln Avenue

This road chose its name well.

Further along Spring Road

The road becomes quite narrow. The houses no longer have front gardens.

Empty factory

One of the yellow signs mentioned Schweppes. This probably isn't much to go on, but I have now convinced myself this was a lemonade factory.

Northcote Road

Here there were several council flats.

Access point to the railway

Peeling paint

Some buildings in this area didn't look at their best.

Windham Road

This was a private car park, with locked gates. Does one car really need all that space?

The Cricketers

A pub on the corner of Windham Road

The other side of the factory

Still no real evidence of lemonade here...

A garage

Seems to specialise in repairing old VWs...

St Clement's Church

I came across this, and the surrounding churchyard. It gave me a nice peaceful place to rest.

St Clements Church

St Clements Church

Tree roundabout

This was in a road that wasn't even marked on my map. I literally didn't know where I was. After a bit of wandering, I managed to loop back round to the church.

Freemason's Hall

A large club on Knole Road

Hengist Manor

A bit run down, but could be nice with some work...

Hengist Road/Drummond Road

There are some bigger houses here, closer to Knyveton Road where all the hotels are.

Carlton Road

There were a lot of hills around this sector.

Spencer Road

I was pleasantly surprised by the nice green area alongside the road.

Knyveton Road

The road with all the large hotels on it is at the top of this hill off the roundabout.

Bowling green

In Knyveton Gardens, a haven I found amidst the streets of Springbourne.

Knyveton Gardens tennis courts

Badly laid out. Each court is completely surrounded by fences, but to get to court 3, you have to walk through courts 1 and 2.

A hotel on Frances Road

Not as grand as the ones on Knyveton Road, maybe, but still a nice-looking place.

Log in Knyveton Gardens

Pond in Knyveton Gardens

Stone turtle!

Because who doesn't love little carved animals?

Business park

I never knew this was here. It looks abandoned, but I think that was just because it was a Sunday.

Vehicle depot

Southbourne Library

And that car was playing awfully bad music at an obscene volume...

Bridge over the Wessex Way

I won't be crossing it yet. That's for another day.

Capstone Place

This is one of many roads that was cut in half by the Wessex Way. Once this would have been the same road as Capstone Road across the bypass.

Please cross here

The pedestrian subway is being filled in as part of the junction 'improvements'.

Digger

You can see here how the road lines up exactly with the one the other side of the Wessex Way.

Map after the second trip

I slightly spilled over into the Empty Sector. The white section on the other border is more easily accessed from the Boscombe Sector, so will be covered when I do that. Now, on to the next sector...

Muddy path

Welcome to the School Sector. These paths around school can get very muddy. It rained very hard the day before I did this. Being the sector which contains my walk to school, there are going to be many place I already know, which won't be covered. I have plans for some of these places in the future.

Mallard Road

Woodland

I never knew there was so much woodland surrounding the recreation ground.

Summerbee School

Or The Bishop of Winchester Comprehensive, as they now like to call themselves.

Tracks

Vehicles have been through here.

Trees

I come across quite a lot of trees in my travels...

Recognition!

A view onto the familiar (to me) recreation ground.

Navigating the woodland

I see a path!

I find a useful path; the exit onto Bower Road.

Bower Road

Bower Road

There are some large houses along here.

Broad Avenue

I like proper avenues, with trees lining the sides, unlike the 'avenue' I live on.

Hadden Road

Brackendale Road

More familiar territory. This is the postbox I usually use when posting miscellaneous items around the world to other SFZerians.

The corner of Queen's Park

Queen's Park is a favourite local location of mine that I'm not covering in this task, because I already know it well.

No taxis beyond this point

I always knew posh people lived along here. I think this shows a little too much snobbery...

Burnham Drive

Up a hill

Queens Park Avenue is basically in a valley, so all the roads coming off it are uphill.

Burnham Drive

The end of this road is a loop. I started going around it clockwise.

A new level of posh

We've entered the realm of front garden water features...

A useful path

I had no idea where it was going, but I thought it would be close enough to where I was heading.

Howard Road

The path emerged a little way into the Charminster sector, but on the right road.

Ashling Crescent

Ashling Close

Someone around here was using power tools for something...

Another handy path

I guess this takes me back to recognisable territory...

Charminster Road

A main road, and one that I already know.

And back to school

Arriving in time for maths...

Map after the third trip

It's starting to look a lot redder than it was to start with. Now, on to the next sector...

