Adding historical data to a gazetteer
Title: Synopsis: Author: Date: Version: Status: Authorised:
Adding Historical Data to the geoXwalk Gazetteer
This document reports on an investigation into adding historical data to the geoXwalk gazetteer. The report focuses on methodology, data sources and the creation of a compendium and timeline of geographies. Julie Missen, UK Data Archive Contributors: Tony Mathys, Ken Miller, Pam Miller, Matthew Woollard, Hilary Beedham, James Reid 28 May 2004 4.0 Final Draft 1
Table of Contents
4.0 INVESTIGATION OF HOW TO MODEL HISTORIC DATA WITHIN THE GAZETTEER ............ 6
5.2 Compendium of Selected Geographies
................................................................................... 29
APPENDIX 5 – HISTORICAL TIME PERIODS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM ..................................... 69
2
3
1.0 Background
geoXwalk is a gazetteer service and shared terminology server providing machine-to-machine protocols in order to underpin geographic searching within the JISC Information Environment. It is a service which enables simple and complex geographic searching of resources within the UK academic digital library, by providing critical middleware infrastructure through which other services within the digital library may undertake geographic querying. A gazetteer can be described as a list of geographic names, which includes locational and other descriptive information (Chappell, 1999). The geoXwalk gazetteer represents much more than just a simple name lookup type facility that is usually the so le function of a ‘traditional’ style gazetteer. Every geographic feature stored in geoXwalk has its detailed geometry stored with it (i.e. a city would be stored as a polygonal footprint [co-ordinate list], a river as a linear footprint). Holding the geometry as an integral attribute of the feature enables complex geospatial searching based on relationships between features. For example, is feature A within a certain distance of feature B?, what features are contained within feature C?, what features does feature D intersect?. The ability to derive the spatial relationships (such as propinquity or containment) between features implicitly, by geometric computation, is significant and provides more accurate results than can be ascertained by simple lookups based on hierarchical thesauri methods, as is the more traditional methodology. Furthermore, geography in the UK is very complex and geographic boundaries in particular do not always nest, for example, contemporary postcode geography does not always nest with census geography. The geoXwalk gazetteer is different from a ‘traditional’ style gazetteer in a number of ways: places are classified into types, for example, city, river, lake; places are recorded with their geographic ‘footprint’, for example, settlements are represented as areas, rivers as lines (this differs from traditional gazetteers which represent places as points, even though they may cover quite large areas or may be linear features such as rivers); the database is comprised of places and other types of ‘geographies’, e.g., postcode areas, parishes and electoral districts. It has long been recognised, at least within the geographic information (GI) community, that geography provides a powerful mechanism by which to search. Traditionally, this has been achieved by using index terms to relate to resources. However, such efforts have generally been piecemeal and suffer from being too restrictive in the utilisation of the ‘geography’ concept. For example, place name is frequently used for simple text based pattern matched searches, but these tend to be ‘blunder-buss’ type searches and consequently result sets are poorly discriminated and often return spurious results because there is little consistency in the geographic vocabulary used. A further problem is that the coding schemes used are subject to revision and the geographical entities they describe change spatial form on different temporal frequencies. Taking UK electoral wards as an example, these have changed frequently and often quite dramatically, whereas county boundaries are relatively consistent over longer periods. In other words, UK geography is complex. In practical terms what this means is that geography as a search dimension lacks both consistency and persistence, which makes reliability, repeatability and utility in searches problematic. The geoXwalk gazetteer seeks to resolve this problem by using the one geography which obviates all these issues, namely the use of a coordinate system. In the UK this means the Ordnance Survey National Grid or alternatively a latitude/longitude encoding (the former tends to take precedence and is more familiar to a UK audience). By encoding coordinate representations of the various geographies, we can define a geography which is both consistent and persistent and provides a baseline against which comparisons with other geographies may be conducted. This is the key to geographically enabling resources and is what underpins the ability of geoXwalk to provide answers to complex geographical queries. As the n ame suggests, geoXwalk, can ‘crosswalk’ the varying manifestations of geographies to ‘translate’ one representation into another.
2.0 Introduction
The inclusion of historical data to the geoXwalk gazetteer will not only enrich the data already held but will also enable the gazetteer to be used by a wider range of users. However, the addition of temporal data to a gazetteer is a complex and difficult task. There are many issues which need to be considered, such as how to deal with changes in boundaries, names and other geographies such as administrative units, over time. One of the more obvious concerns is the current lack of easily 4
accessible, digitised, geospatial historic data; there may also be limitations on how far back in time geo-referenced data, such as place names and their locations, can be found. The identification of geo-referenced historical boundary and feature type data, such as rivers and lakes are expected to be even more challenging, as is the method of introducing co-ordinates into the system when digitised historic boundary data are fragmented and of diverse quality. The future use of the gazetteer also needs to be taken into consideration as this could alter both the structure of the gazetteer and the choice of data sources to be included. The choice of data sources is dependent on both the intended target audience of the service and their availability in a usable format. This in turn, could affect the type of methodology adopted. The questions of who the target audience is and what data sources exist in a usable format need to be addressed. This report aims to provide an overview of the techniques used when adding and using historical data and to highlight potential problems which could be encountered when adding historical data to geoXwalk. The remainder of this report considers the issues raised above and makes recommendations on how they may be resolved.
3.0 Aims and Objectives
The aim of this investigation is to make recommendations on how best to add and manage historical content in the gazetteer. This includes investigating: what methodology to use for adding historical data to the gazetteer; which data sources should be included in the gazetteer. how best to version manage content within the gazetteer; the construction of a compendium of historic geographies; the construction of a timeline of historical changes and periods of time. Before recommendations for implementing historical data to geoXwalk can be made, other questions need to be addressed, such as how the gazetteer will be used and by whom it will be used.
3.1 geoXwalk Gazetteer Requirements
A requirements study was undertaken during the feasibility stage (phase 1) of the project. The study identified that the gazetteer should contain contemporary and historic administrative areas, place names (and variant names) and geographic footprints. It was agreed that the gazetteer should include: definitions of unit types and information about the hierarchical relationships between unit types (e.g. local government districts are part of counties); temporal ranges, as temporal attributes are often inexact or estimated. Temporal ranges for geographic names may also need to be extensible to geological and pre-historic temporal schemes; information about the geographic footprints represented within the gazetteer service needs to be documented, for accuracy, measure method and source, so that users can evaluate what they are being shown. Interpolated historic boundaries would be acceptable to many users so long as they were clearly labelled as such.
3.2 Example Uses for geoXwalk
The main uses of a geospatial gazetteer are: as a reference source for both place names and locations; to enhance geographic searching; and to geo-reference text. The gazetteer can be used either as a stand alone reference product or within a GIS. The following examples were identified during the feasibility study as ways in which the historic data in the gazetteer could be used: a genealogist researching the origins of the surname Maplebeck might wish to investigate if it is a place and if there any variations of the name Maplebeck; an epidemiologist could map disease statistics, along with street level data, the location of fields and the types of pesticides used by farmers, to determine whether a cluster of reported symptoms such as sore throats, eye irritations and headaches may be related to the proximity of an agricultural field where pesticides are sprayed. Coupled with dates of when the crops were 5
sprayed and when symptoms were reported, a correlation between the two events could be inferred; an archaeologist in finding the locations of archaeological sites. For example, to search for all archaeological sites within 200m of a road. The gazetteer could be used to identify the route of the road and create a 200m buffer along either side it to identify any known archaeological sites within that polygon. The archaeologist could query geoXwalk to find what places within the feature type category of ‘settlements’ lie within the 200 metre buffer zone and all the names of the fields lying either side of the road; a reference user and a map librarian could convert current or historic place names into a co ordinate system which can then be used to access the relevant maps, or vice versa. A library catalogue could extend the search by using geoXwalk to provide all historic and current forms of the name. For example, a Gaelic novelist carrying out research into a story about the changing fortunes of a family living on Mull from the eighteenth to the twentieth century, searches a library catalogue using the Gaelic form of the name, Mhuile; archivists could use an authority list for place names to improve searching in individual archive catalogues or in national resources; a crime researcher could use the gazetteer within GIS to integrate both qualitative and quantitative data through location. The data could be visualised spatially, and analysis conducted from a variety of time periods and sources; an historian could discover what administrative or other units (e.g. parliamentary, registration) in which a particular place they were researching lay in at different time periods.
3.3 Gazetteer Users
The phase 1 feasibility study also identified that the geoXwalk gazetteer service might be used by reference users, map librarians, researchers and archivists. The following examples show how four different user types could benefit from geoXwalk: data providers, such as information services, could use geoXwalk to translate a geographic name into a set of co-ordinates for use in a search. Alternatively, a list of all the geographic names falling within a minimum-bounding rectangle could be returned. The gazetteer could also be used as a middleware server to enable more sophisticated spatial searching; service providers could use a controlled vocabulary list of current and historical geographic names and convert these into a standard spatial coding scheme (such as latitude and longitude and/or the Ordnance Survey National Grid); data users could use the gazetteer as a reference source for the academic community, archives, libraries, and museums; data creators could use the gazetteer as a place name list or to parse text documents and metadata records to identify geographic names (current and historical), and convert them into g eographic ‘footprints’ expressed in a standard spatial coding scheme, such as latitude and longitude or the Ordnance Survey National Grid.
4.0 Investigation of How to Model Historic Data within the Gazetteer
Part of this investigation has been to look at how to extend the gazetteer to include historical data. Along with an investigation into the methodologies which can be used for handling temporal data, the implementation of these protocols within a system has been considered. To assist in completing this task, the methodologies used by similar projects for adding historical content to a gazetteer or GIS were reviewed.
4.1 Database and GIS Methodology
There are several ways of handling historical data in a database or GIS. Traditionally, a simple snapshot of a location or event at a specific time is created. This can be achieved by treating time as an attribute and by attaching attribute data to each spatial feature. Layers can be used to represent an event or location at different times, each layer being a version of the event or location at a specific moment in time. A more recent trend is to time-stamp events or processes, also known as spatio temporal objects. This method allows for flexible representation of changes through space and time.
4.1.1 Database Methodology
The following sections investigate the advantages and disadvantages of methodologies used to add historical data to a geo-spatial database. 6
Date Stamping Approach
The date stamping approach handles time as an attribute and allows spatial features to be created and abolished and their attributes changed over time. The simplest way to implement this is with a single row of attribute data attached to each spatial feature. Healey and Stamp use this method by attaching attribute data to each spatial feature and provide a simple example showing how a change in company name can be represented over a period of time (Gregory 2002). Multiple rows can also be attached to each spatial feature with each row having a start and end date. This allows handling of complex situations, for example, where the aim is to monitor a firm's economic statistics, such as output, profit, and employment, but where the name and ownership of the firm also changes over time. In GIS, layers can be used to represent a situation/location at different dates. This key dates approach is suitable for use with maps sourced at different dates and where the temporal nature of the data is more explicitly spatial. This method can be seen in the atlas of the Great Irish famine wher e layers are used to represent an administrative area at various censuses. Armstrong’s Snapshot Model also shows temporal information associated with time-stamped individual layers (Gregory 2002). The snapshot model works best when the source data contain no representation of events that cause change and/or contain only a small number of dates, or changes in clearly defined times. The snapshot approach usually results in significant data redundancy (Yuan 1996). For example, non changing boundaries are repeated within the database. The model is not effective for event driven changes because it does not have the ability to model individual object events (Scott 2001). Another problem with this method is that the location of the feature cannot change with time. More complex situations are problematic. For example, if a researcher wanted to create a database of changing administrative boundaries for an entire country, the key dates solution would be to digitise the boundaries for every date at which maps are available. There are two problems with this: firstly, where boundaries do not change the same line has to be digitised multiple times, which could lead to problems with sliver polygons; secondly, it is unlikely to be possible to digitise the boundaries for every possible date, and while linking attribute data to spatial data for a nearby date may provide a good approximation of the actual boundaries, there will be some error introduced as a result. This can range from an incorrect representation of the administrative unit concerned, to either polygons with no attribute data or attribute data with no polygons (Gregory 2002). A solution used by Gregory, Dorling and Southall, in the mapping of changing poverty patterns, is to control spatial location whilst varying time (Gregory et al. 2001).
Space-time Composite Approach
The space-time composite approach can be described as: “A way of handling time in GIS that preserves topology by sub-dividing space into a small set of areas that can then be re-aggregated int o the arrangement that existed at different dates” (Gregory 2002). In the Langran space-time composite model, temporal information is associated with time-stamped individual objects, so that the model conceptually describes the change of a spatial object through a period of time (Yuan 1996). The method of Least Common Geometry can be used with this model, where stable low-level administrative units, each unit containing a polygon for attribute data can be stored. Thus, administrative units could be created through aggregating smaller polygons. The space-time composite approach requires re-construction of thematic and temporal attribute tables whenever operations involve any changes in spatial objects (shape, size, or configuration). Consequently, geographic entities tend to be decomposed into fragments of spatial objects. For example, a wildfire event can be represented by a set of polygons with descriptions of burn severity and burn time. This can consist of stable low-level administrative units but problems appear in representing phenomena such as front lines, re-ignition and spotting (Yuan 1996). The composite approach is more robust than the snapshot method and is therefore better suited for source data that contains discrete, independent or repetitive events driven changes to geographic features (Scott 2001). 7
4.1.2 GIS Methodology
The use of historical data in a GIS can create a number of problems, such as difficulties in data visualisation, analysis and comparison. These are a result of incompleteness of data, lack of spatial detail and changes in unit types and definitions. The methods used within GIS to counteract these difficulties are discussed in the sections below.
Aggregation of Data
The traditional solution in GIS to incompleteness of data is to aggregate data into stable units, for example into counties. This is achieved by grouping units together to form new units which are perceived to be similar. This method would not be satisfactory to many users as it would result in a loss of spatial resolution. It also affects statistical detail (Gregory 2000).
Areal Interpolation
This method allows for long term comparison by aggregating data from many dates or administrative units and standardising on a single administrative geography. This method is achieved by the re districting data from two or more sets of administrative units. It is also necessary to hold accurate boundary source units (Gregory 2000). Interpolation allows for comparison of data but also introduces error into the data which can be un-quantifiable. Gregory, Dorling and Southall have found that interpolation of data from a variety of spatial units to a single administrative unit, will allow for accurate long-term comparison of data (Gregory et al. 2001). The Great Britain Historical GIS uses this technique to allow census data to be linked to the boundaries that were used to publish them. Gregory tested the accuracy of several areal interpolation techniques suitable for use with historical data, by using "synthetic" districts and parishes created from Enumeration District (ED) level data from the 1991 census for comparison. The errors introduced were analysed for several different variables and showed that the effectiveness of the technique depends on the variable to be interpolated and the choice of target geography (Gregory 2000).
Point Coverage and Buffer Zones
The use of point coverage and buffer zones is similar in some respects to a bounding box but uses a distance radius and circle to define query area. For example, a user could identify a distance from mid point (e.g. 1 mile) to define the search radius. Dates and keywords (e.g. AD 1100, AD 1230 and Felixstowe) could be entered to limit the search to values within these stated parameters. Thus, towns in existence between AD 1100 and AD 1230 within 1 mile of Felixstowe would return values that include the specified dates under the keyword name of town and within a distance of 1 mile. One problem with using this method is identifying where the mid point is. This means that although this technique may not be very accurate, it is perhaps less problematic than defining the polygon boundaries of a place name area. The technique could be used if only a simple visual representation of a place or event is needed. Another decision that needs to be made is whether or not to consider establishing a hierarchy to facilitate and improve search capabilities. The keyword ‘town’ may seldom be included to identify a settlement or populated place but within a hierarchy it can be selected and any place name associated with a town will be selected. For example, London and other cities were considered towns at some point in time, but then these places would be selected within the corresponding temporal frame. This would be the inference made, though date stamping would need to be achieved so that specific dates can be searched within the time span that classifies London as a town.
Points versus Polygons
Polygons would provide the greatest level of information to the user and are necessary when constructing boundary data but they are unlikely to be easily found when using historical data. Point data are more likely to be available but do not provide as much detail of an area.
4.2 Historical Gazetteer and GIS Case Studies
The examples below provide information on projects which have incorporated historical data into their systems. These projects are ongoing and in some cases in their infancy, therefore conclusive evaluations of the methodologies used, is not always feasible. 8
4.2.1 Belgian Historical GIS ( http://www.flwi.ugent.be/hisgis/start_en.htm
)
Introduction
An historical geographic information system has been constructed at Ghent University for the territorial structures of Belgium. This historical GIS is based on two historical databases, which have been developed since 1990. One database contains digitised statistical data for population, agriculture and industry for the period 1800 – 1961. The other database consists of hundreds of digitised historical maps, representing the boundary changes for the period 1800 – 2000. The maps (in vector format, geo-referenced to Belgian Lambert 72 map projection) are stored per province. It is possible to visualise the statistical data at different points of time and at different territorial levels, ranging from province to municipality, using historical borders which are valid for the selected point of time.
Database Structure
The database contains a single map, containing all boundaries of Belgian municipalities for each census year between 1800 and 1961, for 1963 and for the present day. Data have been stored in a relational database structure (Microsoft Access), which makes it possible to link all data to map units. Due to the hierarchical structure of the Belgian administrative units, the map of the municipality boundaries can also be used to reconstruct territorial units at a higher level, such as departments and districts, since these units are assembled from different municipalities. Figure 1.
Related tables in the Access database Figure 1 illustrates the possibilities for integrating data within the historical geographical database. Data (population, land use, agriculture and industry) are stored in tables with the same structure and through the combination data/NIS_code all kinds of data can be linked to “tbl_linktable” and to the map of least common geometry. Thus all kind of data can be visualised geographically. The core of the GIS for the Belgian territorial structure consists of three modules, least common geometry, linktable and attribute data.
Least common geometry (LGC)
Starting from a vector map of the statistical neighbourhoods in 1990, all the historical boundaries which have ever existed in Belgium between 1796 and 1963, and in 2003, have been collected in a single map. The statistical neighbourhoods have been merged, based on the first 6 digits of their NIS identifier: This results in a map (see Figure 2) which represents more or less the boundaries of the 9
Belgian municipalities in 1963. The accuracy of this map is 50m RMS, corresponding with a working scale of 1:50.000. Each polygon of this map is described by a unique NIS-code. By performing an overlay of this map with the historical maps, locations have been pinpointed where historical boundaries existed before 1990. If the historical boundaries were situated parallel with the boundaries of the statistical neighbourhoods, the arcs of the map of the merged statistical neighbourhoods have been left unmodified. If the boundaries of the (less accurate) historical maps were located within a distance of more than 250m, then historical boundaries have been added to the map. In this way a map has been created, which consists of all the related boundaries which have ever existed in the past. These boundaries delineate polygons. Each polygon is described by a unique polygon-identifier, which is not an NIS-code. Figure 2.
Example for the construction of an LCG-map: a) overlay of historical maps; b) Construction of polygons (250m threshold) and allocation of ID’s
Linktable
For each polygon on the historical and recent maps, the central point has been calculated and all attribute data from the historical map have been linked to these points. For each polygon on the LCG map, where one of the points derived from the historical maps lies within the LCG-polygons, the corresponding historical information is linked to the polygons of the LCG-map. In this way we have information for each LCG-polygon about the corresponding historical administrative entities. This information is stored in a table (see Table 1), which consists of the polygon-id of the polygons from the LCG-map and the NIS-code, which is valid for a particular LCG-polygon in a certain period in time (the period for which the original historical maps were valid). The time validity is defined in the fields “begin” and “end”: 10
Table 1. Example of a linktable corresponding with the LCG-map This table contains 4 fields: The polygon-id for the polygons of the LCG-map; the NIS-code to identify all municipalities which have ever existed on Belgian territory between 1796 and the present; the year (yyyy) from which on a particular polygon became part of a municipality; and the end year (yyyy) for a particular polygon to be part of a municipality. In the future an update of the data has to be included to realise a higher temporal resolution of the database.
Attribute data
The data are linked to the different territorial entities. All data have to be linked to the same NIS-codes as processed in the linktable. Furthermore all data are valid for a certain period in time or for a particular moment in time. Therefore all data tables contain fields such as “begin”, “end” or “date”. Data which can not be linked directly to a particular municipality (for example data per district) can indirectly be linked to the LCG-map via the linktables between municipalities and territorial entities at a higher level. Also in this case, the linktable describes a period for which a certain relationship between municipalities and other territorial entities was valid. This structure makes it possible to visualise data geographically on a map where the data, which were valid for a particular period in time, are linked automatically to boundaries which existed in the same period in time. Before the data are linked to the LCG-map a query has to be performed which combines only those data records from the different tables that are valid for a particular date. In principle, all kinds of data can be processed within this historic GIS-structure, as long as the data can be linked to NIS-codes and the dates for the validity of data are precisely described.
4.2.2 China Historical GIS (CHGIS)
( http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~chgis/ )
Introduction
This project was launched in January 2001, with funding from the Luce Foundation. The CHGIS aims to establish a database of historical administrative units for different periods in Chinese history. It provides a base GIS platform for researchers to use for spatial analysis, for temporal statistical modelling, and for the representation of selected historical administrative units as digital maps. Considerable flexibility has been designed into the GIS, allowing for alternate versions and variations of feature attributes, spatial data and competing political entities. The CHGIS aims to build a reliable database of administrative units without imposing a closed interpretation on the relationships between those units.
