A collection of iconic castles, country houses and outstanding landscapes from the UK have been added to Google Street View, and Berrington Hall near Leominster is now one of 20 National Trust properties and landscapes which can be explored online.
This is the first time a large number of visitor attractions have been added to Street View UK in one go. The images give a 360 degree ground level tour of the outside of the National Trust sites via a specially created online tour at http://www.maps.google.co.uk/streetview.
The images were taken late last summer using the Google Trike – a three wheeled bike with a Street View camera mounted on it, perfectly suited to collecting images in places not easily accessible by car.
It’s estimated that the cyclists covered 125 miles on the 18 stone (114.3kg) Trike, moving at an average speed of two miles per hour, whilst collecting the National Trust images.
Since then, the images have been processed and carefully stitched together by Google to give a seamless 360 degree view of the various buildings, parts of their grounds and landscapes where accessible and on a route designed in conjunction with the Trust.
Tina Salter property manager at Berrington Hall said: “Google Street View will enable even more people to take a peek and get a sense of what Berrington Hall has to offer.
“It’s fantastic to think that people from around the world, who might never be able to travel to the UK to see this wonderful 18th century mansion, will be able to enjoy a virtual visit.”
Ed Parsons, Geospatial Technologist from Google said: “Places like Berrington Hall offer all of us a special glimpse of the history, nature and architecture up and down the country.
“We were delighted to be able to open up some of the UK’s most famous landmarks to the rest of the world, via the web.
“It’s a fun way to gen up on what to see and do on a day out or whet your appetite for where to go next.”
To take a virtual tour visit www.maps.google.co.uk/streetview and click on the National Trust logo towards the bottom of the page.
