OpenStreetMap
I thought it was just the southern end of Soham that was missing, but no it turned out that around half the town wasn't done, including a whopping area of new housing on the northern edge. So it took me rather longer than I expected to complete Soham. Nevertheless it is done now - thanks to Donald for the larger chunk that was already complete. There's an interesting area to the east of the town called Qua Fen Common (strange name) and the similar East Fen Common, which seems to be a large tract of genuinely common land. It's well used for grazing ponies.
Then over the fen to Isleham, a village of some 2,500 people 5km east of Soham and one of the the last outposts of Cambridgeshire in the east. Isleham is known for its old priory, but I also discovered the Isleham Lime Kilns, a 19th century industrial relic in the middle of a housing estate.
By the time I got back to the bus stop for home (the last three miles across the fens into a fierce southerly wind), I was ready to stop after seven hours continuously on the bike.
Discussion
Comment from Donald Allwright on 26 August 2009 at 10:02
Nice work!
My friend in Soham has just pointed out that the former Lion Mill site is now a new housing estate within the area that I previously surveyed, so also needs adding. Should take no more than about 15 minutes to survey on foot as it's pretty small, I'll make a point of doing this next time I visit.
Comment from davidearl on 26 August 2009 at 11:10
Not sure where Lion Mill is/was, I may not even have passed it as I basically trusted the coherent chunk you'd done west of the main street. But there were two very new areas of housing that almost certainly have only been accessible in the last few weeks: Cyprian Rust Way, here:
http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=52.344355&lon=0.33066&zoom=17&layers=B000FTFTT&mlat=52.34546&mlon=0.33318
(which has more to come between there and Northfield Road) and Aspen Way, here:
http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=52.344355&lon=0.33066&zoom=17&layers=B000FTFTT&mlat=52.34425&mlon=0.33073
However, I now suspect there may be a small chunk missing at the end of Brewhouse Lane, which I didn't go down thinking it was probably complete, but you'll probably know whether this is the case or not:
http://www.openstreetmap.org/export/embed.html?bbox=0.33704,52.33256,0.34472,52.33781&layer=mapnik&marker=52.33490,0.34165
Comment from Donald Allwright on 26 August 2009 at 12:58
I saw there was a new estate taking shape in the Aspen Way area, but the last time I visited I didn't have time to map more than a few stubs on the edge. As for Brewhouse Lane I honestly can't remember now - another one for my list of places to check.
Lion Mill was in the area between Clay Street, Mill Drove and Lode Close:
http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=52.3318&lon=0.33443&zoom=17&layers=B000FTF
I think the housing development may be complete now - I drove past it at night but didn't attempt to map it, but as it's a small area I don't think it's more than a handful of residential streets.
Comment from davidearl on 26 August 2009 at 13:16
Yes, I didn't go down Clay Street further than the library.