Database Structure
The objective of the project is to establish a spatio-temporal GIS database for the historical dynasties of China, so that queries about the administrative organisation for any date covered by the database, will result in a selection of administrative elements and major geographical features that the documentary sources indicate were then in existence. The selection will incorporate all of the available information concerning the hierarchical organisation of the territory of the Dynasty and any 11
competing regimes occupying any territory of 'greater China' at a particular time, and can be queried repetitively to select the component levels of administrative organisation down to the county level. As the available historical information may not always allow for the representation of the administrative system in terms of discrete areas, the CHGIS datasets will include prefecture level polygons, and will focus on adding as many county and village level units as possible using point features. County level polygons will be provided for one data-rich area, the Songjiang-Taihu District (around present-day Shanghai). In addition to administrative units and villages, other features included in the datasets are historical rivers, coastline, and background images showing topography. Currently, datasets for China's administrative system make use of the national standard Guobiao (GB) Code system for identifying administrative units at the provincial, prefectural and county levels. The six digit GB Codes serve as a hierarchical geocoding system, uniquely identifying each administrative polygon in a way that exhausts the territory of the Peoples Republic of China. As administrative changes take place over time, the administrative units undergo various changes including name changes, changes in boundary, merging, splitting, creation or dissolution of administrative units. The primary task of the data model is to keep track of these changing attributes and allow for combinations of these attributes that are valid for specified dates to be retrieved by the user. In addition, the database must keep track of the previous and subsequent units that comprise all or part of the territory that has been affected by a change. This is an essential requirement for following the administrative control of places over time. This temporally searchable administrative change database, extended backwards in time to the Dynastic Periods, is the key concept behind the CHGIS spatio-temporal database design. The phase one CHGIS data model, contains attribute information for each point, line and polygon feature that was current for the year 1820 (see Table 2). The database will contain multiple records for each GIS feature in a relational database, and will use KEY_IDs to relate those records to the spatial objects in the GIS tables. A new record will be entered for each instance of historical change. The rank of a particular record in the administrative hierarchy will be indicated by a "part-of" field, instead of explicitly repeating the names of the superior units in numerous fields. Other tables will track the temporal sequence of changes over time, and maintain links to spatial objects in the GIS. The data model combines a relational database and the GIS to track independently varying attributes as they change over time for each historical place. Table 2. An example table showing attribute information for each point, line and polygon features that were current for the year 1820 Note: that the values for each of the administrative levels that is above the place being recorded is shown. In the first row, the place Liusha is shown to be part of Leizhou Fu, Guandong Province, and the Qing Dynasty, while all of the possible intervening levels are blank. This is expedient for entering the data and joining it to the GIS table but is not an optimal database implementation as it requires the needless storage of the same information in countless records. In the phase two model a new record will be added for each instance of change that is recorded for any historical place. So for every change in place name, admin status, or location, a new record is added. In addition, the rank in the administrative hierarchy is shown with the “part- of” field, which contains the SystemID of the jurisdictional unit that contains the record. Each of these records, by definition, must have some date information to differentiate it along the temporal scale. A separate Temporal Sequence Table allows for tracking change over time. Table 3 shows an example of the name change for the place, Tengyue Ting, Yunnan Province, which is now called Tengchong Xian. 12
Table 3. An example showing a change in place name Table 4 illustrates how a change in place name can be tracked. Table 4. An example showing temporal sequence of the place name change tracked in a related table The place in the administrative hierarchy, instead of repeating all of the names for each superior administrative level, is shown to be part-of another instance. Table 5 shows an example, where Liusha is part-of Leizhou, while Leizhou is part-of Guangdong: Table 5. An example showing an administrative hierarchy The implementation is complicated by the fact that the subordinate and superior unit records in each "part-of" relationship might not be aligned along the temporal scale. In other words, Leizhou might have had a change in the year 1840, necessitating a new record in the database, while Liusha did not have a change at that time. Table 6 illustrates this by showing how Leizhou was demoted from a fu to a ting in the year 1840, and then promoted back to a fu in the year 1865. During this period, the town of Liusha was subordinate to Leizhou and had no changes itself, so the database would have to include three unique instances of change for Leizhou's status: Table 6. An example of temporal place name change To show the administrative hierarchy, the part-of relationships are recorded in a separate table (see Table 7) that explicitly states the effective dates of the relationship. In this case, since the unit immediately superior to Liusha had three instances of change, a new record is needed for each part- of instance. Table 7. showing temporal change of a place as part of a administrative hierarchy Note: two separate records exist for Leizhou Fu because these are two unique temporal instances for the historical place, Leizhou. 13
A final experimental spatio-temporal database system was designed as a theoretical exercise for handling non-synchronous changes in different attribute domains. The basic idea is to separate the various attributes that change independently of one another (such as name changes, administrative status changes and spatial footprint changes) into separate classes or tables, and to relate these variables to one another by creating an entity for a place or "place object."
4.2.3 Great Britain Historical GIS (GBHGIS)
( http://www.geog.port.ac.uk/gbhgis/ )
Introduction
This ongoing project (based at Portsmouth University) centres around a historic GIS that aims to map the changing boundaries of all the major administrative and statistical reporting areas of Great Britain and link them to a database of demographic, socio-economic and electoral statistics. The project uses a top down approach in the administrative hierarchy. The system stores polygons representing the boundaries of administrative units and uses them to work out which units are covered a postcode specified by the user. Polygon content is limited to modern Districts and Unitary Authorities for the whole of Great Britain plus parish and pre-1974 local government district boundaries for the Isle of Wight. Ecclesiastical geographies are given relatively low priority. Some of the main data sources used for the project are: Youngs Local Administrative Units of England. Administrative Units transcribed for Hampshire and Norfolk; Melville Richards' Welsh Administrative and Territorial Units; Scottish Archives Network - complete list of Scottish Parishes; John Bartholomew, Gazetteer of the British Isles (1887), the first 25,000 entries; John Goring, The Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales for places in the Isle of Wight; Frances H. Groome, The Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1882-1885); James Pigot’s A pocket topography and gazetteer of England (London, 1842) and Pigot’s Topography of Scotland (1837) - selective transcription from David Gatley (University of Staffordshire); National Register of Archives’ Manorial Documents Register for Hampshire and Norfolk. Also included are: Isle of Wight boundary change data from census reports are included; population counts for the parishes of the Isle of Wight, back to 1801 where relevant, and a range of redistricted data for modern local authorities covering themes such as population (back to 1801), industry (back to 1841) and religion (comparing 1851 and 2001); counties for the whole British Isles, including Ireland, and England, England and Wales, Great Britain, the United Kingdom and ‘The Isles’.
Database Structure
The main gazetteer is a record of administrative units, rather than ‘places’ or ‘place-names’ because, unlike place names, administrative units are created, abolished, named and altered by clear legal processes, unlike place names. The database stores boundaries of administrative units and records of parishes and districts as polygons based on changing historic boundaries and uses them to work out which units are covered a postcode specified by the user. The rigidity in the structure should ensure greater consistency and functionality. The system is designed to include boundary mapping and supports functionality, including postcode based searching. In particular, different kinds of units are combined into a single Unit Type. Kinds are distinguished by status values, so that a map of all the units of a given type at a given date covers the whole country. One specific consequence is that where two sets of boundaries, and therefore populations, existed simultaneously for what some would regard as the same unit, two distinct units are required to exist. This means that Ancient, Registration and Administrative Counties of the same name are quite distinct units, and that Ecclesiastical Parishes are kept distinct from Ancient/Civil Parishes of the same name and general location. The SucceededBy relationship is designed to provide links between units like these, with similar names and locations but different types. 14
Modelling the complex hierarchies of administrative units in the actual structure of the gazetteer will become steadily more complex, especially as various special cases emerge. The system handles the complex inter-relationships between units via a simple but flexible structure enabling each unit to change its name, hierarchical relationships and location. The basic structure involves five tables, although several additional tables define the permissible values for types of unit, the changing statuses of units and the relationships between units. These tables are shown below; the other three hold statistical data (g_data), polygonal footprints (g_foot), or descriptive gazetteer text (g_text_link, etc). Figure 3. The g_unit table The g_unit table defines which units existed, but holds very limited information: an ID number generated by the system, a unit_type value which is a fixed attribute, dates of creation and abolition, and a notes column. All names of units, preferred and variant, are held in g_name. The g_status table holds characteristics of units which may change over time, or be held simultaneously: it will record, for example, whether a local government district was an Urban District, Municipal Borough or County Borough, or whether an earlier district was, most commonly, both a Poor Law Union and a Registration District, or just one or the other. The g_rel table holds a range of relationships between units. IsPartOf Basic hierarchical relationships (NB a unit can be part of more than one higher level unit simultaneously). WasSucceededBy ReducedToEnlarge ReducedToCreate AbolishedToEnlarge AbolishedToCreate This handles a wide range of relationships, generally between units of different types, and is a kind of ‘see also’; for example, it is used to relate Ancient, Registration to both Registration Counties and Administrative Counties, and Registration Counties to Administrative Counties. These variants all record boundary changes, and the table includes fields to hold information about the area transferred, such as area, number of houses and number of people. BoundaryChange These entries lack information about the other unit involved, as Youngs only names the other unit where one of the units was either abolished or created. Event Table 8. The g_rel Table This enables the g_rel table to hold any other event affecting a unit. 15
The g_auth table is used to hold information on gazetteer sources, and exists to enable multiple authorities to be associated with any item.
Problems/Limitations
Loading data is more complex than extracting them, given that the g_unit values which tie the system together should never be manually input and unit names cannot be relied on to uniquely identify units. Whenever a new unit is added to the system the same operation should create an ‘IsPartOf’ relationship to some higher level unit, so the unit can be identified by the combination of its own name and the higher unit’s name. This is most problematic for the combinations of parish names and ancient county names, and an additional g_hint value has been added to distinguish the small number of pairs of parishes within single counties that have the same name. The structure of the gazetteer makes even the simplest queries quite complex. For example, finding out which local government district a particular Civil Parish, in a given ancient county was in, requires seven distinct references to tables. However, the data model makes good use of the capabilities of relational database management systems and performance is better than expected. Some simple advance preparation of text strings has been done to improve performance: holding the assembled ‘authority’ for a given record with that record, rather than constructing it from one or more entries in the g_authority table plus other information on statutory orders, etc; and storing the preferred English name of each unit, status information and a label for the unit type in the g_unit table. Although the gazetteer tables are extensively constrained, the system is designed to accommodate various unusual relationships which are anything but the general rule, “Bishop’s Peculiars”, for example. A significant amount of checking of code is needed, including a requirement that only certain relationships may exist between specific combinations of types of unit. These additional checks cannot be implemented as constraints and are currently simply a set of commands run each time the gazetteer is changed or extended. In the longer term they should be implemented as triggers, small programs which run automatically each time certain changes are made to the gazetteer.
4.2.4 Historic Parishes of England and Wales Gazetteer Introduction
This gazetteer was created by Roger Kain and Richard Oliver at Exeter University. The aim of the gazetteer is to provide historic and ancient parish boundary information for England and Wales. This has been achieved by including a National Grid centroid, the modern form of the place name and some 19th century variants, the source of boundary information, the nature of the district and the name of the mother parish, within the gazetteer. The gazetteer uses Ordnance Survey (OS) 1:63,360 base maps with the addition of 1851 Census data for Great Britain. Missing boundaries were added from the Tithe Survey maps, enclosure maps and the OS 1:10,560 first edition maps. The 1851 Census was used to number each unit and identify those areas for which the census provided no information. Evidence for the remaining units and their boundaries was then sought from early OS maps, tithe maps and local estate maps. Terms are of prime importance in this kind of work precisely because there have been confusing regional and temporal variations in the naming of local administrative units.
This project uses the boundaries as they were between 1844 and 1888.
Database Structure
The core of the gazetteer is a database of metadata, intended for use with either Acrobat Reader or Microsoft Excel, which records the character of each administrative unit mapped, and the origins of the evidence for its boundaries. Three CDs contain this database in addition to maps of the 'historic' parish boundaries of England that can be read using Acrobat Reader. A further six CDs contain those same maps saved as three separate interactive layers, to be viewed using Adobe Illustrator. The data have been broken down into fifteen sub-groups that can be divided into two types of information. Firstly, locational and identificational information, including the name of the unit on the map and a unique identification number for that unit, followed by the type of unit represented, the 'historic county' (pre-1974) in which it is located, a national grid reference for the centre of the region, and the number of the OS sheet on which it appears on the CD-Rom. Secondly there are the 16
historical data, including the 1851 Census parish number, the source from which the information on the boundary was derived, an archive reference for that source, and a field for comments on conflicting source references. Figure 4: Data queried in Microsoft Access to isolate all the townships in Whitby parish The Microsoft Excel version can be exported into Microsoft Access to be used as a database rather than a spreadsheet. Querying the data in Access allows all the parishes in a particular county, or all the townships in a particular parish (see Figure 4), to be isolated and saved as a separate table.
The Maps
Like the database, the maps have also been provided in two formats: Adobe Acrobat Reader and Adobe Illustrator. Figure 5: The index and key to the OS sheet numbers displayed in Acrobat Reader The maps have been created and stored in three separate layers. First, there is a high-resolution scan of the first edition New Popular series maps published by the OS. 17
Figure 6: OS sheet 86 displayed in Acrobat Reader with red polylines tracing boundaries A second layer consists of the boundaries themselves, saved as red polylines (see Figure 6) drawn over the grey base maps, with thicker yellow polylines tracing the route of the county boundaries. Complicated interlocking boundaries and minute extra parochial areas can still be mapped and remain clear to the eye at high magnifications. Particularly complex areas have been highlighted on the maps in purple and drawn separately for extra clarity. Finally, the third layer adds the individual identification numbers assigned to each unit in order to link it to the data, along with a series of ties joining up the detached portions of any individual parish. Identification numbers and ties are saved as green figures and lines.
Problems/Limitations
The problems of the overlapping use of terms are highlighted by this gazetteer. For example, 'township', 'tithing' and 'hamlet' are used to describe sub-divisions of the ecclesiastical parishes and are sometimes later mapped by the OS as 'civil parishes'. These subdivisions were recorded as 'census parishes' in the 1851 Census. The units represented on the maps are subdivisions rather than the older ecclesiastical parishes. As the status of each unit is recorded in the database and the 'mother parish' of each unit, the ecclesiastical parishes can be reconstructed from the database. The scanned layer makes the files large and unwieldy, at 30MB for an individual sheet. Although the numbers are sequential from parish to parish, it can be difficult at high magnifications to discern in which direction on the map the sequence runs. The green ties between parishes and extra parochial areas are similarly obscured. Furthermore, because the maps have been drawn and saved by OS sheet, many of the parishes break off abruptly at the edge of the sheet. Figure 7: OS sheet 86 displayed in Adobe Illustrator with the base scan disabled Some of the above problems can be overcome using Adobe Illustrator, which unlike Acrobat Reader allows editing and drawing, including the separation of layers. Once the base layer is turned off (see Figure 7), the identification numbers and ties are clearer. If necessary the base layer can then be switched on once more to add the physical, cultural and place-name information. In practice though, 18
the quality of the scan makes the base map grainy and the detail difficult to decipher. Place-names are often unreadable, and the map is over-crowded with information. Using the layer tool, the polylines on the boundary layer can be made editable, selected and moved using any of the nodal points created during the original drawing process. The county boundaries and the ecclesiastical parishes are not supplied as a layer, only as the smallest subdivisions. It is possible to produce a query in Access to locate all the townships in a given parish, and then draw over the common outer boundary of the ecclesiastical parish as a new layer in Illustrator. The data in Adobe Illustrator, are not geo-referenced, which means they cannot be used directly with a digital GIS mapping programme alongside other grid-referenced information. These kinds of programmes would allow data derived from sources organised as parish-by-parish, to be analysed and presented in far more sophisticated ways. Census data, for example, could be listed by parish, and compared with the topography of each region to produce themed and colour coded maps. It is possible to geo-reference these maps as the 'centroid' for each unit because the grid reference for its central point, has been provided. Although the maps are drawn as polylines, rather than as polygons (or regions), polygons can be produced for each unit from these polylines using AutoCad, so that the grid references can be assigned. The transferring of the maps to a GIS program, has meant that the scanned layer can be discarded, enabling a base map to be designed specifically for their purpose from digital OS data. Place-names can be referred to in the database and the features which the boundaries follow. The need to organise the maps by OS sheet number is eliminated and they can now be split into more logical units, perhaps by pre-1974 county. As the data is geo-referenced, they can be combined with other datasets derived from historical sources to create new maps.
4.2.5 National Historical GIS (NHGIS)
( http://www.nhgis.org/ )
Introduction
National Historical Geographic Information System, based at the Minnesota Population Center, is a project to create and freely disseminate a database incorporating all available aggregate census information for the United States between 1790 and 2000. Historical and contemporary U.S. Census summary data have been collected, enriched and incorporated into a Geographic Information Systems framework to create a web-based system for access to both census data and associated metadata.
Database Structure
The NHGIS data access prototype is a three-component system and is capable of extracting aggregate data from Summary Tape File 4 (STF4) of the 1990 Census. The prototype consists of a user interface, a middle tier, and a back end. The user interface accepts topical free-text searches and offers a limited selection of census geographies including: nation; region; division; state; county and place (10,000 or more persons). The middle tier works to satisfy data requests from the user. This is done through the use of an ontological search of the data using the terms (and associated terms) provided by the user. Results are passed to the user interface for further clarification or selection. The back end of the prototype is a system for providing fast access to the gigabytes of information contained in NHGIS and is capable of providing fully populated aggregate data tables or table structure only (titles, row and column headers). To do any chronological analysis of the census, there is a need to know how geographic units were altered from one census to the next. The availability of maps will unlock the potential of the aggregate census data and will make possible whole new topics of historical geographic analysis. The mapping component of the project is substantial, with approximately 7,000 source maps to be scanned and 630,000 cleaned, verified polygons created. The unit of analysis in aggregate census data is a geographic entity: the census block, tract, minor civil division, county division, county, city, metropolitan area or state. All these units can change from one census year to the next. The primary cartographic emphases are census tracts and counties, the basic building blocks of the Census Bureau statistical system. The finest level of geography in the 19
electronic maps will be the census tract. Census tracts usually have between 2,500 and 8,000 persons and are designed to be homogeneous with respect to population characteristics, economic status and living conditions. In addition to the tract maps, new high-precision county maps covering the entire country since 1790 will be developed. Geographic entities that are aggregates of tracts or counties, such as metropolitan areas, will also be developed. County boundaries are comparatively stable - especially in comparison to urban areas, cities or census designated places. Tract boundaries are also relatively stable, by design, although tracts have frequently been subdivided or merged. A secondary emphasis is on county subdivisions. County subdivisions, minor civil divisions (MCDs), MCD-equivalents and census county divisions, form an intermediate layer between census tracts and counties. Of these, the census county divisions are the easiest to work with because they were designed to be aggregates of tracts in places where there were tracts. Census county divisions exist for twenty-one states, but they date only to the 1950 census. In the remaining states and in all states before 1950, MCDs and MCD-equivalents provide the primary subcounty areal units. The exact form of these units varies considerably around the country. They include incorporated places, towns, townships and other political units. For some areas, especially in earlier census years, it has been impossible to locate appropriate base materials to create county subdivision boundary files. It is not expected to be able to create boundaries for all county subdivisions in all census years.
Constructing census tract databases
High quality boundary files will be available for both the 1990 and 2000 censuses and similar files for earlier years will be constructed. Using this a clean set of boundaries will be developed for the 1990 and 2000 censuses, then working backward from census to census undoing the boundary changes of each census year. This approach will allow the use of existing digital data as a basis for generating all base maps and minimises work needed for generating tracts for an earlier census year. The two most common geometric changes over time are the addition of new tracts and the splitting of existing tracts; the most frequent editing operations, therefore, will be eliminating tracts and merging tracts by removing their common border. By re-using borders across different geographic- correspondence between the different datasets is maximised and the problem of map conflation avoided. The tract databases will contain corresponding attribute data describing each tract's history. For example, a particular 1990 census tract can be queried to find out if it existed with identical borders for 1980 and 1970, but that the 1970 tract had a different tract identifier (ID). Likewise, a tract that was newly created in 1950 can be queries to determine that it existed with identical borders in 1960, that it was split into two tracts for 1970, and obtain its sibling tract IDs for 1970 and subsequent censuses. These attribute data will be an essential building block of the data access system. The tract base map development will use ArcInfo for all editing work. Base maps will be stored as ArcInfo coverages and scanned maps maintained as either TIFF files or ArcInfo grids, depending upon the amount of rectification required to match them to existing tract base files.
Constructing sub-county databases
The procedures for minor civil division (MCD) and other sub-county databases are similar to the procedures for census tracts. For each state, starting with existing datasets and working backward census by census to build boundary compatibility across census years. The sub-county process will diverge from the tract procedures depending upon the type of sub-county unit. Sub-county units will be derived with borders coincident with the public land survey system (PLSS) from digital township datasets, and will obtain minor civil divisions by digitizing manuscript maps. Unlike the census tract databases, a significant prerequisite for constructing the MCD-based sub-county databases consists of obtaining appropriate reference materials, and it is expected that the necessary large-scale paper maps will not be available for all counties in all census years.
Constructing county and state databases
A primary goal is to make the county borders match tract and other subcounty borders for each census year. This means that the tract and sub-county datasets will need to be used when creating county datasets. In most cases, counties will be constructed from a combination of tract, MCD and PLSS data. An initial database will be established through minor editing of the 1990 and 2000 Census Bureau boundary files, and then by working backward to earlier census years. The primary references 20
for changes in county boundaries will be the Newberry Library's Atlas of Historical County Boundaries (Denboer 1993) and a set of Historical United States County Boundary Files created at Louisiana State University ( http://www.ga.lsu.edu/ga/husco.html
). The LSU files will be a useful supplemental reference where the Newberry maps are not available. Once the county datasets are developed, corresponding state sets will be extracted simply by merging counties.
Interpolation
Changes in boundaries can lead to spatial incompatibility across census years. For example, census tract 101 in 1980 might be split into 101.01 and 101.02 in 1990. The result is that a direct comparison of population statistics, such as median housing value, will not be meaningful unless the data are reaggregated. To address this problem, the NHGIS will allow users to designate a reference year and to estimate population characteristics for all years based on the geography of the reference year. These estimates will be based on simple spatial interpolation incorporated in look-up tables. For example, Enumeration Unit A in 1970 might be spatially equivalent to 0.2 unit A, 0.4 unit B and 0.4 unit C in 2000. These weights will then be applied in comparing population values between the two years.
