By John Cole

Working with a map

Take a detailed and up-to-date map of your locality (e.g. the Ordnance Survey 1:10,000 series) and transfer it to an Overhead Projector Slide. Get a group of people together and start marking key features on it - perhaps something like this:

1. Anglicans should first mark their parish boundary. Is it the same as the civil parish?

2. Anglicans and non-Anglicans should look for and mark the natural boundaries to their locality: e.g. the edge of the built up area, railways, rivers, open space, a steep hill, a large industrial complex etc. How does this compare with the parish boundary?

3. Mark where lines of communication (roads, railways etc) lead out across the boundary you have drawn. Where do they lead? How far? Which routes are most used? What for?

4. Mark how those same lines of communication run into and across your area. Highlight bus routes (note frequency or otherwise!). Where do the lines intersect? Are these points the natural centres of your locality or have these been by-passed?

5. Mark your church and the churches of other denominations (also places of worship of other religions). Are they close to the points of intersection or not?

6. Mark all community facilities: public halls, shops, pubs, clubs, schools, recreation grounds, leisure centres etc. How do these relate to the lines of communication? What natural centres do these reveal? (A school/leisure centre complex may draw people far away from the historic centre of the community.) Is the most natural centre, e.g. for shopping, recreation, schooling etc, off the map altogether? If so where is it?

7. Now look more closely at the layout of the roads and footpaths in the area. Mark any natural barriers: railways, rivers, busy roads etc. Study the routes from different parts of the area to the natural centres. Are some areas particularly isolated?

8. Use your local knowledge to pin-point recent housing development (it might not even be on the map!) Who has come to live there? How easy is it for them to integrate into the community - geographically? - culturally?

9. Use your local knowledge to mark on the map different types of housing - e.g. significant concentrations of historic village cottages, 19th century terracing. private semis, flats and maisonettes, council estates, private detached, etc. Are the more isolated parts of the area also of one distinct housingtype? How might this affect the way of life of those who live there?

10. Over a few Sundays invite members of your congregation to pinpoint on the map precisely where they live. Getting all the local churches to do this at the same time might be very revealing! How does the picture of where church members come from tie in with - lines of communication? - ease of reaching the church? - type of housing? - newness of housing?

11. Look at the proportion of different types of housing in the area. How well is this reflected in your church membership?

12. Mark all community homes for the elderly, the mentally handicapped etc. Mark clinics, surgeries, day centres, unemployment drop-in centres, community advice centres etc. How accessible are these especially to those who need them most? What contact do the Churches have with these agencies?

. . . and this is just a start. You can probably now think of many other things you can pinpoint: industry, hotels, tourist facilities, government institutions, etc - and many more questions you could ask.