Burnt car

My travels into the Castlepoint Sector start by walking through Queen's Park. This car has been in the Queen's Park car park a while. I don't know the story behind it, but it makes an interesting start to the trip.

Queen's Park

The route takes me through a bit of the park I don't see so much.

Queen's Park lake

Follow the path

Golfers

There are several golfers out today. It's a sunny bank holiday Monday, so I suppose that's understandable.

Across the Wessex Way

According to my map, this house across the Wessex Way could be called Littledown Lodge. Behind the trees to the left of it the offices of JPMorgan hide. Now I've looked at the area from all possible sides, I have decided I can colour in the JPMorgan gap in the Littledown Sector as well when I get home.

A handy path

This takes me down to Queens Park Avenue.

Cooper Dean Drive

Not much of a junction, but these count as two different roads.

Longbarrow Close

This road is actually off the edge of the sector, but it was on the best route to take.

Leydene Avenue

It's bungalow city around here...

Mysterious building

I found myself wondering what the hell it was. I'm sure I've seen it before, but I've never investigated it before.

Craigmoor Close

I was closing in on the building, but couldn't access it from this road...

Inglewood Avenue

Moving out of bungalow territory now...

Midwood Avenue

I eventually found myself approaching the front of the mysterious building.

I'm a bit disappointed

Turns out it's one of those modern churches. One that can't be bothered to be a traditional church building. But Jesus welcomes all, apparently, which is why no-one was around and it was locked up.

Confusion

It's hard to tell where one road ends and the other begins...

Shed

I was about to go down Sandy Mead Road when I saw that this shed was on accessible land. I took a look.

Woodland

Woodland seems to find a way to be included in every sector.

Path through the trees

This was just a small block of forest in a rectangle between four roads. It was quite nice to find this kind of natural haven in the middle of the suburbs.

Path to Parkway Drive

Path to Feversham Avenue

Electricity

When I looped back round, I found that the shed had something to do with the area's electricity supply, as I'd thought.

Sandy Mead Road

This road had a green space in the middle. I am a big fan of green areas in urban landscapes.

Road with a view

This gave me a wonderful view across this part of the town. You can see the hospital and the Littledown sports centre among the rooftops.

Linkside Avenue

Steps

These led back up to the square of woodland.

Another square of woodland

This one seemed completely pointless. There were no entrances that I could see, and it wasn't attached to any of the surrounding gardens. It's just a small blank space on the toen planners' map.

More trees

More confusion

Another road which is apparently divided in two along some invisible line.

Summerbee School

After a while, I come across the same school I walked past in the School Sector, but another side.

A park

Descibed as playing fields on my map, but it doesn't look like it. Also, the bus depot and museum marked on my map don't exist any more. The building on the left of this picture are on the site, part of the Castlepoint shopping centre.

More woodland

This time surrounding the so-called 'playing fields'.

Wordsworth Avenue

The road on which a former friend of mine lives.

Normanhurst Avenue

Skip

Someone is throwing out a lot of random stuff...

Vanguard Road

From here there was a footpath leading to Craigmoor Avenue.

Strouden Park Community Centre

Looks in need of a bit of care and attention...

Flats

This big white brick of a building surrounded by palm trees doesn't really fit in...

Path from Feversham Avenue

At first I thought it was a no trespassing sign.

Woodland

It turned out to lead to the same patch of woodland I found earlier.

Copsewood Avenue

Broad Avenue

Back to a proper avenue, with majestic trees lining the pavements.

Queens Park Avenue

On the way back home, I walked past many massive houses like this.

Graffiti

Even Queen's Park is not immune to the attacks of political graffiti. It says something along the lines of 'Do not pay carbon tax & say no to...' I couldn't read the last bit.

Map after the fourth trip

The top of the circle is looking nicely red. Now, on to the next sector...

Boscombe Grove Road

The start of the Boscombe Sector tour.

Railway bridge

I always knew there was a bridge across the railway around here somewhere, but I've never crossed it before.

Borthwick Road

The houses along here are pretty similar to the ones on my road.

Park

I came across a large green square surrounded by houses. It looks like Boscombe was once a more posh area than it is now.

Park

Walpole Road

Road ahead closed... Doesn't affect me, of course.

Cat

Not the first cat I've come across on my travels, but Boscombe was proving to be a less interesting sector than the others, so it's the first I've photographed.

Estate Agents

This is obviously a popular place...

Towards the church

I ended up approaching St Clement's Church, in the Springbourne Sector, from the other direction.