4.2.6 Perseus Project
( http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/ )
Introduction
The Perseus project is an example of how geographic information can be used to index digital archives. The project aims to map data sources and integrate a number of libraries and archives. The project is currently digitising Edwin Bolles Archive of the History and Topography of London. Resources are integrated by a digital gazetteer and map interface. Resources such as texts can be accessed by hyperlinks on the digital map (Gregory 2001). The Electronic Bolles Archive of the History and Topography of London ( http://nils.lib.tufts.edu/4000.01/ ) Edwin C. Bolles (1836-1921), collected 35 "full-size" and 320 more specialized maps, 400 books and 1,000 pamphlets documenting the history and topography of London. The collection includes a number of "extra-illustrated" books to which Bolles added supplementary illustrations. At the centre of the collection stands an extra-illustrated version of a six volume series entitled Old and New London, a six volume series from the 1870s by Walter Thornbury and Edward Walford. Bolles supervised the addition of 7,500 images, many from old and historically important prints, and linked each to a specific section of the text. The result was a paper hypertext: underscores in coloured pencil mark segments of the text for which extra-illustrations exist. These materials became part of the Tuft University's special collections, where they have remained for nearly eighty years. The Perseus Digital Library Project collaborated with the Tufts University Archives to begin digitizing this collection. The Bolles Archive is evolving into a crucial testbed.
Construction of the Testbed
At present, the testbed includes TEI encoded texts (c. 5,000,000 words), 10,000 scans of illustrations, 2,400 new pictures of London and ten geo-referenced maps. For budgetary reasons, OCR is relied upon rather than professional data entry. This affected selection of texts (focus on documents that scan well) and greatly increased the amount of manual post-processing. Even with the most advanced OCR software available, the process was slow and results uneven. An initial corpus of almost five million words in TEI conformant richly tagged documents, was collated. Approximately, 10,000 images were captured using a digital camera, which included portraits, views of buildings, images of original documents, and newspaper clippings and 2,400 colour images of contemporary London. More than thirty large scale maps were sent to an outside service to be digitised. The digitised maps range from 1790 through the end of the nineteenth century and include Charles Booth's maps. The historical maps were geo-referenced using a Geographic Information System (GIS) to align them onto a common, modern geospatial dataset. The Bartholomew Mapping Solutions 1:5000 data were used to provide a reference map and ESRI's Image Analysis Extension to align the historical maps as far as the variable data permitted. The 18th and 19th century maps that were aligned varied in many details from each other and from the modern GIS. 21
Geo-referencing historical maps took roughly two hours of labour and the nature of the data also slowed down the process. Geo-referencing one section of the map can throw another section out of alignment so a great deal of manual re-positioning was necessary and the results are always approximate. The deviations of historical maps from modern surveys means that it would be very difficult to use them as source materials from which to extract vector based information about vanished streets. But despite these deviations, arbitrary sections of historical maps were effectively aligned. The modern Bartholomew data became the common interface between the various historical maps. The Bartholomew data provided vectors for buildings, streets and other geographic features. Where possible, print indices were digitised to the historical maps as well. These generally had the form seen in Table 9. D d Adam street Adelphi A c B c G f Adam street Adam street Adam street Edgeware road Manchester square New Kent road B d Adam's mews Grosvenor square Table 9: An example of print indices The coordinates in the historical map were crude, but useful. All four instances of "Adam street" above have different simplified locations. These x-y coordinates describe squares that are one half mile in size. These coordinates are coarse but were used to measure the probable difference between the four possible Adam streets and the general geographic context of a passage.
Automated Tagging of Text
The basic document structure: chapters, sections, headers, notes, blockquotes, etc. were tagged initially. It was discovered that more than 90% of all numbers not otherwise tagged between 1000 and 1900 were dates in this corpus. Most dates were identified with a relatively simple algorithm, but proper names were more difficult to isolate. A substantial amount of work went into feature extraction and various systems were developed for this purpose, they work best in conjunction with various knowledge bases, e.g., gazetteers that document known place names, etc. Most feature extraction focuses on modern sources (e.g., Wall Street Journal News Feeds). As the project focused on an earlier historical period, earlier resources were collected as well. The project used: The Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names. Bartholomew Mapping Solutions' 1:5000 data provides toponyms for London. Indices to historical maps from the nineteenth century refer to streets and other geographic features that have disappeared and are thus not in modern GIS datasets. At present 4,200 entry index terms to the 1828 Cruchley map of London have been added. The Bolles collection contains several other indices to its maps and these will be added later.
Presenting the Materials
The Perseus XML Document manager processes the tagged texts and images. A linked GIS manages the geospatial data. Many operations are performed on the data, the most important of which establish automatic connections between different and otherwise isolated parts of the collection. Besides automatically adding links to "unstructured text", tagged data are also aggregated and the. results used for visualization. Temporal and spatial data particularly lend themselves to such techniques, since they are fairly general and readily represented. Automatically generated timelines and maps that cover various spans of information are being developed. One challenge is how to represent 18th or 19th century London in a manageable fashion. The historical materials that describe London are often extremely hard to use. Old and New London has no maps; Allen's four volume history has superficially useful maps but these prove, in fact, not to locate all of the streets that the text cites, and virtually none of the buildings which Allen describes are 22
labelled. The London materials thus allowed the addition of a deeper layer of detail. The browser can identify the range of choices and the relevant streets present an obvious cluster into which the reader can zoom. The modern GIS shows us those streets that still survive under the same name. Since most "pages" in the London collection mention more than one street, enough streets can be plotted on the modern map to identify the geographic context of the document. Vanished streets can also be located, firstly by searching the printed indices to historical maps and finding the appropriate section of the map, secondly, by browsing the geospatial data. At present, when users zoom in to a sufficiently small subset of the city, a link entitled "View Historical Maps of this Area" appears. Clicking on this link sends the coordinates of the current modern map to the GIS. The GIS then extracts the equivalent sections of the geo-referenced historical maps. The reader can then browse the historical maps. Clicking on one launches a new browser that lets the reader scan that map in detail. Since the maps are sorted chronologically, the reader can often see the evolution of the city reflected in the changing maps. Duke Street, for example, which shows up in a map dated 1808 is still green fields in the 1790 map. Automatically generated timelines are also being developed. Historical texts often have striking visual signatures when dates are plotted against pages within the source text. The timeline shows the date chart for a the first volume of Allen's history: a reader can see at a glance that this volume moves chronologically through the history of London, while the increasing slope of the curve demonstrates the fact that the author increases his coverage as he moves forward in time. The third volume describes the topography of the City of London. The timelines provide clues to the content and focus of documents. They also provide browsing aids, since the user can drill down into greater levels of detail or go from the timelines to the relevant sections of the document.
Current and Future Work
The next step will be to develop a single temporal-chronological interface. Users viewing the Perseus Digital Library as a whole, the Bolles London materials or an individual document should be able to generate a linked map and timeline, illustrating the most densely covered points in time and space. For Bolles, there would be clusters in London and England as a whole on the map, while the timeline would show dense coverage from the sixteenth through nineteenth century. Users should be able to drill down both chronologically and temporally: a user should be able to select arbitrary regions on the map and timeline, generating queries such as "locate documents that mention this section of London in the 1620s" or "places within a subsection of Surrey in the 1880s." Texts already in TEI conformant form include two multi-volume works describing the history and topography of London and Environs (Thomas Allen's four volume History and Antiquities of London, Westminster, Southwark and Parts Adjacent, completed in 1829, the six volume Old and New London, by Walter Thornbury and Edward Walford, published between c. 1872 and 1878), progressive exposés of London poverty (John Hollingshead, Ragged London in 1861; Thomas Archer, The Pauper, the Thief and the Convict, 1865), one luridly illustrated description of London as a whole (Gustave Doré and Blanchard Jerrold, London: A Pilgrimage, 1872), and a small sampling of literary works that reference the topography of London (Defoe's Journal of the Plague Year; Dickens' Our Mutual Friend and Bleak House). Another set of documents currently have been sent out for data entry: these include Charles Kingford's 1908 edition of Stow's Survey of London, Robert Wilkinson's Londina Illustrata (1819), and the first four volumes covering London Poverty from Charles Booth's Life and Labour in London (1902-1904).
4.2.7 History of Russian Administrative Boundaries
( http://www.ihst.ru/personal/imerz/bound/bounds.htm
)
Introduction
The purpose of this project was to build an historical GIS of changes to the Russian administrative division between the late XVIII and early XX centuries. This will provide a flexible framework to organise and compare spatially referenced historical data for the scholarly and academic communities. The project aims to: build a basic layer by digitising data for 1914 (considered to be the most accurate and complete); 23
compile a database "Map Bibliography" and search for supplementary sources in order to find out the most accurate and informative ones for the reconstruction of the administrative division changes within the period between 1775 and 1914; design a geodataset "Administrative boundaries" using Oracle 7.3 to describe all types of administrative changes; compile a metadatabase of statistical sources, organised by administrative units (metainformation of statistical datasets uses the Dublin core standard); build the database "Settlements" reflecting changes in names, status, presence of two or more names at once, various spellings to be a supplementary resource for the verification of boundaries.
Database structure
The design of the historical GIS should achieve the following results: (1) to reconstruct the administrative division at any hierarchical level for the requested time period; (2) to reconstruct the temporal dynamic of administrative borders for local units; (3) to check the administrative affiliation of an area or village, (4) to view the temporal dynamics of name changes for settlement or local unit; (5) to allow researchers to input new information, extract data and use them for their own purposes with the most common GIS software. The concept of the database requires a set of relational tables which are being built in Oracle 7. This will allow the processing complex queries along time and spatial axes. The main principle is to distinguish several types of objects within the system: geometrically referenced objects of two types: polygons and points; virtual objects equal to the administrative units of various (three to four) levels, which are represented in commonly used statistical records. The smallest spatial entity will be a polygon with a unique historical sequence of administrative association. At each point in time it is a part of an existing administrative unit. The point objects represent settlements. The virtual objects correspond to administrative units until they have the same name. It is then assumed that the change of the name means that a new administrative object appeared. This reflects the real situation, where renaming usually means a radical administrative reorganisation. Most of the statistics collected during the XVIII-XIX centuries relate to single settlements, and only generalized statistics to first and second administrative levels. Thus, attributes will be incorporated into the database "Settlements" and include the following draft list of parameters: population number, number of households, some agricultural statistics. The structure of the database may gradually change and it should transparently reflect all types of administrative changes that have occurred during the period covered.
Problems/Limitations
The main types of problem relate to the data handling and data interpretation. It is necessary to use different methods for data input in order to achieve compatibility across sources. Distinctions should be made between data produced in different historical periods. Changes to the place names of administrative units and settlements usually meant serious reorganisation of a unit but were less serious for settlements. Before 1917 many settlements had multiple names: folk and official ones. Sometimes folknames were unquotable and according to a special surveyors' instruction of 1770 a few letters of such names were changed to make them sound better. Both local and official names were fixed in the first administrative level, bordering atlas and land use statistical records. After 1917 there is only an official name which is very often different to the pre-revolution name. Changes of administrative status were rare and meant transformations of the hierarchy status of administrative unit. They could occur as a result of changes of population or political factors. 24
4.2.8 Sydney TimeMap™
(http://www.timemap.net)
Introduction
The TimeMap™ project is based at the Archaeological Computing Laboratory (ACL) at the University of Sydney and is part of the Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative. The project, which began in 1996, aims to show the development of Sydney through space and time using a flexible map delivery system which generates interactive time-enabled historical maps by overlaying historical datasets distributed across the Internet. The project is collecting historical data for the city of Sydney, including topography, maps, plans, drawings, photographs, administrative records, population and household data, urban infrastructure, events, written accounts, archaeological and historic sites. The initial product of the project was a public access kiosk, called ‘Sydney TimeMap™’, installed at the Museum of Sydney in November 2000.
Database Structure
As GIS software is not very good at handling time and databases not good at handling space, a custom written software was used. TimeMap™ can display and animate the development of a site, a city or an empire, allowing the user to delve into detailed information for any point on the map and discover new patterns by overlaying information from many different digital data sources. The project is involved in developing a method for time-stamping eighteenth and nineteenth century historical and archaeological spatial data, the snapshot-transition model.
Maps
In order to develop this map sequence, 23 maps were geo-registered of which 14 were chosen for the final display. The selection was based on chronological spread, with aesthetics a secondary factor. They range from a 1788 plan of the encampment and fleet by John Hunter to an aerial photograph from 1998. In each case the selection includes an appropriate historic map geo-registered and warped to fit the modern map base which acts as a backdrop to overlaid vector data. There are eight thematic choices available, such as Archaeology or Plague. A timeline divides the history of Sydney into twenty year periods, from pre-1788 to the end of the twentieth century. GIS is used to bring together, a wide variety of historical information drawn from several public collections. TMView is used to provide a time-enabled interactive map interface to historical images and other digital resources, presented in the context of historical maps and overlays of modern map data. TMView uses SQL queries against the master database of digital resources and their spatial and temporal locations to create different map layers and to respond to users’ selections on the fly. Overlaid on each historic map is an appropriate selection of viewpoints of historical images drawn on the-fly from a database of images. Digital versions of more than 500 sketches, paintings, engravings, etchings and photographs were dated, classified according to theme and entered in an SQL server database along with their location coordinates and their direction of view. The selection overlaid on each map is drawn from the database using queries against the date and theme fields. At city scale the use of current digital data is necessary as the basis for historical mapping and especially the use of cadastral data as the basis for consistent and systematic geo-registration of historical maps. Also important are the analysis of geo-registered historical maps and the use of data derived from them. When properly analysed, historical maps are the chief source of the data required to supplement existing mapping resources and build an historical GIS.
Problems/Limitations
Problems with the maps included the difficulty of finding adequate ground control points as one goes back in time (due to limited coverage, physical damage to the maps or attrition of recognizable features as the city developed) sections of maps which bear no relation to reality (either through spatial distortions based on mapping and survey methods or through the representation of building or works that were never carried out). A particular difficulty lay in creating sets of rotated and warped maps with different spatial coverages which would have acceptable aesthetics for our museum partners. This issue was resolved by adopting graphic devices. This not only merges the map image with its background but also serves to emphasise the identity of the historic map as a physical object. 25
When geo-registered maps are analysed within the GIS it often becomes clear that they are not accurate, something that can be extremely difficult to establish using simple visual comparison alone. The analysis of a map, or sequence of maps, is based on detecting, interpreting and documenting the discrepancies revealed after geo-registration, whether these exist across the whole map, in sections of the map, for depicted items or for parts of items. These discrepancies fall into two general types. The first are those related to physical damage or distortion or displacement of map elements. These may be as simple as folds or breaks in a map sheet, they might be distortions of the map caused by copying or during the creation of the digital image or they might be as complex as those that relate to the construction of the map or the original survey. Such discrepancies can be recognised by the displacement of some areas of the map and not others, or a general displacement of the whole map image. Examples include maps where manual slope corrections have been applied, or accurate cadastral maps with generalised topographic detail derived from different sources. In these cases multiple registrations of the same map may be both a tool of analysis, helping to define the areas of consistency, and the means of making the map useful as a source of data. Of course, discrepancies of this type do have the potential to render the map, or some part of the map or class of data depicted on it, useless within the GIS. The second type includes errors in the map and the depiction of building or works that might have been proposed or planned or are simply fanciful. Errors can occur anywhere on a map and be at any scale, they are normally the mis-orientation or misplacement of map elements. They can be completely random and can include the absence of data, although this is extremely difficult to identify. The recognition of anticipated or imaginary phenomena can present similar difficulties. Even in otherwise accurate and reliable maps some elements can be false, reasons for this can include actual attempts to mislead, or say in the case of a commercially produced directory map, an endeavour to extend the life of the document and make it a more desirable purchase. Unlike discrepancies of the first type, interpretation of errors and misrepresentations will often depend very largely on detailed historical knowledge of the mapped phenomena and the interpretation of the map as an historical document.
4.3 Use Case and Methodology Summary
The breadth and detail of any gazetteer will depend on the content and resources available to make that content relevant and usable. Methodology is not a panacea for the limited availability of accurate historical data and corroborative ancillary resources. Methodology provides the mechanism to improve data discovery, evaluation, conversion and harmonisation. It also establishes the framework for data processing, analysis and presentation. This is clearly demonstrated by the variety and combination of different approaches taken across the use cases described above. Amongst these, map scanning and geo-referencing stand out as practical methodologies, usually in some combination and usually as practical solutions for dealing with problems arising from and in the context of the precise needs of each project. Each method, therefore has acknowledged strengths and weaknesses. For example, employed as part of the Sydney TimeMap ™ project, scanned maps were geo referenced using extant control points. The issues concerning spatial accuracy, file size and ability to locate extant control points can be appreciated; however, the use of scanned historic maps as base maps serves as an important complementary resource for gazetteers. Disclaimers can address concerns about spatial accuracy and software compression packages can reduce files to a manageable size. Locating control points can be problematic but there are often distinct features on the physical landscape that can be used. The use of rubbersheeting in a GIS and the collection of GPS points can also compensate for some of these limitations. Scanned historic maps clearly benefit gazetteers in several ways, especially with regards to presentation. First, the maps can serve as raster base maps for gazetteers. The gazetteer vector layers and other feature themes can then be overlain on the raster map to provide context. The gazetteer layer is usually derived from the scanned map, so the original map source can be displayed for users to compare and assess. Many historic maps have aesthetic value as well and can add quality to the gazetteer. Intellectual property rights permitting, the original map source could also be made available for users to download or add their own layers for specific analysis. It might also be possible to take historical raster maps and drape them over digital elevation models (DEMs) to 26
provide an alternative visualisation perspective. Aerial photographs could also be included as additional visual references. The inclusion of relevant, scanned documents can enhance a gazetteer or a GIS but are not a pre requisite of a gazetteer and would not be of direct use to geoXwalk at this stage in its development. The Perseus project does provide hyperlinks from the digital map to relevant resources and the conversion of documents to digital format allows users to access the ancillary resources of a place name or administrative unit with the click of a mouse. However, it must be noted that the significant difference between the Perseus project and geoXwalk is the coverage: for Perseus, the area covered is London; for geoXwalk it is Great Britain. The difference in the scale of data requirement between the two is enormous. Perhaps the foremost challenge in gazetteer methodology lies in the processes that address the dynamic and complex interactions between time and space. This complexity extends to the technological approaches and the use of relational databases and GIS topology. Boundaries alter over time and maps and documents may not always record these changes accurately or at all. This condition becomes more problematic in the distant past, so many of the use cases begin with contemporary or modern boundary datasets and work backwards. Many boundaries are derived from maps and others are based on documents that provide descriptive accounts. The relative novelty of the technique means that digitised boundary data are not always easily available, particularly for past boundaries. These boundaries must be converted to digital format and this represents a fundamental problem for creators of gazetteers and would be users of boundary data in that the creation of digitised boundary data for use in these systems is time-consuming and therefore expensive in staff time. The utility of the technique is most readily demonstrated for non-academic uses such as national and sub national planning and for marketing. Consequently it is here that the focus of digitisation has been placed. The big problem for geoXwalk is, again, one of scale. It may be relatively easy to find resources to input boundaries for specific projects which relate to particular areas but it is not easy to find resources to digitise boundaries to provide a national resource, particularly when that resource is expected to be of use to researchers whose disciplines have such diverse needs. Physical landscape features can also serve as references for boundaries, especially those bordering rivers, which, however, change their courses over time, often in response to those very features or as a result of the changes a river has imposed on a feature. The use of modern boundary polygon datasets serves as a starting point for introducing stable geometry. This is employed at hierarchical levels for earlier boundary datasets because higher-level hierarchies tend to remain static for longer periods of time and if changes are made, these are well documented. Even so, contemporary data sources can also vary considerably in their accuracy and level of detail and data consistency across even short timescales can be problematic. The space-time approach solution sub-divides space into small areas and re-aggregates them into stable units. This seems to represent a suitable approach to applying GIS topology and database structure to the dynamic interactions between time events and space. The method can result in the loss of spatial resolution, but accuracy becomes an issue with most historical data at some point in time past. One further approach to addressing boundary polygon accuracy is to apply a confidence attribute to the lines of a polygon. Using a colour-coding scheme, e.g. black line segments could indicate a probability of 100 percent in the confidence of that boundary line whilst red segments in the lines of a polygon could suggest a confidence level of less that 25 percent. Distance could also be built into the scheme. The black line segments could place the polygon boundary within +/- 25 metres of the actual location and red could signify +/- 500 metres. The use of polygons is certainly the preferred topological method for creating gazetteers; however, at some point in the past, accurate boundaries become almost impossible to map because of the dearth of accurate, precise or consistent information on which to map them. As a result, it seems practical to use points to define place names and administrative units. This often depends on the political history of a nation as well because political power and influence was often wielded from settlement 27
strongholds. Archaeological sites and ancient maps and documents can provide precise and approximate locations. Further studies on toponyms might also reveal information about a place’s ancient past. The exclusive use of points, or points and polygons to define areas can be a practical approach. The use of a GIS buffer tool can provide an interface that allows the user to define a distance radius that extends from the point. Once a buffer has been generated, any relevant points falling within that buffer zone would be identified. The distance of the radius might be calculated on the basis of the importance of the “place”. Built into this would be an interface query so that relevant points within the buffer zone are identified. The query might be temporal or hierarchical. The use of point features for a gazetteer is limited, however, because the buffer zone does not define the actual boundary or sphere of influence. Nevertheless, as more points are added to the gazetteer, the attribute information associated with each of the points might reveal boundary extents through queried interpolation of points or point patterns. The hierarchical structure of an historical gazetteer is addressed in the development of the underlying database. This is critical for modelling the complex hierarchies of administrative units and the hierarchical inter-relationship between various units. This, coupled with temporal changes to these units requires a comprehensive and well-designed relational database. Both the Great Britain Historical GIS and the China Historical GIS projects incorporate complex database structures into their gazetteers. These databases have built in a range of relationships that express changes in administrative unit conditions, and reflect such things as boundary and hierarchical changes in a temporal context. Ultimately, a nation’s history and culture dictates the best methodological approach for producing a comprehensive digital gazetteer. Preservation of historic maps and documents is also critical for success. Software capabilities will further enhance and improve methodologies, especially for database development. The current generation of GIS software allows users to geo-reference raster maps and this enhances a gazetteer as well. Scanning additional documents and linking them to a gazetteer adds even further value. The inclusion of raster base maps and access to ancillary data could make an historical gazetteer an important resource for researchers and the general public with an interest in old maps. Implementation of this methodology would be ideal for geoXwalk but at this stage it would not be practical given the lack of resources at this stage of development. The use-cases have served to demonstrate that each project develops its own combination of methodologies in response to its subject matter, available data and the resources available. For example, the Perseus project had sufficient resources digitise to geo-reference maps and to generate a site which integrates the digitised copies of maps and links to other relevant material for London.
