| Our
database
Our database has been carefully built by hand. It contains more
than ten thousand places, and includes UK railway stations, London
Underground stations, commercial airports, express coach stops,
and ferry terminals. In addition the database has been populated
with many points of interest and sites belonging to the National
Trust. Also we have included the hotels belonging to three hotel
chains. As a new development we have recently added some details
about France.
To use the database:
-
- On the HOME
page, type in the name of the place that interests you. It is
easier to type just a few starting letters, such as New
for Newton Abbot, because the next page will allow you
to refine your choice. This means that names that are perhaps
difficult to spell can be found as long as you know a few of the
starting letters. You may use lower case or upper case letters,
such as new or New. Click on Submit.
- On the next
page, look for a street name, a railway station, or a coach stop,
from the list of places offered in order to refine your choice.
Then click on Submit.
- On the RESULTS
page you will find listed the nearest railway station, etc. Look
out for the list of nearest points of interest, you should find
these useful.
Database
order
Everything here is in alphabetical order so the usual rules of using
an index do apply, except that National Trust properties can be
found by typing in the words NATIONAL TRUST, and hotels belonging
to the Best Western Group can be found by typing in Best Western.
Town
Type in the first few letters of a town - no need for capital
letters. For example, type in abi for Abingdon.
The word 'town'
has been used in a general sense. It can be a place with a population
above 3,000 people, or a railway station, an airport, an express
coach stop, a ferry terminal, or a point of interest.
Here are some
examples: -
Abingdon,
High Street
Alderney, Ferry Terminal
Luton Airport
Oxford Circus, London Underground
Sacre-Coeur
Windsor Castle
Towns have been
written to the database using the style used by the transport operator
in their published timetable. This has been done deliberately to
make the linking of information to other websites as easy as possible.
So Paddington, Railway Station has been written as London Paddington,
Railway Station.
Abbreviations
The use of abbreviations has been kept to a minimum. You should
be able to readily understand that St means Saint (as in St Austell),
opp means opposite, o/s means outside, U.A. stands for Unitary Authority
- which is a kind of 'county'.
Accented
characters
We are sorry but accented characters cannot be used for technical
reasons. So, for example, Évian must be entered as Evian,
and Château as Chateau.
Distances
Distances are given 'as the crow flies' so in nearly all cases the
actual journey distance will be greater. Bear in mind that local
knowledge is usually better than general knowledge, so it could
benefit you to use a map of the area, to ask questions at your travel
agent, to collect brochures, and to search the web. Maybe there
is an expanse of water between you and your destination so a journey
overland will be much further than our program indicates!
Telephone numbers
Unless otherwise indicated, all telephone numbers have been given
as if you are dialling within the UK. If you should wish to dial
back into the UK from the outside then you need to replace the first
0 with 00 44. For example, to dial Exeter from outside the UK you
replace the number 01392 XXXXXX with 00 44 1392 XXXXXX. We have
been told that this system can change according to the country you
are in, so do check it out. |
For
fun
On the database you will find that we have included the North Pole
and the South Pole just for fun, also the summits of Ben Nevis,
Snowdon, and Scafell Pike, which are the highest peaks in Scotland,
Wales, and England respectively.
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