Hamilton Close

I've been at the other end of this road before in a previous exploration outing.

Another church

I came to Christchurch Road, which I am familiar with. It has some interesting tings along it, such as this church, which somehow don't seem to match the rest of the scenery.

Old car

I wonder if the bin men would actually take this away. I'm guessing the owners don't want it...

Second floor balconies

The presense of these features on houses shows that Boscombe used to be a nicer area than it is considered today.

Boscombe Crescent

Salisbury Road

Another church

It seems that most of the notable buildings I come across are churches...

Pink house

As usual, there were many different houses around the sector. It got a little boring just walking up roads of houses and nothing else, but every now and then an odd house drew my attention.

Wilfred Road

Another avenue of trees. These would probably look a lot nicer in summer...

Blue beamed house

Shelley Manor

I walked past Shelley Manor. They have actually started building work next to it now. I still don't know what's going to happen to my club's tennis courts, but at least they're getting some use at the moment.

Daffodils

And no mentions of Wordsworth, please.

Daffodils

Almost on the clifftop

Within a mile of my house, you can almost get views over to the Isle of Wight. Another couple of hundred metres and I would've had a great view. But I've photographed that view before. I had a task to do.

Large chimney

By this point, I had walked past many houses and not come across many other interesting things.

Garden Gnome

A small item of interest, but interesting nonetheless.

Apartments

I've always thought this building was nice.

Proper sea views

I guess the sea must be about 1.1 miles from my house...

Another sea view

Taken walking along Boscombe Spa Road.

Owls Road

I realised when I came to this point that I already knew the roads up here, so less exploration was needed than I's first thought.

Hotel

Along the clifftop roads are several hotels.

Mapo after the fifth trip

The red is spreading. Now, on to the next sector...

Emerging from the underpass

I start my journey through the Charminster Sector, the smallest of my sectors, by walking through the underpass I usually go through on the way to school. But when I get to the other end, I turn the other way.

Footpath

This goes alongside the Wessex Way and past the ends of roads that got chopped in two by the bypass.

Bethia Road

Queen's Park corner

These streets were once in a peaceful area, a few minutes from Queen's Park. The bypass made it less peaceful, of course. When I think about it, my road would also once have been this close to the edge of the park.

Approaching the Wessex Way again

Wessex Way

It occured to me that they must have dug out quite a bit of earth to make this road. I wonder where it all went...

Queen's Park South Drive

Queen's Park Road

Richmond Wood Road

Most of this sector was just long residential streets.

Patriotism

A household flies the flags of our nation in the front garden.

Colour

When the scenery around me had been the same for a while, any sign of different colour was welcome.

Richmond Park Road

I realised I was approaching a place I already knew...

A church

During all my journeys, these have always kept popping up.

Linwood Road

Winton Recreation Ground

Right on the edge of my 1 mile circle is a place I've been before. One of my friends plays tennis here, and I've played him (badly) a couple of times.

Trees

Because every sector has them.

Wreckage

Outside a car sales garage, I found this wreck.

Charminster Road

The main road in Charminster, with shops and restaurants, including the Tuk Tuk Thai, which has been in a task before...

Firbank Road

Fiveways

I am now overlapping with the School Sector as I walk along Queen's Park Avenue and Howard Road.

Cecil Avenue

Cecil Hill

There was actually a better view from the top of this hill than shows in the photo.

St Albans Crescent

Saint Albans Avenue

And now I head home again, another sector complete.

Map after the sixth sector

Just two more to go. Now, on to the next sector...

AFC Bournemouth

I start the King's Park sector by walking through the park itself. This is home to the stadium of the local football team, who play in a minor league. The supporters refuse to use the stadium car park, and our road always gets packed with cars parking where they're not meant to when the team play at home.

East cemetary

The cemetary on the edge of King's Park

Sports fields

King's park is a sport centre in Bournemouth. As well as the football stadium, it contains far more civilised sporting arenas; the athletics stadium and a cricket pavilion. And they want to build an ice rink too, which is, by the way, a stupid idea.

School field

This is the field used by Avonbourne and Portchester schools.

Durrington Road

Waltham Road

The sector starts to turn into an area of normal residential streets. I was hoping to find something special soon...

Lascelles Road

Dead End

I'd got so used to useful paths heading in the direction I want to go that the prospect of an actual dead end never really occured to me...

Kings Park Central Drive

A road into King's Park, lined with trees and banks of grass with daffodils. A nice place to walk.