The use cases have clearly demonstrated that the key factors in deciding on a suitable methodology are the scope of the gazetteer (in terms of area and time) and the availability of data with co ordinates, to cover the chosen area and time. For geoXwalk, the decisions relating to scope are not simple, particularly since it is an integral component to the Go-Geo! portal project which has such a diversity of users and uses that the boundaries needed for areal searches stretch from country to village level and for time from contemporary to historical. In terms of the methodology pragmatically employed (conditioned in part by the geographic and temporal data made available to the project ), a ‘snap shot’ methodology most closely represents how the data was added and handled to the gazetteer database. While the shortcomings of this approach have been highlighted, the advantages gained in practice in terms of workability, flexibility for extension to additional data and sheer expediency mean that this approach provides the optimal working approach. Furthermore, for machine to machine query servicing (which is the primary objective for geoXwalk) and given the multi-source, multi-scale nature of the features used to populate the database, the demands for precision and accuracy demanded by other methodologies is arguably spurious e.g. a feature based spatio-temporal object approach would require a degree of accuracy in the source data which is not available at GB wide coverage and for most user queries would entail a degree of unnecessary computation with consequent performance degradation. 28
5.0 Other Areas of Investigation
The project team also investigated version management for the gazetteer and produced a compendium of units, an historical timeline and a data source inventory.
5.1 Version Management
The team considered how best to version manage content within the gazetteer. This issue is critical since any updates of data held for geoXwalk require a mechanism for dealing with the current data when they become historic. In fact there are two interrelated issues: (i) version control for contemporary material that becomes historical and (ii) management of material that is historic when the system is operational. A simple approach to version management of the data within the gazetteer could be achieved by date-stamping any content, whether it is place names or coordinates. For example, AHDSHistory have date-stamped collections for England and Wales. This date-stamping method would consist of a start date and an end date. It could include date span, open start date, open-end date and fuzzy or approximate dates, which could include a general time period. Several problems exist with date-stamping the content of the gazetteer: although this could be done for boundaries (e.g. counties) is could not easily be used for points, for example when does a city such as Bristol begin? maintenance could be a problem. When do the data become historic? how does one deal with parish boundaries changing need to identify lowest level e.g. parishes. – nomenclature of version? what if researchers map slightly different boundaries for a particular time period? how does one add/enhance it? Does this become a new version? need to distinguish between same names in different locations or changes over time; necessity to disambiguate, for example, Adam Street, Bradford, Berkshire; The approach taken in practice, has endeavoured to address these problems and has again emphasised the need for a pragmatic approach. In reality, and especially in an operational service mode, updates to the gazetteer need to be capable of being performed at regular intervals without complex conflict resolution strategies requiring intensive human intervention i.e. updates should be capable of being processed largely aromatically within established degrees of certainty that end the time stamping approach has been used. – any other approach would be too time consuming and unworkable given the intrinsic properties of the data. To
5.2 Compendium of Selected Geographies
The aim of this task was to provide a reference base for putative gazetteer content which would inform the overall data priorities for the project and act as an independent reference guide outwith the remit of the project. There are many types of geographies which could be included in the gazetteer, from features such as areas and rivers, to administrative units. Types of geographies, such as administrative units, have been documented from as far back as the Norman times, but are often incomplete and confusing. Many of these historical data have not been digitised and are also not geo-referenced. This means that there is a lack of boundary data resulting in insufficient information to create polygons. They could potentially of course be added as point features as described above. Other geographies such as rivers and coast-lines are difficult to find historically. It is possible to find the locations of archaeological sites where events such as the battle of Hastings occurred, but these are one-off events and the question is whether or not these features should be included in the gazetteer given their relatively specialised nature. The basis of the compendium was administrative units (Appendix 1), although this has been extended to include parliamentary, judicial, ecclesiastical and registration units. The compendium could be extended further to include health areas, educational areas and travel to work areas. An attempt has been made to document both historical and contemporary units, along with information such as the dates when they existed, the area they covered and the units which preceded or succeeded them. This was a difficult and complex task as the data sources used to compile the compendium were not 29
always complete and contained discrepancies when compared with each other. Other problems arose when trying to document the many changes which have occurred in the UK. There are times when different units are used simultaneously, and these do not always cover the whole of the UK. Also, units which have been created or abolished were not always implemented at the same time throughout the country. Definitions of other geographies (Appendix 2) have also been included in this report as they are terms which could be used for search queries.
5.3 Timeline of Selected Geographies
The timeline will provide a temporal reference base for putative gazetteer content. It complements and is inextricably linked to the compendium of selected geographies (Appendix 1). As with the compendium, the timeline could be extended to include general changes in administrative units over time and/or more specific events, such as battles. One of the major questions to be answered is how far back in history to go and it was agreed that this is dependent on what data are available and selected for use. Data at county level would be easier to locate than at parish level as there are fewer counties than parishes. But even county level units have changed throughout time and determining the exact dates of change can make this relatively simple task more complex. At other administrative levels this task becomes even more complex as changes in units across the UK did not occur simultaneously or in some cases changes to specific areas were made independently of the rest of the country. For example, the division of an Ancient County was generally known as a “hundred” but is also known as a “lathe” in Kent and a “rape” in Sussex. A timeline, showing important administrative changes in the UK since 1834, can be seen in Appendix 3. A timeline for the principal administrative and statistical reporting units in England and Wales over the past two centuries is provided in Appendix 4. Appendices 5-7 provide a timelines of historic periods and their respective dates, covering the UK. In some cases where dates of data sources are ambiguous, time periods could be used instead.
5.4 Historical Data Source Issues
The geoXwalk gazetteer is aiming to be much more extensive, in terms of area, features and time scale, than any of the projects reviewed in this report. However, this presents a significant challenge, as there are many resource and technological limitations to hinder the development of an historical gazetteer. One of the most critical issues already alluded to, is that of data sources. Prior to the introduction of Census Small Area Statistics, data sources, in general, either offered limited attribute data types at a fine spatial resolution, for example, population data at parish level, or more extensive attribute data types at a low spatial resolution level, for example population, sex, age and employment at county level (Gregory 2000). It is well known that data, such as Census data, have been collected at differing levels of units e.g. registration districts, or parishes and that the administrative units themselves have changed over time. This has led to differences in the way Census data have been collected over time. These data limitations have resulted in researchers either aggregating data, using data for a large spatial area with reduced temporal aspects, or focusing on a detailed study area which can be viewed over many years (Gregory 2000). An investigation into the availability of historic data sources has revealed the difficulties in finding available historical data in a usable digital format. The Possible options identified to address this issue were i) to only use pre-existing digitised data sources, or ii) to find the resources and to independently digitise them (primary data capture). At present, there are insufficient resources available for approach ii) ,although EDINA has invested separately in the digitisation of contemporary river data. Effort has gone into securing, formatting and utilising freely available digital data and in negotiating access to significant resources such as GBHGIS content which, for a full service, may entail revenue costs for usage - some significant datasets can only be acquired on payment of a licence fee for which no funds have been made available at present. Even where data are freely available, it is usually on the understanding that no commercial gain will be made by using them and, often, that their use will be for academic purposes only. This could cause problems if geoXwalk were to be integrated into an academic-related service which may, in the future, charge for usage. 30
The difficulties discussed above have directed the focus of the gazetteer towards the use of administrative, local government and ecclesiastical units, which are more readily available than historical data for features such as rivers and boundary data. An inventory consisting of potential data sources which could be included in geoXwalk can be seen at Appendix 8. As a consequence of the above comments, the actual data added to the gazetteer database itself, once sourced and cleared with data providers consisted of: A geographical and temporal sample from the Great Britain Historical GIS project Historic Parishes of England and Wales (Kain and Oliver) NA and SCAN – see below.
6.0 Recommendations for Extending the geoXwalk Gazetteer to Include Historical Data
Recommendations on how best to include historical data in geoXwalk, are contingent in part upon how the gazetteer will be used, by whom the gazetteer will be used and the data sources it is populated with. The following suggestions were made from meetings and group discussion sessions on how the gazetteer could be extended. They reflect possible and actual modifications to the geoXwalk database and well as alternative strategies that have not been implemented: create either a generic spatial-temporal gazetteer for the UK or a specific one for datasets held in the gazetteer e.g. Battle of Hastings; use datasets already obtained as starting point (implemented); use a database to list boundaries, place names and coordinates. Add time as an attribute - this can be achieved by adding start and end dates to a database (implemented); use a hierarchy of administrative units rather than points/places i.e. Colchester is part of Essex, which is part of England (implemented); show layers of hierarchical administrative units where each unit has coordinates and is date stamped; show layers of changes of specific areas through time; record when administrative changes occurred and therefore their possible effect on places e.g. how did the creation of poor law unions affect other units such as parishes use either exact dates or periods e.g. decades (less exact); use polygons where possible and points for historical data where less information is known. Polygons could be used for the last 200 years (for known areas), but prior to this points could be used. For example, boundaries for ‘Kingdoms’ in England and Wales have been estimated (therefore could be defined as points for a particular period of time) (implemented); use points for place names and boundary coordinates for counties. Place names could be used to infer boundaries (implemented); use a point coverage to locate place names and develop a query interface that allows the user to define a buffer zone based on radius distance from each point.
6.1 Changing the geoXwalk Architecture
In order for historical data to be added to the geoXwalk gazetteer, minor changes were made to the current architecture (the adoption of the Alexandria Digital Library Gazetteer Content Model database schema provided an adaptable database schema with existing hooks to allow the incorporation of historical data via a time stamping methodology). At present the geoXwalk database consists of: places which are classified into types, for example, city, river, lake; places which are recorded with their geographic ‘footprint’, for example, settlements are represented as areas, rivers as lines (this differs from traditional gazetteers which represent places as points, even though they may cover quite large areas or may be linear features such as rivers); other types of ‘geographies’, e.g., postcode areas, parishes and electoral districts. From the findings in this report, a number of key recommendations have been identified which were implemented in order to extend the content of the gazetteer. These included the addition of: 31
historical hierarchical units, such as administrative, local government, judicial, ecclesiastical and parliamentary; historical boundary data e.g. polygons and points; temporal data (time stamps), reflecting e.g. changes in administrative boundaries.
6.2 Data Source Recommendations
As part of the work, a dataset inventory was compiled of data sources which could be considered for inclusion in geoXwalk, either in the short term, or in the case of non-digitised data, the longer term (Apeendix 8). At the beginning of Phase 3, the following types of data were identified as being ideal candidates for incorporation into the gazetteer: ecclesiastical parishes from 12/13 1840 -1974 admin boundaries; 1801 1 st Census; 1840 Population Act; graphics of old maps; th Century; 1881 Parishes of England, Wales, Scotland; 1901 England and Wales (no geo references); Census, birth, marriage, death registers, poor relief, election data. old maps which could be digitised and from which geo-references could be extracted data sources such as trade routes, industrial records and more detailed records of specific areas such as London A number of key data sources were identified which take into account both ease of access and the lack of digitisation required: Historic Parishes of England and Wales (Kain and Oliver); The Enclosure Maps of England and Wales (Kain and Oliver); Key to English Place Names (English Place Name Society); Domesday Book (John Palmer). There has been an agreement for the use of the Kain and Oliver original material and the GIS version of the Historic Parishes of England and Wales (created by the University of Portsmouth) in geoXwalk. Access to the other datasets would require further negotiation. An ongoing review of the data source inventory located in Appendix 8 would be required in the future if it was to be adopted as an authoritative and exhaustive inventory. A review would need to assess suitability for use of data within geoXwalk and allow for the opportunity to categorise the inventory using a range of criteria to organise the data to include temporal, scale, accuracy, condition, access and cost and processing. The latter three might pertain to fragile documents and maps stored or exhibited at museums. A fully comprehensive data inventory should, if resources permit, also include the identification of potential data sources, especially those that are not apparent. Such an inventory could be expanded to include ancillary data, which could then complement and validate the core data sources, or reveal new sources of information and data. Local and central governments, museums, libraries and universities are traditional sources of historic maps and records and archaeological and historical surveys, but other sources must be identified to provide a complete and concise inventory. News media and oral traditions might reveal new sources or corroborate known ones.
6.3 Other Areas for Consideration
In order to continue with the development of geoXwalk in this way, the issue of funding needs to be addressed, which must include both staff and resource expenses. There is also a need for finances to be made available to purchase and/or negotiate licences for data sources. There may also be a need to set aside some of the budget to compensate the time of experts in the field of historical GIS who may be consulted. Ideally this funding would also allow for the digitisation of some key datasets or maps as there is an abundance of non-digitised data which could be included. Consideration must also be given to the continuity of the gazetteer development, as without further funding, current project staff may be lost, and with them their knowledge and expertise. A break in 32
continuity of funding may also have an effect on user confidence in the sustainability of the gazetteer, which could be of detriment to geoXwalk in the long-term.
7.0 Conclusions
The approach taken to adding historical data is important and is dependent on the availability of data sources and the needs of the target audience. For example, a top down approach using large administrative units such as counties, or a bottom up approach using smaller administrative units such as parishes, which can be aggregated into larger units. The breadth and detail of an historical gazetteer is based on the available resources. Source material forms an historical gazetteer’s foundation. Locating these resources places considerable importance on survey methodology. As might be expected, historical data are scattered across disparate locations and presented on different media and in various states of condition. Lack of geo-referenced data is a very probable scenario and needs to be addressed, especially as geo-referenced digitised data already available may have licensing restrictions. The issue of how to add geographic coordinates to non-geo-referenced historical places/areas needs to be considered, for example, should approximate coordinates be used if none available (and tagged as approximate) or should contemporary coordinates be used for historic place names? One solution could be to parse historic places as points on a contemporary map so that a location could be visualised. If a place can be converted to location then other information, such as its parish, county etc. can be determined at a particular date (Ell et al. 2001). Of course this in itself could create huge inaccuracies as it would not reflect the boundary changes which have may occurred frequently within and without a place. Digitising historic maps could be another possible solution, but only if they are accurate, with clear reference points, and relatively undamaged. To gain the most detailed view of a place or a situation, the use of polygon data would be most appropriate, but little historical data is expected to have polygon information and in reality may not even have point data. It may therefore be appropriate to use a number of approaches within geoXwalk and its applications e.g. wherever possible, polygon data should be used, and if not available, point data (this approach has been implicit in our actual implementation). The structure of the database needs to be considered along with choice of data sources, for example, should dates and administrative units be included in the same table as place names, coordinates etc, or should a reference table of general administrative units and their associated dates etc be created. The former would result in an enormous database containing redundant data, the latter would be less accurate for specific places. Another decision to be made is whether or not to include a hierarchy in the database e.g. should a place name be recorded with its parish, district, county and country (although this could be post-computed by geoXwalk as the geometry of each feature is known and relationships between features can, and by default are, computed on-the-fly). The need to extend geoXwalk to include historical data is critical, since any updates to data held by geoXwalk means that existing data becomes historic. It is also clear that geoXwalk could become a richer resource and therefore a more marketable product, if historic data were to be included. 33
Glossary
AGGREGATION OF DATA AHDS HISTORY ARCINFO ARCVIEW AREAL INTERPOLATION ATTRIBUTE DATA ADL BUFFERING CENTROID CHOROPLETH MAPS CONTEMPORARY DATA CONTROLLED VOCABULARY CORRELATION The traditional solution in GIS to incompleteness of data is to aggregate data into stable units, for example into counties The history subject centre of the Arts and Humanities Data Service (formerly known as the History Data Service) A leading GIS software package when GIS computing was workstation-based. Is now available for NT but has in some ways been superseded by desktop solutions such as its sister product ArcView, and MapInfo. MapInfo and ArcView are produced by Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) A commonly used desktop GIS software package produced by Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI). Its sister product ArcInfo provides more functionality but is harder to use The process by which data from one set of source polygons are re districted onto a set of overlapping but non-hierarchical target polygons. This method allows for long term comparison by aggregating data from many dates or administrative units to be standardised onto a single administrative geography Data that relate to a specific, precisely defined location. The data are often statistical but may be text, images or multi-media. These are linked in the GIS to spatial data that define the location Advanced Distributed Learning is the Open Archived Initiative protocol for metadata harvesting A buffer is a polygon that encloses all areas within a set distance of the spatial features. Points, lines, and polygons can all have buffers placed around them. For example, if a user is interested in all areas within 1km of a church, a buffer would be placed around all the points representing churches. This would create a new layer consisting of polygons representing those areas within 1km of a church A point at the geometric centre of a polygon. Geographical co ordinates of a point that lies as close as possible to the geometric centre of a polygon whilst still falling inside it. The centroid may not therefore be placed at the true geometric centre in cases of highly curved shapes or polygons containing holes Maps of quantitative data that show patterns by using different colours or different shading for polygons classed in some way. For example, a map of polygon-based unemployment rates (expressed as percentages) might sub-divide rates into 0-5, 5-10, 10-15 and 15 20 and shade the polygons accordingly Data which has existed since 1974 Controlled vocabulary is a subset of natural language, consisting of preferred and non-preferred terms A form of statistical modelling that attempts to summarise how one dataset will vary in response to another. A correlation coefficient of +1.0 means that where there are high values in one set there will be high values in the other, while a correlation coefficient of -1.0 means that where there are high values in one set there will be low values in the other. A correlation coefficient of 0.0 means that there is no discernible relationship between the two sets. This is a form of global analysis as it only provides a single summary statistic for the 34
CSV DATA CAPTURE DATA CREATORS DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS DATA PROVIDERS DATASET DATA USERS DATE STAMPING APPROACH DDI DIGITISING DIGITAL ELEVATION MODEL DTD EDINA FEATURE FEATURE TYPE FGDC GAZETTEER GEMET GEO-CODING GEO-DATA GEO-DATA PORTAL GEOGRAPHIC FOOTPRINT entire study area Comma Separated Values are data held in text files which are comma delimited e.g. columns of a table separated by commas The process by which data are taken from the real-world (primary source), or from a secondary source such as a paper map, and entered into GIS software. From primary data this is usually through the use of Global Positioning Systems or remote sensing. For secondary data it is usually through digitising or scanning Creators of data of metadata Software systems specifically designed to store attribute data Such as information services A logically meaningful grouping or collection of similar or related data Users of the data, for example from the academic community, archives, libraries, and museums A way of handling time in GIS where time is treated as an attribute. Each feature has date stamps attached that define the times that it was in existence The Data Documentation Initiative is an international effort to establish a standard for technical documentation describing social science data. In GIS this has a more precise meaning than in other disciplines. It usually refers to extracting coordinates from secondary sources such as maps to create vector data Also known as Digital Terrain Model: A data model that attempts to provide a three dimensional representation of a continuous surface. Often used to represent relief A Document Type Definition is a formal description in XML Declaration Syntax of a particular type of document. It sets out what names are to be used for the different types of element, where they may occur, and how they all fit together. Edinburgh Data and Information Access Feature can be viewed as geospatial Information elements represented as feature types (or feature objects) such as roads, park benches, lands, events, images A category assigned to a feature from a controlled vocabulary in order to allow for the accessing of information on different features on the basis of the category type they fall under Federal Geographic Data Committee A list of place names with their associated geographic location GEneral Multilingual Environmental Thesaurus The process of identifying or designating the coordinates of a geographical object, given its address Geo-data refers to the full spectrum of digital geographic data. Examples include: digital maps, raster image data, point vector, vector data, spatial/temporal data etc. A network service that can be used to identify and retrieve metadata describing geo-spatial data Co-ordinates representing the location of a named place 35
