The grid reference lookup tool can be accessed via the Tools menu or directly at https://database.bsbi.org/gridref.php.
This is the best available tool to check the location of a single grid reference, and to find out which vice-county the grid reference is within or overlaps. In addition, the mean, minimum and maximum altitude for the grid square are given.
Searching for a grid reference
Enter a grid reference in the box highlighted in yellow, below, and click on 'look-up grid reference'.
Alternatively the grid reference picker tool can be used by clicking on the map icon (highlighted with a red arrow below):
This will bring up the grid reference picker screen.
From here there are a number of options for finding a grid reference:
If I were searching for the area of woodland near my house, I could type the place name in the search box at the top and click search.
This works in this case, but there may not be a matching place name, or the first match for the name may not be the one you were looking for. You can also search by postcode.
You can also use the map controls to zoom into the location you are looking for. A left-side double click will zoom down, while dragging while holding down the left mouse button will move you around. You can also use the + and - controls in the bottom right of the map. On mobile, you can pinch out with two fingers to zoom in. As you zoom in, the grid squares will become more precise.
Once you have found the grid you want, click or touch to select it. You will then see a box at the bottom of the screen allowing you to select which level of grid square to choose:
The choices are, in the order above:
- SJ47131210: a 10m x 10m square
- SJ471121: a 100m x 100m square
- SJ4712: a monad (1km x 1km square)
- SJ41R: a tetrad (2km x 2km square)
- SJ41: a hectad (10km x 10km square)
Click the use button to make your selection
The displayed map then highlights the grid square defined by the grid reference, and the vice-county within which the grid reference falls, is shaded. If the grid reference overlaps the boundary of two or more vice-counties, all intersected vice-counties are shaded in different colours. In the screenshot below, monad SK1545 is shown to overlap the vc39 / 57 boundary; vc37 to the west of the River Dove, vc57 to the east of the river. The mean altitude of the monad is 129m (range 111 - 165m).
The default view is the Google Maps base map, but aerial photography can be used as a backdrop via the Satellite option.
There are also a variety of geological overlays that can be added via the right hand panel.
Viewing a taxon list for the grid reference
If you click the View taxon list link in the main panel:
you can view a list of taxon found within the grid reference:
You can refine the list by choosing to exclude taxa with fewer than a set number of records.
You can also specify an earliest year (records before this year will be ignored) and a recent record boundary year. Records after the boundary year are displayed in bold in the list, and records before the boundary year are displayed in italics. Records that are both bold and italics have been recorded both before and after the boundary year.
If you tick the sort recent records separately box, then the records before the boundary year are displayed first, then the records after the boundary year.
You can also tick the include taxon list for the whole county box, and choose to include infra-specific taxa.
Each taxon is displayed in the following format:
taxon name (year of last record) |number of records up to the boundary year| |number of records after the boundary year|
If you have a login to the DDb, there is a taxon list tab on the main search page that displays plants found within the grid reference, grouped by date recorded.
You can click into the download tab to download the list in a variety of formats.
The 'local pictures' tab links to photographs on http://www.geograph.org.uk/.