Church

I saw a small stairway at the side of the road and went up. I found this small church.

Around the back

I found a narrow alley around the back of the church, which took me out into Spurgeon Road.

Junction

I crossed from Leaphill Road to Rebbeck Road

Rebbeck Road

Locked

The only other way out of the dead end on Wheaton Road was through this locked gate.

Through the gate

Through the gate, I could see the church in East Cemetary

Angles

The nice angle the two roads make where they meet allowed me to take a photo down both at once.

Scotter Road

Bournemouth Deaf Centre

I stumbled across this on the corner of Morley and Harcourt Roads. I never knew such a place existed...

West Road

A way out of my 1 mile circle.

Pauncefote Road

This section was a bit of a maze...

Queensland Road

When we were looking for a house in Bournemouth, the one with the brown porch was one of our main contenders.

Demolition

Also on Queensland Road, a house on the way to becoming a large pile of rubble.

Expensive car

There were many expensive cars around this bit.

Bad parking

Owning an expensive car obviously makes you no better at parking...

Exterior decoration

I suppose if you live in a first floor flat this is the easiest way to get it dry...

Nice building

This building on Parkwood Road caught my attention, and I altered my route to take a closer look at it sooner.

Anglo-European College of Chiropractic

Chiropractors get nice buildings, it seems...

St. James Square

Just up the road from the chiropractors was this area of green space, which of course I liked.

Red brick church

About a hundred metres away from the square was this nice church. It seems I've found the best bit of the sector, with places of interest so close together.

Church from the front

There was a path leading around the church, so I followed it.

What the hell is that?

By the path was a modern apartment building, with this weird sculpture in a courtyard outside it.

Familiar territory

The path led me to Christchurch Road.

Somerset Road

Wickham Road

I headed for the interesting-looking building at the end, which by now I instincively knew was a church. Nearly all eye-catching buildings in Britain are churches. It seems a shame to me, as a non-religious person, that some of them aren't put to another use...

As expected

A church. What a surprise.

Grasmere Road

I have no idea why it's called Grasmere Road. I've been to Grasmere. It's several hundred miles north in the Lake District, and nothing about this road reminds me of it.

Bournemouth Centre for Community Arts

A small portacabin, by the looks of it, on Haviland Road. I've never heard of it before so obviously, like many things in Bournemouth, it doesn't get advertised enough.

You guessed it

Another church. Seriously, do we really need this many?

Wolverton Road

Missing

This is quite cool. Instead of using those easily-destroyed paper posters, someone has painted a missing dog sign on a wall. It's been there since 2005, so it's obviously a better solution than paper. I should point out that Bearwood, where the dog wnet missing, is several miles away. It was never found, apparently... http://www.doglost.co.uk/Page.aspx?data=pzp8JrdCfxmOYLL7ThMH8cgDIBGNb_3527O0VXDwo%2f3iFchKHcq%2fHbB3s168Wk_352AVtF

Funfair

On a usually deserted area of land on my way home, a funfair has been set up for the Easter holidays. Looks a bit closed at the moment...

Map after the seventh sector

One more to go. Almost there. Now, on to the last sector...

Into the unknown...

I set out into the Empty Sector

Shaftesbury Road

A nice tree

As the area seems to be entirely residential so far, I start photographing trees again on Chatsworth Road.

Entering Capstone Road

Capstone Road

The Richmond Arms

I come across this recognisable pub on Charminster Road.

Shelbourne Road

On this road somewhere is the first house we ever looked round when we started househunting in Bournemouth. Turned out it was one of the best, but we didn't have anything to compare it to at the time...

Shops

On some of the corners were little shops.

A church

No sector would be complete without one...

Church

An interesting building

I will pass this again later on the way back...

Garage

Among the residential streets there are a few businesses. I still haven't found anything extremely interesting, but these businesses lend a bit of variety to the area.

Lowther Road

The advertising balloon is tethered over a garage on one of the main roads nearby, I think. I've seen it before.

Wasteland

Something has been demolished around here, and they obviously haven't thought of anything to replace it yet...

A way out

This bridge would take me over the Wessex Way and into the Southbourne Sector.

Beechey Road

The Brunswick

I found this pub among the streets. This sector has more pubs than churches. I'm not actually sure if that's the usual trend or not...

Nortoft Road

That interesting building again

It turns out to be one of Bournemouth's language schools.

Map after the last sector

Look at that! The whole thing's red! Finished!