GEO-PARSING GEO-REFERENCING GEO-SPATIAL DATA GETTY THESAURUS GI GIS GIS DATA GPS GML HASSET THESAURUS HE/FE HIERARCHY HILT HISTORICAL DATA HTML HUB ILRT INTERPOLATION JISC KEY KEY DATES APPROACH LATITUDE LAYER LEAST COMMON The processing of scanning text documents for location-based references, such as place names, addresses, postal codes, etc., in preparation for passage to a geo-coding fusion service The process of proving a coordinate system to a layer of data. This often involves converting to a real-world coordinate system such as the British National Grid Information that identifies the geographic location and characteristics of natural or constructed features and boundaries on the earth. This information may be derived from, among other things, remote sensing, mapping, and surveying technologies Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names Geographic Information Geographic Information System is a computer system that combines database management system functionality with information about location. In this way it is able to capture, manage, integrate, manipulate, analyse and display data that is spatially referenced to the earth's surface Data stored in a GIS are represented in two ways: attribute data says what the feature is, and spatial data says where it is using points, lines, polygons, or pixels Global Positioning Systems is a system based on satellites that allows a user with a receiver to determine precise coordinates for their location on the earth's surface. These are a primary source of spatial data Geographic Markup Language Humanities and Social Science Electronic Thesaurus owned by the UK Data Archive and used to search their on-line catalogue BIRON Higher Education/Further Education Classify according to various criteria into successive levels or layers High Level Thesaurus (project based within the CDLR) Data which existed before 1974 Hypertext Markup Language A single access point where searches can be performed and directed towards distributed services Institute for Learning and Research Technology A method of reallocating attribute data from one spatial representation to another Joint Information Systems Committee Executive In the context of Relational Database Management Systems this refers to a common field that can be used to join two or more tables A way of handling time in a GIS where the situation at different times is represented by different layers The angle of a location on the earth's surface from the equator expressed in degrees north or south. The Arctic Circle, for example, is at approximately latitude 66° north The GIS data model represents the world by sub-dividing features on the earth's surface according to a specific layer. Each layer is then georeferenced. Examples of layers for a study area might include: roads, railways, urban areas, coal mines, etc. A layer usually consists of both spatial and attribute data The space-time composite approach creates administrative units 36
GEOMETRY LINE LONGITUDE MODIFIABLE AREAL UNIT PROBLEM (MAUP) METADATA MIMAS NESTING NGDF OBJECT-ORIENTATED APPROACH OGC ONS OS PDF PIXELS POINTS POLYGON PORTAL PRIMARY SOURCE QUALITY RASTER DATA MODEL RDF RDN REFERENCE POINTS RUBBERSHEETING through aggregating smaller polygons, by storing the unit that each polygon lies in at each date as attribute data. These smaller polygons are referred to as the Least Common Geometry (LCG) A spatial feature that is given a precise location that can be described by a series of coordinate pairs. In theory a line has length but no width The angle of a location on the earth's surface usually expressed in degrees east or west of the Greenwich Meridian. New York, for example, is at approximately 74° west Where data are published using totals for arbitrary areas such as administrative units, the patterns that they show may be simply the effect of the administrative units rather than genuine patterns among the underlying population Data describing the content, quality, condition, and other characteristics of data Manchester Information & Associated Services The way in which subelements may be contained within larger elements, resulting in multiple levels of metadata NATIONAL GEOSPATIAL DATA FRAMEWORK A way of modelling the world that allocates entities to hierarchical classes OPEN GIS CONSORTIUM OFFICE FOR NATIONAL STATISTICS ORDNANCE SURVEY Portable Document Format The small units that sub-divide space to make up a raster surface. They are usually small grid squares Spatial features that are given a precise location that can be described by a single coordinate pair. In theory a point has neither length nor width Spatial features that are areas or zones enclosed by precisely defined boundaries. The boundaries of a polygon are formed from one or more lines A web-based gateway to internet resources In GIS terms this usually means a digital data source that is derived directly from the real world such as through Global Positioning Systems or remote sensing In the context of GIS data, quality usually refers to how fit the data are for a particular purpose A way of representing the earth's surface by sub-dividing it into small pixels, usually square cells. Each pixel has values attached to it providing attribute data about the pixel Resource Description Framework Resource Discovery Network A small number of points used to georeference a layer. Often the four corners of the layer are used. Once the layer has been digitised we know the coordinates of the reference points in inches from the bottom left hand corner of the digitising table or tablet. We also know their locations in real-world units from the map. This allows us to convert the entire layer's coordinates from digitiser inches to real world coordinates Process used by mapmakers to modify/warp/adjust a map into a different shape. In GIS it is a process involving moving and 37
SERVICE PROVIDERS SLIVER POLYGONS SOAP SPACE SPACE-TIME COMPOSITE SPATIAL DATA STAKEHOLDER SQL TEI TEMPORAL DATA THESAURUS TOPOLOGY UK BORDERS UKDA UKSGB UNESCO VECTOR DATA MODEL XML Z39.50 adjusting one layer of data to "line up" with another layer of data. The process involves several to several thousand pairs of points. Each pair includes a "source" or "from" point identified on the "old" dataset and its corresponding "target" or "to" location in the "new" more accurate dataset. It is also the process by which image data (such as that contained on a paper map) may be brought into the GIS in a meaningful coordinate system. In rubbersheeting, the data are not originally in any coordinate system and the mapping to a real coordinate system is done in a least-squares sense such that error is minimized. The mapping is peculiar to the points chosen to georeference the image and is subject to user idiosyncrasies in identifying the precise coordinates associated with a point Providers of service e.g. information services Small polygons formed as a result of overlaying two or more layers of vector data. These are formed due to small differences in the way that identical lines have been digitised Simple Open Access Protocol In a GIS context this means position on the earth's surface. Its meaning is very similar to location A way of handling time in GIS that preserves topology by sub dividing space into a small set of areas that can then be re aggregated into the arrangement that existed at different dates Data that define a location. These are in the form of graphic primitives that are usually either points, lines, polygons or pixels A person or organisation who can affect the outcome/success of the project and/or is affected by its outcome/success Structured Query Language is a language used by many Relational Database Management Systems to manipulate their data Text Encoding Initiative Data that explicitly refer to time A set of terms representing concepts and the relationships among the terms, including hierarchy, equivalence, and associative relationships The description of how spatial features are connected to each other United Kingdom Boundary Outline and Reference Database for Education and Research Study (provided by EDINA) United Kingdom Data Archive United Kingdom Standard Geographic Base United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation Divides space into discrete features, usually points, lines or polygons eXtensible Mark-up Language ISO 23950 and ANSI/NISO Z39.50 standard information retrieval protocol which is specifically designed to aid retrieval from distributed servers 38
Bibliography
Cannan, Edwin. (1912). The history of local rates in England. London: P. S. King, 2nd ed. Chappell, C. (1999). Changing Boundaries: Gazetteers, Information Retrieval and Data Browsing. IASSIST Conference, May 19, Ryerson Polytechnic University, Toronto, Ontario. Available from: http://iassistdata.org/publications/iq/iq23/iqvol233chappell.pdf
. Cheffins, Richard. (1998). Parliamentary Constituencies and their registers since 1832. London: British Library. Coles, G.M., Gittings, B.M., Milburn, P. and Newton, A.J. (1998). Scottish Palaeoecological Archive Database. Available from: http://www.geo.ed.ac.uk/spad/ . Crane, Gregory. (July/August 2000). Designing Documents to Enhance the Performance of Digital Libraries: Time, Space, People and a Digital Library on London. D-Lib Magazine Volume 6 Number 7/8. ISSN 1082-9873. Ell, P and Gregory, Ian. (2001). A New Dimension to Historical Research with GIS. History and Computing 13 (1), page 1-7. Published 2003. ISSN 0957-0144. Edinburgh University Press and the Association for History and Computing 2001. Evans, N. (2001). GeoXwalk Requirements Specification and Solutions Strategy. Available from: http://edina.ac.uk/projects/geobrowser/Requirements_v1.doc
Feery L. M. (1951). Guides to official sources. No. 2. Census reports of Great Britain, 1801 –1931. London: HMSO. Gregory, I.N. (2000). An evaluation of the accuracy of the areal interpolation of data for the analysis of long-term change in England and Wales. Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on GeoComputation University of Greenwich, United Kingdom, 23 - 25 August 2000. Published on CD ROM. Produced by: R.J. Abrahart and B.H. Carlisle. Publisher: "GeoComputation CD-ROM". ISBN 0 9533477-2-9. Available from: http://www.geocomputation.org/2000/GC045/Gc045.htm
. Gregory, I.N. (2000). Longitudinal Analysis of Age and Gender-Specific Migration Patterns in England and Wales: A GIS Approach. Social Science History, Volume 4, Number 3, Fall 2000 pages 471-505. Gregory, I.N. (2002). A place in History: A Guide to Using GIS in Historical Research. Available from: http://hds.essex.ac.uk/g2gp/gis/index.asp
. Gregory, I, Kemp, Karen and Mostern, Ruth. (2001). Geographical Information and Historical Research: Current Progress and Future Directions. History and Computing 13 (1), pages 7-25. Published 2003. ISSN 0957-0144. Edinburgh University Press and the Association for History and Computing 2001. Harley, J. B.(1975). Ordnance Survey Maps: a descriptive manual. Southampton: Ordnance Survey. Higginbotham, Peter (2000). Poor Law Unions. Oxford University web, Oxford. Available from: http://www.workhouses.org.uk/poorlaws/ . Kain, Roger and Oliver, Richard. (2001). Historic Parishes of England and Wales: An electronic Map of Boundaries before 1850 with a Gazetteer and Metadata. History Data Service, UK Data Archive. ISBN 0954003209. Keith-Lucas, Bryan. (1980).The unreformed local government system. London: Croom Helm. Merzaliakova, Irina and Karimov, Alexei. (2001). A History of Russian Administrative Boundaries
(XVIII
– XX centuries). Available from: http://www.geog.port.ac.uk/hist-bound/papers/russia.htm
. 39
De Moor, Martina and Torsten Wiedemann. (2001). Reconstructing Territorial Units and Hierarchies: A Belgian Example. History and Computing 13 (1), 71-98. Published 2003. Edinburgh University Press and the Association for History and Computing 2001. National Council on Archives, (1997). Rules for the construction of personal, place and corporate names. Available on-line at: http://www.hmc.gov.uk/nca/title.htm [29 April 2004]. Office of National Statistics. Beginners' Guide to UK Geography (2003). Available on-line at: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/geography/beginners_guide.asp [29 April 2004]. Pickles, Thomas. (2002). Review of Historic Parishes of England and Wales: An Electronic Map of Boundaries before 1850 with a Gazetteer and Metadata. Journal of Internet Archaeology, Issue 13. Available from: http://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue13/reviews/pickles.html
. Room, Adrain, ed., (1999). Brewers Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 16th ed. London: Cassell. Scott, Mark. (2001). A Comparison Between Snapshot and Composite Change Data. Portland State University. Available from: http://www.markscott.biz/portland/chanpter5.htm
. Stooks, Smith, Henry (1844). The Parliaments of England. London: Simpkin, Marshall, & Co. Tobias, J.J. (1972). In the local interest. London: Ginn and Co. Wilson, A. (2001). Sydney TimeMap for History and Computing 2001. ™: Integrating Historical Resources using GIS. History and Computing 13 (1) 2001, page 45-71. Published 2003. Edinburgh University Press and the Association Yuan, May. (1996). Temporal GIS and Spatio-Temporal Modelling. Department of Geography, the University of Oklahoma. Available from: http://www.ncgia.ucsb.edu/conf/SANTA_FE_CD ROM/sf_papers/yuan_may/may.html
. Youngs, Frederic A. (1980, 1991). Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England. Royal Historical Society, London, 2 Vols. 40
Appendix 1 - Geographical Units of Great Britain
Matthew Woollard The bewildering number of different administrative units within Great Britain over the previous ten centuries makes it difficult to compile an authoritative list of these units. What follows is a provisional attempt to draw together some basic information about these units in a coherent form. To all intents and purposes the various different subdivisions can be divided into five main categories: Local government Justice Registration of births, deaths and marriages Ecclesiastical Parliamentary representation These five main categories are neither represented by a single system over a particular time-period, nor are they exclusive among each other. For example, local government in 1901 had two separate systems, one of which (for the administration of the Poor Law) was (almost) identical to that for registration purposes. Further confusion arises through a relatively limited vocabulary being used for units with different functions and at different times. For example, the term Ward has at least two specific meanings: first, it has been used as a term for a Hundred in some northern counties of England and second, as the lowest sub-division of electoral units. Similarly the addition of a (sometimes non-official) adjectival prefix to a unit-term can lead to confusion. When, in the 1830s, the term Registration County was devised to den ote an aggregation of registration districts, the ‘original’ term County was sometimes re branded as an ‘Ancient County’.
1 Thus the change of title causes a chronological discontinuity. Almost all of these, at least since the seventeenth century have some legal basis. A consequence of which is that it is possible to cite the original Act of Parliament which relates to the particular unit. These have been referred to in the text, but in no case have the Acts themselves been consulted. The list below is incomplete; it attempts to define most of the units reported on in the census between 1801 and 1966. All later and non-census units are either sketchily defined or ignored. The details which follow have predominantly been extracted from the various census reports from 1831 through 1931. Cross-referencing generally only refers to the immediately proceeding or following sections. The sections are laid out to take account of the main phases of alteration in administrative units; thus Section A covers administrative units which were in existence before the reforms of the mid-1830s; Section B1 covers that period during the middle of the nineteenth century before the reforms of the 1870s to 1890s. B2 is concerned mainly with the state from this second wave of reforms through to the late twentieth century. B3 covers the period from the local government reforms of the 1960s and 1970s, Section B4 will be concerned with the present day situation. Section C describes the general judicial units, while Section D relates t o the ‘artificial’ units used by the Registrar Generals. Section E covers Ecclesiastical units and Section F considers Parliamentary Units. Section G is a ‘holding-bay’ for other units which do not yet fit into the outline above.
A ‘Ancient’ administrative units (i.e., in existence pre-1830). A1 County (aka Ancient County; Geographical County; Shire)
The primary sub-division of the three countries of England, Wales and Scotland. In England counties were created in the Saxon period; in Wales, post-Conquest. Considerable changes in county boundaries as a result of Laws in Wales Act, 1536 (26 Hen. VIII c.26) (also known as the Union with Wales Act)which incorporated Wales into England. From 1730 counties were allowed to levy a single rate for all expenses rather than separate rates. Further considerable alterations as a result of the Counties (Detached Parts) Act of 1844 (7 & 8 Vict. c. 61) under which the detached parts of a county 1 1851 Census of England and Wales, General Report, p. lxxix. 41
became part of the county to which it was annexed. There were forty counties in England, twelve in Wales and thirty-two in Scotland. Ancient counties lost all administrative functions with the creation of Administrative Counties (B2.1) as a result of the Local Government Act of 1888 (51 & 52 Vict. c. 41), though the term Ancient County (or Geographical County) continued to be used in various census reports post-1911, even though no population figures were reported for Ancient Counties after the 1901 census. There is some confusion about whether the Ridings (A4a) of Yorkshire are considered separate ancient counties. Practically, they should not be, but this did not prevent the census officials treating the three ridings, and sometimes the City of York itself as separate counties. (For example, the 1891 census report says that there were 54 Ancient Counties in England and Wales; this is 51 minus Yorkshire plus Yor ks N.R., Yorks W.R. and Yorks. E.R., but doesn’t include the City of York.) Further issues relate to the naming of counties. In Scotland there are a number of counties with alternative names: Angus Forfar Elgin East Lothian Midlothian West Lothian Moray Haddington Edinburgh Linlithgow The question of whether the county of Monmouth in England or Wales is answered by the Wales and Berwick Act of 1746 (20 Geo. II c.42) which categorically places it in England. Reported in the census for England and Wales, 1801 –1901. Reported in the census for Scotland, 1801 –1931*
A2 Hundred
Subdivision of a County (A1) in England and Wales. In use before Domesday. Generally considered to be derived from Hide (A6), being a land measurement. Hides were supposed to support a free family, ten such families constituted a Tything (A5) and ten (or twelve) tythings made up a hundred. However, Hundreds in different counties are of considerably variant sizes. The number of Hundreds at any given time is rather disputed. The 1851 census report (p.lxiii) says “about 800 exist – if liberties, or other divisions of similar divisions of different names are included; and the old boroughs, which were originally hundreds, would not make the numbers 1,000”. Hundreds had lost their administrative importance in the late nineteenth-century. Reported in the census for England and Wales, 1801 –1881.
A3 Wapentake
See Hundred (A2) for definition. Used as a synonym for Hundred in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire and in other areas included within the Danelaw. Reported in the census for England and Wales, 1801 –1901.
A4a Riding
Sub-division of a County (A1). Used in Yorkshire. (Three divisions; North, West and East.)
A4b Part
Sub-division of a County (A1). Used in Lincolnshire. (Three divisions)
A4c Lathe
Sub-division of a County (A1). Used in Kent. (Five divisions)
A4d Rape
Sub-division of a County (A1). Used in Sussex. (Six divisions). Hundreds (A2) subdivide the Sussex rapes. 42
A4e Ward
A sub division of a County (A1). According to Youngs used “in the far north”.
A5 Tything
Specifically, a subdivision of Hundred (A2) comprised of ten hides (A6). Also used as a term to describe a sub-division of a Parish (A10). Reported in the census for England and Wales, 1801 –1861.
A6 Hide
The amount of land sufficient to support a free family in feudal times. The actual area of land would vary depending on its quality, thus is not a fixed measure. Ten hides made a Tything (A5)
A7 Liberty
An equivalent to an extra-parochial place (A11) for Hundreds, i.e., areas given special privileges by Royal authority. Chiefly occurring in Dorset. Also known as a Soke. The 1831 Census report (Enumeration Abstract, Vol. I, p.xxii) states: “Districts of larger extent [than Parishes] may be found, which under the name of Liberties interrupt the general course of Law as affecting Hundreds, in like manner as Extra-Parochial places that of Parishes. In Dorsetshire, where this irregularity chiefly prevails, the Grants of some of these Liberties are dated so late as the Reign of Henry VIII and even of Elizabeth.”. The state of Liberties in Dorset between 1831 and 1851 shows stability in nomenclature, but considerable alterations in the ‘Divisions’ of the county in which they were located.
Place 1831 1851
Alcester Alton Pancras Bindon Broadwinsor Corfe Castle* Shaston Div. Cerne Sub-Div. Blandford South Div. Bridport Div. Shaston Div. Cerne Div. Cerne Div.; Wareham Div.; Wimborne Div. Bridport Div. Dewlish Fordington Frampton Gillingham Halstock Lothers and Bothenhampton Blandford North Div; Dorchester Div. Bridport Div. Shaston Div. Sherborne Div. Bridport Div. Wareham Div. Blandford Div.; Dorchester Div. Cerne Div. Dorchester Div. Bridport Div.; Dorchester Div. Shaston Div. Bridport Div. Owermoigne Piddlehinton Piddletrenthide Poorstock Portland Ryme Intrinsica Stoborough Stower Provost Blandford South Div. Dorchester Div. Dorchester Div. Cerne Sub-Div. Bridport Div. Dorchester Div. (as Isle of Portland) Sherborne Div. Blandford South Div. Wareham Div. Sturminster Div. Dorchester Div. Cerne Div. Bridport Div. Dorchester Div. Sherborne Div. Shaston Div. Sutton Pointz Sydling St. Nicholas Wabyhouse Dorchester Div. Cerne Sub-Div. Dorchester Div. (as Wayhouse) Dorchester Div.; Sherborne Div. Cerne Div. Dorchester Div. 43
Wareham* Wareham Div. Wyke Regis and Elwell Dorchester Div. as Wyke-Regis and Etwall Dorchester Div. Note: Corfe Castle and Wareham described as Borough Liberties. In 1831 there were 34 liberties reported on outside of Dorset. These are listed below – 11 are also found in 1851. However, there are four liberties reported in 1851 which were not reported on in 1831.
Place 1831 1851
Havering-atte-Bower (Essex) Alverstoke and Gosport (Hants) Yes Yes Yes Yes Bentley (Hants) Breamore (Hants) Beaulieu (Hants) Dibden (Hants) Soke of Winchester (Hants) East Medina (Hants) West Medina (Hants) Isle of Sheppy (Kent) Oxford (part) (Oxon) Grantham (Lincs) Bolingbroke (Lincs) Horncastle (Lincs) Westover (Hants) Colchester (Essex) Alresford (Hants) Lymington (Hants) Havant (Hants) Nassaburgh (or Peterborough) (N’hants) Southwell and Scrooby (Notts) Romney Marsh (Kent) Shrewsbury (Salop) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes (as Soke Liberty) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes (Borough and Soke) Yes (Soke) Yes (Soke) Yes Yes (Borough and Liberty) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No? No? No? No No No No No No (but, yes as a Hundred) No No Yes (Borough and Liberties) No Wenlock (Salop) Yes (Borough and Liberties) No Whittlesey and Thorney (Cambs), No Yes Liberties are also names for parish-like areas which have special privileges. Youngs describes ‘Liberties, or Lordships’ as “areas with an early dependence upon a secular or ecclesiastical lord”, in his discussions on parishes [II, xv] which is at odds with the 1831 Census definition. However the census in both 1831 and 1851 gives population reports of liberties which seem both sub-parochial and parochial. Using the 1831 census Enumeration Report Vol. I as a guide, we can see (p.10) the Liberty of Whistley Hurst combined with the “Bar. Chapelry” of Hurst in the Charlton Hundred of Bedford. The same Hundred also contains the Liberty of “Sonning Par. Early”. In the first case the Liberty is 44
displayed typographically sub-ordinate to the parish, while in the second case it is not subordinated. Later in the list (p.18) we can also see the Hundred of Sonning. This contains the “Hurst Parochial Chapelry” which is divided into two liberties (Newland and Winnersh).
A8 Borough (Scotland: Burgh)
The Borough was originally a Saxon modification of a Hundred (A2) (or a group of Hundreds) surrounded by a wall, moat or other defensive device, but are also differentiated by possessing a municipal corporation and having special privileges conferred by royal charter. The term Borough is derived from the Saxon burgh; which was the area in which Burgesses grouped together for defensive purposes. At least 41 boroughs are specifically mentioned in Domesday, but some major cities, i.e., London, Winchester and Gloucester were not described as boroughs. Boroughs were reformed at the Municipal Corporation Act of 1835 (5 & 6 Will. IV c.76) and, for Scotland, the Municipal Corporation Act (Scotland) of 1834 (3 & 4 Will. IV c.76). See Municipal Borough (B1.2). At the time of the Commissioners report there were 246 incorporated boroughs in England and Wales, excluding the City of London. Some boroughs were of such importance that they became counties in themselves (A9). Reported in the census for England and Wales, 1801 –1841 Reported in the census for Scotland, 1851 –1931*
A9 County of itself (aka County Corporate)
A term used for cities/boroughs which were corporate counties. Important towns, which after having being granted a charter for the purpose, gained the administrative powers of a county and were to all intents and purposes counties in themselves. The 1831 census report notes that there were at that time 10 cities and five towns which were ‘counties of themselves’, and then lists 11 cities and five towns:—London, Bristol, Canterbury, Coventry, Exeter, Gloucester, Lichfield, Lincoln, Norwich, Worcester and York being the cities and Kingston-on-Hull, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Nottingham, Poole and Southampton being the towns. (The 1851 census notes that at that time eleven cities and five towns in England were “counties of themselves: Chester is added as a city and Coventry is removed. Carmarthen and Haverfordwest are included as ‘counties of themselves’ in Wales. The 1871 census report gives 19.
A10 Parish (aka Ancient Parish)
Pre-Saxon ecclesiastical division; mostly based around manors, or what Bede called the place (i.e., locus) surrounding the church. Parishes were the ancient primary division of land. Parishes gained secular legitimacy (see B1.4) as a result of the Poor Law Act of 1597 (39 Eliz. I c.3) when they were made the area of the district by which rates maintained its own poor, though the Highways Act of 1555 (2 & 3 P. & M. c.8) made the parish responsible for the maintenance of roads within its boundaries. Reported in the census for England and Wales, 1801 –1881. Reported in the census for Scotland, 1801 –1931* See Civil Parish (B1.4) and Ecclesiastical Parish (E3).
A11 Extra-parochial place
Places not contained within the limits of any parish. Generally areas where exemption had been secured by their owners from the crown. The 1831 census report numbers these as “above 200”, and notes their administrative deficiencies, i.e., that they did not fulfil parochial obligations of the poor law, the militia laws and the highway laws. Attempts to get rid of them, by “converting” them to parishes occurred in the mid-nineteenth century. The most notable was an Act to provide for relief of the poor in Extra-Parochial Places of 1857 (20 Vict. c.19), which provided that all extra-parochial places, as listed in the 1851 Census Report, were to be deemed civil parishes, for the purposes of rating. 598 extra-parochial places were identified, and by the publication of the 1861 census report, 341 had 45
appointed Overseers of the Poor and 14 had joined with other parishes. The remainder were henceforward treated as Civil Parishes in census reports. Some extra-par ochial places were “civil”, and were not included within a parish or township for poor law purposes. Some extra-parochial places remained in existence in the 1950s. Feery says there were 14 in 1951 which were all islands or lighthouses. Reported in the census for England and Wales, 1801 –1861.
A12 Precinct
A name for a specific extra-parochial place.
A13 Chapelry
An ecclesiastical division. A sub-division of an ancient parish (A10), generally as a result of the original parish becoming more populous. Youn gs describes Chapelries as “areas with a clergyman dependent on the incumbent of the mother parish”. Reported in the census for England and Wales, 1801 –1861.
A14 Township
Sub-division of Parish (A10). Generally found in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Cheshire, Lancashire, Yorkshire, Durham, Northumberland, Cumberland and Westmorland. Under the Settlement Act (properly known as the Better Relief of the Poor Act, 1662) (14 Car. II c.12) allowed to “separately maintain their own poor”, thus acting in a very similar administrative manner as a civil parish. Reported in the census for England and Wales, 1801 –1861.
A15 Union
A union of Parishes, authorised though legislation known as Thomas Gilbert's Act of 1782 (An Act for the better relief and employment of the poor, 22 Geo. II. c.83), combining to provide workhouses. Unions, per se, were abolished with the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 (4 & 5 Will IV c.74). See Poor Law Union. (B1.3)
A16 Incorporation (aka Civil Incorporation)
Civil Incorporations were, pre-Poor Law Union Amendment Act, groupings of parishes, generally in cities, to administer the provisions of the ‘Old’ Poor Law. The first of these was Bristol in 1696 (Bristol Incorporation of the Poor Act (7 & 8 Will. III., private acts cxxxii)); others followed in Worcester, Hull, Exeter, Plymouth, Norwich and elsewhere. Separate Acts of Parliament were necessary to incorporate these parishes. As a result of the Settlement, Employment and Relief of the Poor Act, 1722 (9 Geo.I c.7)) which regularised these incorporations, a further 89 private acts were passed before the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834.
A17 United Parish
Reported in the census for Scotland, 1801 –1851
B1 Local Government (pre-1888) B1.1 County
(See A1). Counties in the period to 1888 were to all intents and purposes the same as ‘Ancient Counties’. Counties were not affected by the Municipal Corporation Act (see below B1.2) Reported in the census for England and Wales, 1801 –1901. Dissolved by Local Government Act of 1972 (c.70) (effective 1974).
B1.2 Municipal Borough
The Commission for Municipal Corporations inquired into 285 places, of which they maintained 246 were ‘Corporations’. Of these 285 places; 16 corporations were exclusively manorial; 178 46
subsequently placed under operation of the Municipal Corporations Act (5 & 6 Will. IV c.76); two of these original Boroughs were subsequently (and before 1851) brought under the Act and 89 were left undisturbed. Between the passing of the Act and 1851 a further 18 boroughs were incorporated. The City of London was not reformed and was not included under the provisions of the Act. Numbers of Municipal Boroughs in England and Wales 1851 1871 1891 196 224 243 1911 250 In Scotland, in 1851, there were 83 Cities and Burghs were regulated by the Municipal Corporation Act (Scotland) of 1834 (3 & 4 Will. IV c.76). Municipal Boroughs existed until 1974. See B2.7. Reported in the census for England and Wales, 1841 –1961.
B1.3 Poor Law Union
Groupings of parishes, mostly created as a result of the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 (4 & 5 Will IV c.74) to provide for the administration of the Poor Law. Each Union was responsible for the relief of the poor. Unions could be formed from parishes from more than one county. See also Union. (A15). Reported in the census for England and Wales, 1851 –1921.
B1.4 Civil Parish
The term Civil in the phrase ‘Civil Parish’ originally denotes the responsibilities rather the boundaries of a Parish. Parishes first gained important secular responsibilities as a result of the Poor Law Act of 1597.) (A10) Parochial officers were responsible for a variety of local matters including the poor, the roads and some petty law. Civil parishes, per se, were created mostly as a result of the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 (4 & 5 Will IV c.74) in the late 1840s and 1850s. At this time the boundaries between ancient parishes (A10) and civil parishes started to vary considerably. The Interpretation Act of 1889 (quoted here from the 1921 census report) stated: “a place for which a separate poor rate is, or can be, made, or for which a s eparate overseer is, or can be, appointed”. Legislation in the form of Divided Parishes Acts (1876, 1879 and 1882) pushed the distinction between ecclesiastical and civil parishes further apart. The Divided Parishes Act of 1882 (45 & 46 Vict. c.58) caused each detached part of an extra-metropolitan parish which was entirely surrounded by another parish to be transferred to the surrounding parish. This act was for civil purposes only; ecclesiastical parishes retained their previous detached existence. 1881 number of civil parishes: 14,926. 1891 number 14,684 (in England and Wales.) Feery suggests (p. 98) that Civil Parishes were only reported on in England and Wales post-1871. Reported in the census for England and Wales, 1871 –1961. Reported in the census for Scotland, 1801 –1931*
B1.5 Burgh
Scottish spelling of Borough (A8) Generally towns which had special privileges granted to them by the crown. Unlike English boroughs these rights were granted to landowners. Two forms existed: burghs of barony and burghs of regality. Regulated first by Municipal Corporation Act (Scotland) of 1834 (3 & 4 Will. IV c.76). There were a total of 83 burghs in Scotland in 1851. Abolished 1975.
B2 Local Government (1888-1974)
B2.1 Administrative County
47
Two pieces of legislation led to the creation of Administrative Counties: in England and Wales the Local Government Act of 1888 (51 & 52 Vict. c. 41) and in Scotland the Local Government Act (Scotland) of 1889. Together these Acts replaced Counties (A1) with Administrative Counties and County Boroughs (B2.2). Most of the administrative functions of Counties were to be carried out henceforth by Administrative Counties. Administrative Counties were composed of Municipal Boroughs and from 1894 Urban Districts and Rural Districts. According to the 1891 census report the Administrative Counties were only co-terminus with Ancient Counties (A1) in fourteen cases and in seven cases when taken together with the relevant County Boroughs (B2.2). Exceptions occurred when Urban Sanitary Districts crossed into more than one county, and where counties were split (e.g., Suffolk and Sussex divided into two; the three Yorkshire Ridings; the three Lincolnshire divisions; the Isle of Ely, the Soke of Peterborough and the Isle of Wight were all constituted as separate administrative counties.) (The latter as part of the Local Government Board’s Provisional Order Confirmation (No. 2) Act, 1889 (52 & 53 Vict. c.177.)) Further changes were instituted as part of the Local Government Act of 1894 (56 & 57 Vict. c.73) which simplified complications in boundaries. The Local Government Act of 1929 (19 & 20 Geo. V. c.17) revised these boundaries again. See the General Report of the census for 1931 (p.63). In 1888 there were 50 Administrative counties in England and 12 in Wales. London, consisting of parts of the Ancient Counties of Middlesex, Surrey and Kent (previously constituted as the Metropolis by the Metropolis Local Management Act of 1855 (18 & 19 Vict., c.120)) was a separate Administrative County. (The total of 62 excludes the Scilly Isles which was technically not an Administrative County, but “for all practical intents and purposes they constitute an administrative county” (Census of England and Wales, 1891, General Report, 9). Reported in the census for England and Wales, 1891 –1961. Administrative counties were abolished in 1974.
B2.2 County Borough
Created as a result of the Local Government Act of 1888 (51 & 52 Vict. c. 41), to replace previously existing County Boroughs and parts of Counties (A1). The original County Boroughs were said either to have a population of over 50,000 on 1 June 1888 or a county in itself. (A9) The Act created 61 County Boroughs, of which nine were found by the 1891 census to contain fewer than 50,000 people. The 1891 census gives a total of 64 County Boroughs; by 1911 there were 75. County Boroughs had independence from the surrounding county from which it may have in the past been dependent on. Following the Local Government Act of 1888, towns with populations of over 50,000 were allowed to petition to become County Boroughs. (A limit raised to 75,000 after the Local Government (County Boroughs and Financial Adjustment) Act of 1926.) Note some county boroughs had been created from the twelfth century onwards. These special boroughs gained exemption from County officials. (A8) Reported in the census for England and Wales, 1891 –1961. County Boroughs were abolished in 1974
B2.3 Urban Districts (aka Urban Sanitary Districts)
The Public Health Acts of 1873 and 1875 divided all England and Wales, with the exception of London, into Urban Sanitary Districts and Rural Sanitary Districts, both were, generally speaking, sub divisions of Administrative Counties, but there were exceptions. In the Urban Districts administration was vested in a local authority called the urban sanitary authority. Under a further Act (Local 48
Government Act of 1894 (56 & 57 Vict. c.73)) these were renamed Urban District Councils and the areas renamed Urban Districts. The Local Government Act of 1888 (51 & 52 Vict. c. 41) prevented future Urban Districts from being in two Administrative Counties. 1891 census reports 1,011 of these in existence just after the census. (NB: also 41, at this time, sanitary areas within London.) Reported in the census for England and Wales, 1881 –1961.
B2.4 Rural Districts (aka Rural Sanitary District)
The Public Health Acts of 1873 and 1875 divided all England and Wales, with the exception of London into Urban Sanitary Districts and Rural Sanitary Districts, both were, generally speaking, sub divisions of Administrative Counties, but there were exceptions. The Act, quoted in the 1911 census report stated: “the area of any union which is not co-incident in area with an urban district, nor wholly included in an urban district…with the exception of those portions (if any) which are included in any urb an district, shall be a rural district.” The 1894 Local Government Act required Rural Districts to be within the same Administrative County (with certain exceptions.) The 1891 census report noted that there were 172 Rural Districts in more than one Administrative County. By 1911 there were only nine. The 1891 census report reported on 575 Rural Districts. Reported in the census for England and Wales, 1881 –1961.
B2.5 Civil Parish
See B1.4 for a basic definition. In this period, Civil Parishes were affected by the Local Government Act of 1894 which stated that no Civil Parish could be partly in a Rural District (B2.4) and partly in an Urban District (B2.3) or in more than one Administrative County (B2.1). During this period, Civil Parishes were a sub-division of some county boroughs. The City of London (Union of Parishes) Act of 1907 amalgamated all 112 city parishes into a single Civil Parish. 1911 census report notes that there were still 921 detached parts of civil parishes. In 1911 the census reported on 14,614 separate civil parishes in England and Wales; in 1921 only 14,483.
B2.6 Metropolitan Borough
A particular type of Urban District created as a result of the London Government Act of 1899. This Act divided the Administrative County of London into 28 Metropolitan Boroughs which also cleared up civil parish boundaries, i.e., no civil parish was to be in more than one Metropolitan Borough. Replaced by London Boroughs in 1965. (B2.10) Reported in the census for England and Wales, 1901 –1961.
B2.7 Municipal Borough
Developed from Hundreds (A2) and Boroughs (A8) into Municipal Boroughs (B1.2). In the period post 1888 they were simply a particular type of Urban District. There were 250 in 1911. Reported in the census for England and Wales, 1841 –1961.
B2.8 Municipal Ward
A sub-division of Urban Districts (and thus Metropolitan and Municipal Boroughs). Reported in the census for England and Wales, 1871 –1961. 49
B2.9 County Borough Ward
A sub-division of County Boroughs. Reported in the census for England and Wales, 1871 –1961.
B2.10 Poor Law Union
See Poor Law Union (B1.3) The 1911 c ensus says that these are “nearly always identical with Registration Districts” and that they are sub-divided into civil parishes. Poor Law Unions were abolished in 1929 (Local Government Act of 1929 (19 & 20 Geo. V. c.17)) and their functions were assigned to either County Boroughs or Administrative Counties.
B2.11 Burgh (Large Burghs, Small Burghs)
As a result of the Local Government (Scotland) Act of 1929 (19 & 20 Geo. V c.25) (effective 1930) burghs were divided into counties of cities, large burghs, and small burghs.
B2.12 London Borough
With the formation of the Greater London Council in 1963 (as a consequence of the London Government Act of 1963 (c.33) ) (effective 1965) London was re-divided into Boroughs. These replaced Metropolitan Boroughs (B2.6). There were 32 London Boroughs and the City of London which had a separate existence, but was treated as a London Borough for many statistical reporting purposes. Reported in the census for England and Wales, 1961. (Doubtlessly published post-1963).
B3 Local Government (1974-1985)
B3.1 Counties (aka Non-Metropolitan Counties)
The Local Government Act of 1972 (c.70) abolished the system of Administrative Counties and County Boroughs in England and Wales and created 39 new Counties: Avon, Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Cheshire, Cleveland, Cornwall, Cumbria, Derbyshire, Devon, Dorset, Durham, East Sussex, Essex, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Hereford and Worcester, Hertfordshire, Humberside, Isle of Wight, Kent, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Northumberland, North Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Shropshire, Somerset, Staffordshire, Suffolk, Surrey, Warwickshire, West Sussex and Wiltshire.
B3.2 Metropolitan Counties (aka Metropolitan Areas)
The Local Government Act of 1972 (c.70) also created six (or seven if Greater London Council is included.) Metropolitan Areas – Tyneside, Merseyside, Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, West Midlands. These were abolished in 1986 as a result of the Local Government Act, 1985 (c.51). Their replacements were single-tier authorities, Metropolitan Districts (B4.4) which were no more than sub-divisions of the Metropolitan Counties.
B3.3 Local Government District (aka District, Metropolitan District)
A sub-division of both Counties and Metropolitan Areas.
B3.4 Scottish Regions
Following the Local Government (Scotland) Act, 1973 (c. 65). The counties of Scotland were replaced, for administrative purposes by the following Regions: Borders, Central, Dumfries and Galloway, Fife, Grampian, Highland, Lothian, Strathclyde, Tayside, Orkney Islands, Shetland Islands and Western Isles.
B4 Local Government (1985- )
The Local Government Act, 1992 (c.19) started a review process which has led to new local government areas.
B4.1 Unitary Authority (aka, in Wales, Principal Area)
There are (2004) 46 Unitary Authorities (or Principal Areas) in England and Wales. Unitary Authorities are single-tier administrations. Following the Local Government (Wales) Act, 1994 (c.19) the 8 50
Counties (B3.1) and 37 Districts (B3.3) of Wales were replaced in April 1996 by 22 Unitary Authorities.
B4.2 County (aka Shire County)
Another re-purposing of the same word! These counties, in England and Wales, were in some cases, a return to Ancient County boundaries. Following the numerous statutory instruments, most Non Metropolitan Counties (B3.1) were refounded as ‘counties’. For example, Milton Keynes was detached from the rest of Buckinghamshire as a result of the Buckinghamshire (Borough of Milton Keynes) (Structural Change) Order 1995 (SI 1995 No. 1769). However, there are a large number of exceptions. The Non-Metropolitan County of Avon, for example, became four Unitary Authorities (South Gloucestershire, Bath and North East Somerset, North Somerset and City of Bristol.) These counties were the upper level tier in a two-tier administrative system: the lower-level tier being the Non-Metropolitan District (B4.7).
B4.3
The six Metropolitan Areas or Counties (B3.2) were abolished in 1986, but according to the ONS Web-sit
Metropolitan County
e are still recognised “especially for statistical purposes”. Thus the Metropolitan County of Tyne and Wear has been replaced by single-tier authorities of Gateshead, South Tyneside, Sunderland Newcastle-upon-Tyne and North Tyneside. These authorities were, in a previous incarnation, Metropolitan Districts (B3.2).
B4.4 Metropolitan Districts
These are the single-tier authorities which had previously been part of the two-tier system relating to Metropolitan Counties (B3.2). Thus Gateshead, South Tyneside, etc., (see above) are Metropolitan Districts. There are 36 Metropolitan Districts.
B4.5 Council Area (Scotland)
The Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act, 1994 (c.39) divided Scotland into 32 council areas, which in turn are divided into electoral wards (B4.8) and Communities.
B4.6 London Borough
The Local Government Act, 1985 (c.51) abolished the Greater London Council (B2.12) and the Metropolitan Counties (B3.2) were subsequently considered to be Unitary Authorities, i.e., they became single-tier units. At the creation of the Greater London Authority (Greater London Authority Act, 1999), in 2000, London Boroughs again became part of a two-tier structure. There are 32 London Boroughs, and the City of London which has additional powers.
B4.7 Non-metropolitan District
Subdivisions of Counties (B4.2). Non-metropolitan Districts are the lower-level in a two-tier local government system. There are 239 Non-metropolitan Districts including the Isles of Scilly.
B4.8 Electoral Wards
Sub-division of Counties (B4.2), Districts, Unitary Authorities (B4.1) and London Boroughs (B4.6), for electoral purposes.
C Judicial
C1 Petty Sessional Divisions
Constituted formally for the first time under an Act of 1828 (9 Geo. IV c.43), and consisted of the “parishes, tithings, townships and places which ‘in the opinion of such justices would together form a convenient and proper division within, and for which special sessio ns should thenceforward be held.’” (census report, 1911 quoting the original Act.). Further relevant legislation can be found in 10 Geo. IV c.46. Certain alterations were made in the boundaries as a result of the formation of Poor Law Unions. The Act of 6 Will. IV c.12 allowed the justices to alter the boundaries of these divisions. The 1911 census report notes that Petty Sessional Divisions usually comprise entire civil parishes, but there were nearly 50 Civil Parishes in more than one Petty Sessional Division. 1891 census gives 732; 1911 census gives 744. 51
Reported in the census for England and Wales, 1871 –1931.
C2 Petty Sessional Sub-division
Reported on in 1921 report.
C3 County Court Circuits
1911 census gives 53. Reported in the census for England and Wales, 1901 –1951.
C4 County Court Districts
A sub-division of County Court Circuits. 1911 census gives 495. Reported in the census for England and Wales, 1901 –1951.
C5 Boroughs with separate courts of Quarter Sessions and Commission of the Peace
Reported in the census for England and Wales, 1871 –1931.
C6 Lieutenancy sub-divisions
Reported in the census for England and Wales, 1861 –1881.
D Registration
D1 Registration Division
Used in the census from 1851 onwards. 11 Divisions in England and Wales; 2 in Scotland. The Divisions in England and Wales were along the lines of ‘North Western’ or ‘South Eastern’ and were aggregations of Registration Counties. One Division was London. (In 1891 the Registration Division (and County) of London differed from Administrative County of London by (the former) excluding the civil parish of Penge.) Reported in the census for England and Wales, 1851 –1921.
D2 Registration County (aka Poor Law County)
Aggregation of Registration Districts (D1). These are not co-terminus with Ancient or Administrative Counties, though they share the same names. Sometimes known as Poor Law Counties. For the Scottish Census of 1861 artificial aggregations of Scottish Registration Districts were used to report on the population. These Re parishes. gistration Counties were closer to the ‘Ancient’ counties than their English or Welsh counterparts because the Registration Districts were more clearly based on In 1911 there were 55 Registration Counties in England and Wales. The General Register Office stopped using Registration Counties as a unit of analysis after the 1921 census. Reported in the census for England and Wales, 1851 –1921.
D3 Registration District (aka Superintendent Registrars’ Districts)
In England and Wales, Registration Districts were created as a result of the Registration of Births, Deaths, and Marriages in England Act of 1835 (6 & 7 Will IV c.86), and are thus the areas for which civil registration were reported. Registration Districts are generally co-terminus with Poor Law Unions (B1.3). (Interesting to note that while this is the case for England, it’s not for Wales, as the Poor Law Amendment Act didn’t cover Wales). In Scotland, the Act to provide for the better Registration of Births, Deaths, and Marriages in Scotland of 1854 (17 & 18 Vict. c.80) authorised civil registration. Consequently Registration Districts were set 52
up in Scotland and in 1855 there were 1,027 RDs. These Districts were generally based on single parishes or sub-divisions of parishes. Registration Districts may have changed name or boundary in their years of existence. In 1861 634 RDs; 1911 635. By the Local Government Act of 1929 (19 & 20 Geo. V. c.17) Registration Districts were re-arranged to lie within the then current local government units of Administrative Counties and County Boroughs. Post Local Government Act of 1972, Registration Districts were generally made to be sub-divisions of either Administrative Counties (B4.X) or unitary authorities (B4.X). Reported in the census for England and Wales, 1841 –1921.
D4 Registration Sub-district
A sub-division of Registration District (D3), each of which has a registrar of births and deaths. 1911 census report says that these were formed by aggregations of civil parishes. In 1861 2,194 RSDs; 1911 2,009. Reported in the census for England and Wales, 1841 –1921.
D5 Enumeration District
Not a reporting unit for registration purposes, but used solely for taking the census. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries these were sub-divisions of registration sub-divisions.. Enumeration districts were first used in the 1841 census and cover the area which enumerators could generally be said to travel within one day to collect their enumeration schedules. The boundaries of Enumeration Districts often alter at each census. In 1891, England and Wales had 35,507 Enumeration Districts.
D6 Urban Rural Aggregates
Reported in the census for England and Wales, 1961.
E Ecclesiastical
Worth noting that for ecclesiastical purposes, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands were united to England and Wales, whereas for Administrative purposes not.
E1 Province
An ecclesiastical administrative territory under the jurisdiction of an archbishop. There are two provinces in England and Wales. Reported in the census for England and Wales, 1851 –1951.
E2 Diocese
Sub division of a Province. Described as Youngs as “the basic geographic division of the church from the earliest times”. An ecclesiastical administrative territory under the jurisdiction of a bishop. 1831: 26 1891: 34 (including diocese of Sodor and Man) 1921: 38 Reported in the census for England and Wales, 1831, 1851 –1951.
E3 (Ecclesiastical) Parish
Formal name by which non-civil parishes were known from the 1840s. According to 1891 census there were 13,780 ecclesiastical parishes (of which only 5,642 co-extensive with their civil parish counterparts.) nb New Parishes Acts of 1843 and 1856 (a total of 284 had been created by the 1861 census). 53
Reported in the census for England and Wales, 1851 –1951.
E4 Ecclesiastical District
Ecclesiastical districts assigned under the Church Building Acts between 1818 and 1856. (A total of 1077 were founded in this period; a further 235 were formed up to 1861.
E5 Quoad Sacra Parish
Scottish system. First reported in 1841 census – formed from existing parishes? Reported in the census for Scotland, 1841,1861 –1931*
E6 Archdeaconry
A subdivision of a Diocese. Youngs dates the origins of these to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Archdeaconries had “special administrative and judicial roles under the direction of an archdeacon”.
E7 Rural Deanery
A subdivision of an Archdeaconry (E6).
E8 Peculiar
According to Youngs a parish “within the area of a diocese yet exempt in part or entirely from the jurisdiction of the bishop, archdeacon, other official or ecclesiastical courts” [II, p.xiv] Youngs notes that most were abolished in the 1840s.
F Parliamentary
F1 Constituency (or Parliamentary Area)
A unit sending one or more members to Parliament. Only from 1948 (Representation of the People Act (11 & 12 Geo. VI c. 65)), with the abolition of the University seats and the remaining multi-seat county borough s did single seated ‘constituency’ become the norm. The term Constituency is a generic name for specific types of parliamentary district. The final anomaly in term of constituencies were the ‘Universities’ areas. Oxford and Cambridge had separate ‘seats’ from the mid-seventeenth century, each returning two MPs (Cheffins, 225); from 1867 the University of London was represented by a single MP and from 1868 two seats were awarded to the Scottish Universities. Changes were made in 1918, adding additional seats. All university representation was abolished in 1948.
F2 Parliamentary County
A county (generally Ancient (A1)) returning one or two members to Parliament. Not all counties gained the right to send a member to Parliament simultaneously. Most counties had the privilege by the thirteenth century, while Cheshire and Durham were not represented until 1553 and 1675 respectively. Until the Representation of the People Act of 1832 (2 & 3 Will. IV c.45) (more commonly known as the Reform Act), whole counties in England were represented by two members and by a single member in Wales and Scotland. Scotland has legislation through Representation of the People (Scotland) Act of 1832 (2 & 3 Will. IV c.65). After the Reform Act, the status quo was retained in Wales and Scotland, and generally each county in England retained two members: the Isle of Wight was created a Parliamentary County, but with a single member, and some other counties were split into two Divisions, each returning two members (see Parliamentary County Division F5). Yorkshire was divided into three; each division returning two members. (Note that there was a Parliamentary Boundaries Act of 1832 (2 & 3 Will. IV c.64). In Scotland the situation was slightly different – each county (with a number of exceptions) returned a single member. The e xceptions were ‘paired counties’; for example, a constituency existed (pre-1832) called ‘Bute and Caithness’ (or, perhaps Buteshire and Caithness-shire) where each ‘county’ would take it in turns to return a member to Parliament. 54
After the Reform Acts of 1867 and 1868 (affecting England and Wales, and Scotland respectively) (both properly known as Representation of the People Acts further counties were split into divisions, but to complicate matters further some earlier Parliamentary Divisions (F5) were redesignated Parliamentary Counties which were also split into Parliamentary Divisions. Thus, in 1832 Lancashire was divided into two Divisions (Lancashire, North and Lancashire, South). In 1867 each of these Divisions became Parliamentary Counties (North Lancashire and South Lancashire) and each of these new Parliamentary Counties were divided (e.g. North Lancashire, North Lancashire Division, and North Lancashire, North-East Lancashire Division). Further divisions were made as a result of the Redistribution of Seats Act of 1885 (48 & 49 Vict. c.23). Parliamentary Counties were redivided into single-member Divisions (or undivided single-member Counties). Another redistribution of seats occurred with Representation of the People Act, 1918 (7 & 8 Geo. V c.65). Under that Act the boundaries of Parliamentary Counties were aligned with the Administrative Counties. These Parliamentary Counties were sub-divided into Divisions. In 1891 census 468 reported; same in 1911 (each returning 490 members). 1921 census reports 509 (returning 520 members) - all figures exclude the Universities’ members. Reported in the census for England and Wales, 1851 –1951.
F3 Parliamentary Borough
A city, Borough (A8) or district of a borough returning one or two members to Parliament. Borough representation in Parliament was not settled until the fifteenth century. Pre-Reform Act, English Parliamentary Boroughs generally returned two members to Parliament – (London and Weymouth and Melcombe Regis, both returned four). Post reduced to a single member. Reform Act, many English ‘rotten boroughs’ were disenfranchised, some new Parliamentary Boroughs were created, and some had their representation At the 1851 census there were exactly 200 cities, boroughs and districts of Borough in England and Wales sending members to Parliament (disenfranchisement of St. Albans in 1851). The Representation of the People Act of 1867 (30 & 31 Vict. c. 102) disfranchised more small boroughs, reduced some two-member PBs to single seats; created new single seat PBs; and extended some single- and two-seat boroughs to two and three seat boroughs. At the Representation of the People Act, 1918 (7 & 8 Geo. V c.65) Parliamentary Counties were aligned with the County Boroughs (B2.2). Some of these Parliamentary Boroughs were sub-divided into Divisions. Reported in the census for England and Wales, 1841 –1951.
F4 Parliamentary Burgh
A Scottish equivalent to the Parliamentary Borough (F3). The most notable difference to the English Parliamentary Borough was that pre-1832, with one exception (Edinburgh), each Parliamentary Burgh was made up of more than one Burgh (A8). For example, the member for the Parliamentary Burgh reported in The Parliaments of England as ‘Crail’ was elected by delegates from the Burghs of Anstruther West, Anstruther East, Crail, Kilrenny and Pittenweem. The single un-combined Parliamentary Burgh was Edinburgh. Before the Reform Act there were 15 Parliamentary Burghs. In 1851 there were 21 burghs, or districts of burghs sending members to Parliament. Representation of the People (Scotland) Act of 1868 (31 & 32 Vict. c. 48) (effective in the following year). Parliamentary Burghs were effectively abolished with the Representation of the People Act of 1948 (11 & 12 Geo. VI c. 65).
F5 Parliamentary County Division
55
At the Reform Act of 1832, some Parliamentary Counties (F2) were split into divisions. Under the Redistribution of Seats Act of 1885 (48 & 49 Vict. c.23), Parliamentary County Divisions were created, and based on the Petty Sessional Divisions of Ancient Counties. These were exclusively single member divisions. Reported in the census for England and Wales, 1851 –1951.
F6 Parliamentary Borough Division
Under the Representation of the People Act of 1867 (30 & 31 Vict. c. 102) some parliamentary boroughs were divided into divisions. Reported in the census for England and Wales, 1841 –1951.
F7 Parliamentary Borough District
Reported on in 1921 report.
G Miscellaneous
G1 Hamlet
A subdivision of a parish. Reported in the census for England and Wales, 1801 –1861. Youngs describes these as “small settlements”.
G2 Precinct
Reported in the census for England and Wales, 1801 –1861.
G3 Locality
A term used by the Census Office to describe a place “having no legally defined boundary”. These are generally villages, hamlets or other places.
G4 Local Board Districts (Towns with Improvement Commissions)
Reported in the census for England and Wales, 1871.
G5 Ward G6 Sheading
A division or tithing, in the Isle of Man, in which there is a coroner, or chief constable. There are six sheadings.
G7 Police Burgh
Scotland.
G8 Education Authority Areas
Mentioned in 1921 report.
G9 Conurbation
The Royal Commission on the Distribution of Industrial Population (known also as the Barlow Commission) reporting in 1940 used the conurbation as a unit of reporting. It was used subsequently in the 1951 census. Reported in the census for England and Wales, 1951 –1961. Conurbation centres were reported on additionally in the 1961 and 1966 censuses.
G10 New Town
Reported in the census for England and Wales, 1951 –1961.
G11 Geographical Region
Reported in the census for England and Wales, 1921 –1961. 56
G12 Standard Region
Reported in the census for England and Wales, 1921 –1961.
G13 Revised Standard Region
Reported in the census for England and Wales, 1921 –1961.
G14 G15 Standard Statistical Region Highway Districts G16 Inland Revenue Districts G17 Lieutenancy Counties.
As a result of the Lieutenancies Act, 1997 (c.23) the Queen was allowed to appoint a Lord-Lieutenant for “each county”. However at this stage in the administrative process it was not entirely clear what were counties, thus the Act contains a list which aggregates Counties and Unitary Authorities together to create Lieutenancy Counties. (e.g., the Lieutenancy County of Durham was defined as being made up of: “Durham, Darlington, Hartlepool and so much of Stockton-on-Tees as lies north of the line for the time being of the centre of the River Tees”. 57
58
59
Compendium Sources
Better Relief and Employment of the Poor Act, 1782 (22 Geo. II. c.83), 7 Better Relief of the Poor Act, 1662 (14 Car. II c.12), 7 Bristol Incorporation of the Poor Act, 1696 (7 & 8 Will. III., private acts cxxxii), 8 City of London (Union of Parishes) Act, 1907 (c.140), 12 Counties (Detached Parts) Act, 1844 (7 & 8 Vict. c. 61), 2 Divided Parishes Act, 1882 (45 & 46 Vict. c.58), 9 Highways Act, 1555 (2 & 3 P. & M. c.8), 6 Laws in Wales Act, 1536 (26 Hen. VIII c.26), 2 Lieutenancies Act, 1997 (c.23), 23 Local Government (County Boroughs and Financial Adjustment) Act, 1926, 11 Local Government (Scotland) Act of 1929 (19 & 20 Geo. V c.25), 13 Local Government (Scotland) Act, 1973(c. 65), 14 Local Government (Wales) Act, 1994 (c.19), 14 Local Government Act, 1888 (51 & 52 Vict. c. 41), 2, 10, 11 Local Government Act, 1894 (56 & 57 Vict. c.73), 10, 11, 12 Local Government Act, 1929 (19 & 20 Geo. V. c.17), 10, 13, 17 Local Government Act, 1972 (20 & 21 Eliz. II c.70), 17 Local Government Act, 1972 (c.70), 8, 13 Local Government Act, 1985 (c.51), 14, 15 Local Government Act, 1992 (c.19), 14 Local Government Board’s Provisional Order Confirmation (No. 2) Act, 1889 (52 & 53 Vict. c.177.), 10 Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act, 1994 (c.39), 15 London Government Act, 1899 (60 & 61 Vict. c 14, 12 London Government Act, 1963 (c.33), 13 Metropolis Local Management Act, 1855 (18 & 19 Vict., c.120), 10 Municipal Corporation Act (Scotland), 1834 (3 & 4 Will. IV c.76), 6, 8, 9 Municipal Corporation Act, 1835 (5 & 6 Will. IV c.76), 6, 8 Parliamentary Boundaries Act, 1832 (2 & 3 Will. IV c.64), 20 Poor Law Act, 1597 (39 Eliz. I c.3), 6, 9 Poor Law Amendment Act, 1834 (4 & 5 Will IV c.74), 7, 9 Public Health Act, 1873 (35 & 36 Vict. c. 79), 11 Public Health Act, 1875 (38 & 39 Vict. c. 55), 11 Redistribution of Seats Act, 1885 (48 & 49 Vict. c. 23), 20, 21 Registration of Births, Deaths, and Marriages in England Act, 1835 (6 & 7 Will IV c.86), 17 Registration of Births, Deaths, and Marriages in Scotland of 1854 (17 & 18 Vict. c.80), 17 Relief of the poor in Extra-Parochial Places Act, 1857 (20 Vict. c.19), 7 Representation of the People (Scotland) Act, 1832 (2 & 3 Will. IV c.65), 19 Representation of the People (Scotland) Act, 1868 (31 & 32 Vict. c. 48), 21 Representation of the People Act, 1832 (2 & 3 Will. IV c.45), 19 Representation of the People Act, 1867 (30 & 31 Vict. c. 102), 20, 21 Representation of the People Act, 1918 (7 & 8 Geo. V c.65), 20, 21 Representation of the People Act, 1948 (11 & 12 Geo. VI c. 65), 19, 21 Settlement, Employment and Relief of the Poor Act, 1722 (9 Geo.I c.7), 8 Wales and Berwick Act, 1746 (20 Geo. II c.42), 2 60
Appendix 2 – Definitions of Other Geographies
The Black Country
Worcestershire, north west Warwickshire, and south Shropshire. It is
The Dales East Anglia East Midlands
centred on the town of Dudley, and gained its name from the results of the massive atmospheric pollution produced by local metal-working industries, especially in the 19 th century. Buildings and trees (where any survived) were black with soot, the stars were never visible in the sky, any washing hung outside was black with freshly deposited soot long before it was dry, and life expectancy was unsurprisingly short. County boundaries in the area always have been complex and subject to many changes. is the name given to most of the more northerly section of the Pennine Hills. It consists of high moor land interspersed with a series of fast rivers flowing east to the North Sea. Each river valley is a dale, named after its river (e.g. the River Swale runs through Swaledale). The Yorkshire section is a National Park, called the Yorkshire Dales National Park, but further north the Dales continue into County Durham, Westmorland and Northumberland to Hadrian’s Wall, built by the Romans to keep out the barbarians across the border in Scotland. is the round bulge on the east side of England, extending from the Thames estuary northwards to the large rectangular shallow inlet called The Wash. It consists of the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex, with Cambridgeshire sometimes also included. expect located to the east of the West Midlands. It includes the counties of Derbyshire (although the northern, moor land, part is
Fenland The Fylde Hallamshire
Cleveleys and Fleetwood, and in the north by a stretch of north-facing Irish Sea coast which as far as I know has no specific name of its own. The area is very flat, corresponding with its name, derived from filde, meaning plain. is the area around and including the city of Sheffield, in south Yorkshire. So far as I know, there has never been a county of this name, but this large industrial city set in a river valley in the midst of wild moorland is a very distinctive place. The Home Counties are those counties surrounding London. These are Essex (note the overlap with East Anglia), Hertfordshire, Middlesex, Buckinghamshire,
The Peak District
Berkshire, Surrey and Kent (that sequence is going anti-clockwise from the Thames estuary). is the southern part of the Pennine Hills. It is an area of high moorland, with deep, often very picturesque valleys and occasional gorges, mostly situated in north and central Derbyshire but also extending into Staffordshire, Yorkshire and just a little into Lancashire (using pre-1974 boundaries). It was the first National Park to be defined in Britain. The Weald sometimes excluded), Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Nottinghamshire is a term applied to an area of low- lying, very flat land (some of it below sea-level) in eastern England. Although nearly all of it is now drained and is a very fertile agricultural area, historically it was a place of marshes extending as far as the eye could see and well beyond. The counties parts of which comprise it are Cambridgeshire (almost all of it), Huntingdonshire (all of it), parts of west Norfolk, south Lincolnshire and part of north Bedfordshire. Drainage has resulted in shrinking of the soil, to the extent that some rivers, notably much of the Norfolk part of the Great Ouse, flow well above the surrounding land and are contained only by massive earthen embankments. The Isle of Ely, miles from the sea, is so-named because it was an island in the surrounding miles of fens. Incidentally, a fen is an alkaline marsh, distinguishing it from a bog which is always acidic. estuary of the River Ribble, in the east by the Pennines, in the west by the almost entirely urban coastline of Lytham St. Annes, Blackpool, South Downs in south east England. The downs mentioned are two 61
Welsh Marches West Country West Midlands
ridges of chalk hills, running very roughly east to west across (mainly) Sussex and Kent, but meeting at the chalk hill plateau of north Hampshire and Salisbury Plain. They meet the sea at Dover (North Downs, forming the famous White Cliffs) and near Eastbourne (South Downs, forming the high cliffs of Beachy Head). The Weald itself was once heavily forested (the word weald is an Old English word mean ing “woodland”) and a centre for making charcoal for use in smelting iron. are the counties making up the border area of England adjacent to Wales. Normally included are Cheshire, Herefordshire, Shropshire and Worcestershire, with Monmouthshire (in Wales since 1974) normally also included. This was an area of great strategic significance in the early medieval period, before Wales was conquered and pacified. The name comes from the old word “march” meaning border. is a term applied to the counties of south west England as a group. The counties normally included are Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire, and very often Hampshire and/or Gloucestershire are also included. It corresponds very roughly with the ancient kingdom of Wessex, and is sometimes given that name. is the name given to the larger industrial area including the Black Country and surrounding towns and cities such as Birmingham, Coventry and many others. In 1974 a “metropolitan county” of this name was created to administer the area.
The Wirral
is the roughly rectangular peninsula in north Cheshire lying between the estuaries of the rivers Dee and Mersey. Source: Eric James Fisher http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~jimella/counties.htm#other 62
Appendix 3 – Timeline of Administrative Changes in the UK
Date
1834 1835 1843 1855 1856
Event
Poor Law Amendment Act Municipal Corporations Act (5 & 6 Will.1V c.76) Gilbert Act (7 & 8 Vict. C 101) Metropolis Local Management Act (18 & 19 Vict. C.120)
Effect
Formed the Poor Law Commission in London as a central body to oversee the running of the Poor Law. Set up Poor Law Unions by uniting parishes (ignored traditional divisions such as counties). Unions were to build workhouses. Set down strict rules about entitlement to relief. Workhouses were run by Local Boards of Guardians elected by local rate payers. Effectively ended the parish as an important unit of local administration. Main basis for Registration Districts (with some exceptions) Gave boroughs a new constitution and insisted on proper financial management. Borough ouncillors elected by local rate payers. Central control still negligible. Major task of boroughs was to administer law and order and to make bye-laws. Applied to 178 towns. City of London not included Allowed Poor Law Commission to dissolve local authority incorporations (e.g. Gilbert’s incorps.) if they had a population of less than 20,000 without a vote of ratepayers Formed London into 23 large vestries of uniform type and 14 District Boards under a central Metropolitan Board of Works Bristol and Exeter Local Act Unions agree to join the New Poor Law. Many others follow to 1865 1857 1866 1867 1868 1869 1872 1876 1879 1882 Extra-Parochial Places Act (20 Vict. C.19) Extra-parochial places to be deemed, for the purposes of rating, voting and registration etc, parishes Poor Law Amendment Act Poor Law Amendment Act Poor Law Amendment Act Metropolitan Poor Act Public Health Act Divided Parishes and Poor Law Amendment Act Poor Law Amendment Act Divided Parishes and Poor Law Amendment Act Defined the civil parish as “a place for which a separate poor rate is or can be made, or a separate overseer can be appointed or elected”. Allows Poor Law Board to alter boundaries of detached parishes by Provisional Order if petitioned by rate payers – little effect on divided parishes problem Remaining incorporations under Local Act or Gilbert’s Act brought under the New Poor Law. Any extra-parochial place to be incorporated into parish it shared longest border with Brought the Metropolitan parishes under the New Poor Law. Poor Law Board could adjust boundaries without petition or Provisional Order in the Metropolis Led to county being divided up into urban and rural sanitary districts – parishes with a Board of Health under the 1848 Act, areas with special Boards of Improvement Commissioners established under Local Acts, and Boroughs all became urban sanitary districts. Rural Sanitary Districts were poor law unions minus any urban areas. Urban authorities had wider powers; Boroughs Improvement Commissioners and local Boards of Health administered urban areas, Poor Law Guardians took over the remainder Allowed Local Government Board to form new parishes from divided portions or amalgamate them into surrounding portions Cleared up problems with the 1876 act After 25/3/1883 any detached part of a parish entirely surrounded by another parish would be amalgamated to it or form a separate parish. Local Government Board to resolve disputes. Only applied outside the Metropolis. 63
Date Event Effect
1885 1888 1894 1899 1907 1926 1929 1933 Redistribution of Seats Act Local Government Act Created Parliamentary County Divisions from Petty Sessional Divisions Creation of Administrative Counties. The basis of English Local Govt. until the 1970s. Created County Councils elected on rate payer franchise: Created the county of London, Yorkshire and Lincolnshire both split into three, Cambs, Northants, Hampshire, Suffolk and Sussex split into two, therefore 62 county councils formed out of 52 counties. Defined relationship between county councils and boroughs: Boroughs given separate powers from counties if they had a pop. Of over 50,000. Burton-upon-Trent, Canterbury, Chester, and Worcester also given county status. These boroughs became known as County Boroughs. Smaller boroughs fell under the aegis of County Councils. Reorganised financial relationships between central and local govt. Rural Districts reshaped or split so as not to overlap county boundaries. Responsibility for parish boundaries moved to county council with Local Government Board overseeing it. Local Government Act. Local Government Act. Urban and Rural Sanitary Districts became Urban and Rural Districts with Councils rather than Boards of Health and wider powers. The Administrative County of London divided to form 28 Metropolitan Borough Councils in the London County Council. City of London (Union of Parishes) Act Local Government (County Boroughs and Adjustments) Acts Local Government Act Merged the 112 parishes in the City of London to form one civil parish. Two areas, Inner and Middle Temple, remained as non-parochial places. Resulted from the report of the Onslow Commission. Became harder to form a County Borough. Population needed to form a County Borough raised to 75,000. This now had to be done by a Private Bill rather than a Provisional Order (meant that from 1926 to 1964 only one new CB was formed) Shifted responsibilities for highways and also sanitation from rural districts (RD) to the counties. Meant that in the 1930s urban and rural districts were rationalised through the 1930s by reviews carried out by county councils. Resulted in the number of urban district (UD) falling from 786 to 573 and RD’s from 650 to 477. Also led to the abolition of Poor Law Guardians with counties and county boroughs taking responsibility. Poor relief became known as “public assistance” and the 1909 Minority report’s recommendations were accepted so many poor law functions given to education committees, public health committees, maternity and child welfare departments, welfare of the blind departments, and so on. Registrar General retains responsibility for births, marriages, and deaths but the administration moved to local authorities. Local Government Act Last powers of urban parishes removed. Became harder for a UD to gain borough status 1945 1958 1963 April 1 st 1965 Local Government Boundary Commission set up Limited terms of reference – abolished 1949 Separate Boundary Commissions set up for England and Wales London Government Act Greater London was established in 1965 as an administrative unit covering the London metropolis Limited terms of reference – abolished 1965 Set up the GLC. Boundaries of Greater London spread far wider than old LCC boundaries The first of the far reaching changes took place in 1965 with the formal recognition of the previously vague concept of Greater London. It was not defined as a county but had a two-tier structure, with the lower tier being the London boroughs. On April 1 st 1965 the Greater London Council was constituted covering an area which comprised the former counties of London and Middlesex together with parts of Essex, Kent, Surrey and Hertfordshire, including three former County Boroughs, Croydon, West Ham and East Ham. The second-tier within this area, which had previously consisted of no fewer than 82 borough, metropolitan and urban district councils, was reorganised into 33 sub-divisions – 32 London Boroughs and the City of London. Following the abolition of the Greater London Council (GLC) in 1986 the boroughs became single-tier authorities, but Greater London was still widely recognised, especially for statistical and mapping purposes. In 2000 however a two-tier structure was re-established when the new Greater London Authority adopted responsibility for a range of citywide policy areas. There are 32 actual 64
Date Event Effect
boroughs, with a status similar to metropolitan districts, and also the City of London, which is a City Corporation and has a number of additional roles. Boroughs are subdivided into electoral wards 1965 1969 1972 Boundary Commissions for England and Wales abolished Royal Commission on Local Government reports Local Government Act The Redcliffe-Maud report – recommended a simple system of 58 unitary authorities and 3 Metropolitan authorities with community councils below them Created 47 shire counties and 6 metropolitan counties divided into 333 districts Northern Ireland. Entire two-tier system October 1 st 1973 replaced in 1973 by a single-tier district council system. 1974 April 1 1974 May 1 1975 March 31 st 1986 st st The 73 existing councils (6 upper-tier county councils, 2 single-tier county boroughs, and 65 lower-tier councils comprising 10 boroughs, 24 urban districts and 31 rural districts) were replaced by 26 single-tier District Councils. For administrative purposes at least, the six historic counties were no more In 1974 a two-tier administrative structure of (shire) counties and non-metropolitan districts was set up across the whole of England and Wales, except for the Isles of Council functions were divided according to the level at which they could be practised most efficiently. In consequence, counties took on functions including education, transport, strategic planning, fire services, consumer protection, refuse disposal, smallholdings, social services Scilly, Greater London and the six metropolitan counties. and libraries, whereas the districts had responsibility for local planning, housing, local highways, building, environmental health, refuse collection and cemeteries. Responsibility for recreation and cultural matters was divided between the two tiers April 1 st 1974, it was the turn of England and Wales (apart from Greater London). Here the two-tier structure was to remain, in fact it was to be extended to include even the special-status areas which had previously enjoyed an independent existence. The overall effects were (1) to Urban Civil Parishes abolished in England abolish County Boroughs, (2) to reduce number of upper-tier county councils from 58 to 53, (3) to replace the 1250 lower-tier councils with 369 District Councils. Six of the 53 county councils which served major conurbations were to be Metropolitan County Councils and the 36 district & Wales, rural Welsh ones become Communities Two-tier structure introduced in Scotland . Upper tiers are known as regions councils within these areas were to be termed Metropolitan District Councils. These changes resulted in the disappearance of several historic counties and most others had major boundary changes The existing structure comprised some 431 upper, lower and single-tier councils, and these were replaced by 9 upper-tier Regional Councils, 53 lower-tier District Councils and 3 single tier authorities serving some of the island communities. All 34 of Scotland’s historic counties had been removed at a stroke and had been replaced by a mere 9 “Regions” Greater London Council and the six metropolitan counties were abolished leaving the boroughs and districts to operate as single-tier units, although the abolished larger areas are still recognised for some purposes such as statistical The government of the day abolished the Greater London County Council and the six Metropolitan County Councils. In those areas the second tier authorities (the London Boroughs and the Metropolitan District Councils) were promoted to single-tier authorities similar to the old county boroughs in the pre-1974 arrangements. Some county-wide services were maintained using a complex mixture of joint boards and joint committees, but the counties as administrative entities were no more 65
Date Event
presentation.
Effect
1990’s 1994 1995 1998 1995 Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) in England in the 1990s Government Offices for the Regions The key feature of this change was the introduction of unitary authorities, single tier administrations with responsibility for all areas of local government. Between 1995 and 1998 these were established in a number of areas across the country, especially in medium-sized urban areas, whilst other areas retained a two-tier structure. The Local Government Commission for England (LGCE)* reviewed the administrative structure of non-metropolitan areas and, following considerable research and consultation, recommended that some areas retain the existing two-tier structure and others be set up as single-tier unitary authori ties (UA’s). Parliament approved reorganisation in 25 counties and the subsequent process of restructuring occurred between 1995 and 1998 Reflecting a number of government departments they aim to work in partnership with local people and organisations in order to maximise prosperity and the quality of life within their area. In 1996 the regions covered, known as Government Office Regions, became the primary classification for the presentation of regional statistics. At creation there were 10 GOR’s but in 1998 Merseyside was merged with the rest of the North West to leave the pattern shown on the map. GOR’s are built up of complete counties/unitary authorities so although they are subject to change they always reflect administrative boundaries as at the end of the previous year. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are not subdivided into GORs but are listed with them as regions in UK-wide statistical comparisons In England the changes were more varied, indeed many areas were completely unaffected. The changes were also phased, with implementation dates of April 1 st 1995, 1996, 1997 and 1998. At the time of writing all but the 19 98 changes have taken effect and the “shadow” bodies for the post-1998 authorities are already set up ready to assume responsibility on the due date. The effect of these changes is to create a pattern of local government which more closely matches the wishes and needs of the population than did the post-1974 situation. Four of the counties set up in 1974 were abolished and converted into a number of unitary authorities, and the same fate awaits one of the historic counties, Berkshire, in 1998, although in t his case the “Royal County of Berkshire” will still theoretically exist for purely ceremonial purposes. In most counties, however, the result is a return to a mixture of single-tier and two-tier local government, much as they had before the 1974 upheaval, with a number of unitary authorities being carved out of the counties and the remaining areas retaining their two-tier county/district structure. There are currently 46 unitary authorities in England, and 34 shire counties split into 239 (non-metropolitan) districts. Note that this district total includes the Isles of Scilly, which has a unitary council but is considered as a district of the county of ‘Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly’ for coding purposes. London and the metropolitan counties retain their own structure 1996 1996 1997 Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) in England in the 1990s The two districts of the Isle of Wight were merged and the county became a UA Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) in England in the 1990s Scotland and Wales had their two-tier The counties of Avon, Clevel and became a UA and and Humberside were abolished and divided into UA’s. The city of York was separated from North Yorkshire systems replaced in 1996, in Scotland by a single-tier system of council areas, in The key feature of this change was the introduction of unitary authorities, single-tier administrations with responsibility for all areas of local Wales by a similar system of unitary authorities. government. Between 1995 and 1998 these were established in a number of areas across the country, especially in medium-sized urban areas, whilst other areas retained a two-tier structure Lieutenancies Act 1997 (LA 1997) Areas (in England and Wales) within which lord-lieutenants have jurisdiction and which have been labelled “counties” 66
Date
1997 1998
Event
Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) in England in the 1990s Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) in England in the 1990s Present
Source: Ian Gregory Effect
A number of other large towns and cities were detached from their counties and became UA’s. The historic county of Rutland was detached from Leicestershire and converted to a UA Several more urban UA’s were created. The county of Hereford and Worcester was divided into the two-tier Worcestershire and the misleadingly named UA, County of Herefordshir e. Also the county of Berkshire was abolished and divided into six UA’s Prior to the LGR there were 39 shire counties split into 294 districts. The current structure consists of 34 shire counties split into 235 districts, and 46 unitary authorities. Only 14 pre-1995 shire counties were unaffected by the changes. Metropolitan districts were not included in the LGR and have retained their post-1986 status, whilst as of 2000 the London boroughs have also become subject to the new London-wide authority. The Isles of Scilly have retained their own administration throughout 67
Appendix 4 – Principal Administrative and statistical reporting units in England and Wales, 1801 to 1991.
N o O t i s f U n 50 330 650 1500 15,000 100,000 1801 Ancient Counties 1841 Union/Registration Counties PL Unions/Registration Districts Parishes/Wards 1881 1921 Admin. Counties Local Govt. Districts 1961
Note:
S/MC=Shire and Metropolitan Counties; D’ricts=Districts; EDs=Enumeration Districts.
Source: Ian Gregory
S/M C D’ricts EDs 68
Appendix 5 – Historical Time Periods of the United Kingdom
England Wales Scotland Britain Northern Ireland Time Period
Neolithic and Bronze Ages Invaders
Dates
8300 - 750 BC 410 - 1065
Time Period
Mesolithic and Neolithic Ages
Dates
8300 - 2301 BC
Time Period
Neolithic and Bronze Ages Iron Age Romano Britain 751 BC - AD 42 AD 43 - 409 The Bronze and Iron Ages The Romans in England 2300 BC - AD 42 Iron Age AD 43 - 409 Romans Anglo-Normans The Middle Ages 1216 - 1347 Late Medieval Tudors 1066 - 1215 1348 - 1484 1485 - 1602 Invaders 410 - 1065 Norman England 1066 - 1215 The High Middle Ages The Late Middle Ages The Tudors 1216 - 1398 1399 - 1484 1485 - 1602 AD 48 - 399 Emergence of Wales 400 - 1070 The Impact of the Normans 1071 - 1200 1200 - 1282 Principality of Wales Middle Ages 1302 - 1536 1537 - 1687 Stuarts 1603 - 1713 The Stuarts and the Civil War 1603 - 1713 Early Modern Wales 18th and 19th Century
Dates
24000 - 800 BC 750 BC - AD 47 1688 - 1899
Time Period
Neolithic and Bronze Ages Iron Age Romans in Scotland Beginnings of Scotland Early Medieval Wars of Independence The Stewarts The Reformation Stuarts
Dates
4000 - 751 BC 750 BC - AD 43 AD 80 - 399 400 - 999 1000 - 1285 1286 - 1370 1371 - 1487 1488 - 1602 1603 - 1713
Time Period
Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Ages Iron Age Early Christian Ireland Vikings Normans Beyond the Pale Elizabethan Conquest
Dates
7000 - 751 BC 750 BC - AD 399 400 - 799 800 - 1169 1170 - 1315 1316 - 1558 1559 - 1603 The Plantation of Ulster 1604 - 1685 Williamite Wars 1686 - 1742 69
Georgians Victorians 1837 - 1900 Early 20th Century 1901 - 1944 Post WWII 1714 - 1836 1945 - 2002 The Georgians 1714 - 1836 Victorians The Early 20th Century Post WW11 1837 - 1900 1901 - 1944 1945 - 2002
Source: BBC
Early 20th Century 1900 - 1944 Post WWII 1945 - 2001 North Britons and Jacobites 1714 - 1836 Victorians 1837 - 1900 Modern Scotland 1901 - 1944 Post WWII 1945 - 2001 Prosperity, Revolution and Famine Ulster Crisis 1743 - 1848 1849 - 1920 Partition 1921 - 1939 War and Peace 1940 - 1967 The Northern Ireland Conflict 1968 - 2001 70
Appendix 6 – Timeline of Historic Periods in Britain
Source BBC
Neolithic and Bronze Age 8300 - 750 BC 10,000 BC Iron Age 751 BC - AD 42 Romano-Britain AD 43 - 409 750 BC 0 AD Invaders 410 - 1065 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 Anglo-Normans 1066 - 1215 The Middle Ages 1216 - 1347 Late Medieval 1347 1484 1100 1200 71 1300 1400 Tudor 1485 - 1602 1500 1600 Stuart 1603 1713 1700 1800 Georgian 1714 1836 Victorian 1837 1900 1900 Early 20 th C 1901 1944 1945 Post WWII 1945 - 2004 2004 AD
Era CENOZOIC MESOZOIC LATE PALAEOZOIC EARLY PALAEOZOIC PROTEROZOIC ARCHAEAN PRE-ARCHAEAN Source: British Geological Survey
Appendix 7 – Timeline of Geological Periods
Quaternary Tertiary Cretaceous Jurassic Triassic Permian Carboniferous Devonian Silurian Ordovician Cambrian Precambrian
No rock record
Period Age range (Ma) 2 - 0
66 - 2
144 - 66 208 - 144 245 - 208 286 - 245 360 - 286 408 - 360 438 - 408 495 - 438 545 - 495 2500 - 545 3800 - 2500 3800 - 4600
72
Author
Ancestry.com
Name Notes
Appendix 8 - Historical Data Sources
Gazetteer of England and Wales Original data: Wilson, John Marius The Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales. Volumes I-II. Edinburgh: A. Fullarton & Co., 1872.
Area Covered
England and Wales Arts and Humanities Data Service - History Parish Register Aggregate Analyses, 1662-1811 — 404 Data (Study Number 4491) Population History of England, 1541-1871 Depositor is Schurer, K. Includes population, vital statistics and censuses from the sixteenth to the nineteenth England century, published as The population history of England, 1541-1871: a reconstruction (1981) by E.A. Wrigley and R.S. Schofield. Includes: the parish's location, altitude, population in 1811, main farming and soil types, occupational structure, proximity to towns, representation in Parliament, and indicators of poverty, religious activity and the provision of education.
Time Period Covered
1872
Units
1662-1811 404 parishes, administrative units (geographical/politi cal)
Type/Format URL
database online http://www.ancestry.co
m/search/rectype/inddb s/7254.htm?o_xid=0040 711459&o_lid=0040711 459 Association of British Counties Gazetteer of British Place Names Barley, MW Barley, MW A guide to British topographical collections (Council for British Archaeology). Available from ADS. The plans and topography of medieval towns in England and Wales Britain Covers England, Scotland and Wales, by county and then by location. England and Wales County Towns Gazetteer PDF http://www.abcounties.c
o.uk/newgaz/section1.ht
m http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/cat alogue/library/cba/op6.c
fm PDF http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/cat alogue/library/cba/rr14.c
fm 73
Author
Bartholemew Bartholomew, John Birdie v3 Black Broderick, John Cary, John Cassell
Name
Bartholomew’s Survey Gazetteer of the British Isles (London, 1989) Gazetteer of the British Isles British Isles Regional Display ofIgi Extracts Black's Atlas of Scotland IreAtlas Townland Database New map of England and Wales with part of Scotland Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland.
Notes
1882 GB county (+ parish plug-ins for Berkshire, Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire). A searchable data base of ALL the Towns and Townlands in Ireland as used for the 1851 census, detailing the County, Barony, Civil Parish, Poor Law Union and Province for that Town or Townland. Northern Ireland and Eire Delineated from actual surveys and materially original volume has 81 maps but 11 eliminated as they did not show any land mass) along with an 85 page index listing more than 21,000 geographical features along with the appropriate county designation and map number. Complete topographical dictionary of the United Kingdom with numerous illustrations and 60 full colour maps. Six volumes, 2,840 pages, Originally printed 1900. ISBN: 1-58211-053-0. Nearly 200,000 geographical locations are listed. Each entry may contain: location, population, distance from nearest rail station, distance from either London or Dublin,
Area Covered
British Isles British Isles Great Britain Scotland England, Wales assisted from authentic documents liberally supplied by the right honourable the post master’s general. 71 maps, 85-page index. Originally printed in 1794. ISBN: 1-58211-052-2. Atlases full colour maps (the and Scotland United Kingdom
Time Period Covered Units
1887
Type/Format URL
1882 Published in 1855 1851 Counties Parishes of Scotland by the old Scottish county system Towns and townlands - county, barony, civil parish, poor law union and province Mapping software on CD Look-up tables 1794 - 1824 Direct and principal cross roads, the course of rivers and navigable canals, cities, market and borough towns, parishes, and most considerable hamlets, parks, forests. CD-ROM 1899 Barony, borough, burgh, chapelry, civil-parish, ecclesiastical parish, hamlet, liberty, market town, parish, http://www.drake software.co.uk/html/birdi e32.htm http://www.seanruad.co
m/ http://globalgenealogy.c
om/countries/england/g eneral/cdrom/602cd2.ht
m Database/CD -ROM http://www.ancestry.co.
uk/search/rectype/inddb s/7305.htm
http://globalgenealogy.c
om/cd/602cd3.htm
74
Author Name Notes Area Covered
soil conditions, natural resources, good manufactured, names of churches, monuments, and historical tidbits. Centre for Metropolitan History Gazetteer of Markets and Fairs in England and Wales to 1516 Coles, G.M, Gittings, B.M, Milburn, P and Newton, A.J Cowan I.B David Fletcher Scottish Palaeoecological Archive Database The Parishes of Medieval Scotland The History of Parish Boundary Records in England: Documents and their Significance The Gazetteer is a catalogue of markets and fairs in medieval England and Wales. This is the first comprehensive national survey. The project worked systematically through a range of sources to provide as much information as possible about each market and fair, with background information on places where they were held. The Gazetteer is valuable to England and Wales those interested in all periods, as the markets and fairs established during the Middle Ages formed the core of the later network. The English Gazetteer is divided into counties, as these were arranged on the eve of the 1974 county boundary changes. Within each county, the information is listed alphabetically by each place where there is evidence for a market and/or a fair. For Wales the Gazetteer is arranged by place in alphabetical order. Scotland An alphabetical listing of all parishes in existence before 1560, Scottish Record Society Department of Politics and Modern History, London Guildhall University, UK. Scotland England
Time Period Covered Units Type/Format URL
quoad sacra parish, riding, tithing, townland and townships Before 1516 Counties, markets Point-based and fairs Gazetteer http://www.history.ac.uk/ cmh/gaz/gazweb2.html Before 1560 Parishes Database http://www.geo.ed.ac.uk
/spad/ E-mail: fletcher@lgu.ac.uk 75
Author Name Notes Area Covered
Defoe, Daniel A tour through the whole island of Great Britain 1 (1724; repr. Everyman's Library, 1928): probably not based, as implied, on a tour along the coast in 1722, but on personal observation no later than 1712, updated from Macky and other printed materials: Andrews, J.H., 'Defoe and the sources of his Tour', Geographical J., 126(1960) 268-77; Rogers, P., 'Defoe at work: the making of A Tour thro' Great Britain, vol. 1', Bull. New York Public Lib., 78(1975). Great Britain Leicester University. Digital Library of Historical Directories Dowling, M.W Dowling, M.W Dyer, A Kelly's Directory Database of Irish Historical Statistics: Census Material, 1901 1971 Dowling, M.W., Queen's University of Belfast. Department of Economic and Social History. The purpose of the project was to provide machine readable economic and social history statistics relating to the whole of Ireland for the period 1821 1971. The dataset contains population census data covering population, housing, religion, birthplaces, language, occupations, age structures, conjugal status and family structure. Further information about the project is available at: http://www.qub.ac.uk/cdda/iredb/dbhme.htm
.Access: UKDA. Ireland; Multi nation; Northern Ireland Database of Irish Historical Statistics: Census of Industrial Production and Trade Statistics, 1924-1972 The dataset contains census of industrial production data covering output, capital employed, wages, persons employed, firm size and location; and trade statistics covering commodities imported and exported and value of trade between countries. Depositor: Dowling, M.W., Queen's University of Belfast. Department of Economic and Social History. Access: UKDA. Ireland; Multi nation; Northern Ireland English town chronicles In Local Historian XII, no.6 (1977), pp.285-292. England and Wales
Time Period Covered Units
1724-7 1850-1920 1881-1971 1924-1972 Counties, towns Countries, counties, local authority districts Countries, counties Towns
Type/Format URL
Digital http://134.76.163.65/ago ra_docs/22406TABLE_ OF_CONTENTS.html http://www.historicaldire
ctories.org/ =3542 =3545 http://www.data archive.ac.uk/findingDat a/snDescription.asp?sn
http://www.data archive.ac.uk/findingDat a/snDescription.asp?sn
76
Author
EDINA English Origins English Place Name Society Evox Facilities
Name Notes
UKBORDERS Historical UKBORDERS provides a web-based interface for Boundaries users to download digitised boundary datasets for the United Kingdom, available in many GIS formats (e.g. MAPINFO MIF/MID, ArcView Shape, Arc/Info Export). The historical boundaries have been provided by the Great Britain Historical GIS Project, and consist of Registration/Union Counties 1840 1911, Registration Districts 1840-1911, Poor Law Unions 1840-1911, Administrative Counties 1901 1972, Local Government 1901-1972, Scottish Civil Parishes 1855-1890, English Civil Parishes 1912 1981 and London Sub-districts 1840-1920. Datasets available: Census geography - counties, districts, wards, ED's (England & Wales). OA's and pseudo-postcode sectors (Scotland only). Electoral geography, including wards, districts & London boroughs, English counties and metropolitan areas, Scottish regions, Parliamentary and Euro constituencies. Administrative areas, including district and regional health authorities and health board areas (Scotland). Historical boundaries, including poor-law unions, parishes etc. Boyd's Marriage Index, Bank of England Wills and apprentice records English genealogy records online, featuring access to Society of Genealogist’s records. Datasets currently online contain over 7 million names. A key to English Place Names GeoFile British Isles Gazetteer - Module: Place name Gazetteer
Area Covered
England, Scotland and Wales England Digital, map-based guide to the linguistic origins of England's town- and village-names. Also has place name search. The Gazetteer details 50,000+ places with County, Region, Country, N.Grid & Numeric coords (km & miles), Sector level Postcode and Post Town plus Key Location Directional text, in a total of 16 fields. The final 2 fields hold Old County detail, if amended due to recent UK changes. England British Isles
Time Period Covered Units
1840-1981 1442-1850 Registration/union Area-based, counties, registration districts, poor law unions, web-based administrative counties, local government, Scottish civil parishes, English civil parishes and London sub districts Parish or town, county, and country
Type/Format URL
Database/on line http://edina.ac.uk/ukbor ders/description/data.sh
tml http://www.englishorigin
s.com/ Towns and villages Digital map based http://www.nottingham.a
c.uk/english/ins/epntest/ keytoepn.html County, region, country, N.Grid & Numeric coords (km & miles), sector level postcode and post town, old county Point-based http://www.evoxfacilities
.co.uk/evox3.htm 77
Author
Fowkes, D
Name Notes
A catalogue of pre-1650 Microfiche edn by Academic Microform, East maps held by county record offices in England and Wales Ardsley, 1993.
Area Covered
England and Wales
Time Period Covered Units
Pre 1650 Gard. R The observant traveller Diaries of travel in England, Wales and Scotland in the County Record Offices of England and Wales (1989). England, Scotland Wales Gatley, D.A Gatley, David A Gatley, David A. and Paul S. Ell Machine-Readable Version of the 1861 Census and Vital Registration Database The dataset was created as part of the Victorian Census Project at Staffordshire University. Further information about the Victorian Census Project can be found at: http://www.staffs.ac.uk/census . Sources are: 1861 Census Reports, Registrar General's Annual Report for 1861 and Registrar General's Decennial Supplement for 1851-60. Depositor Gatley, D.A., University of Staffordshire. School of Social Sciences. Access: UKDA. England and Wales British Isles 1851-1861 Pigot's and Slater's Topography of the British Isles Counting Heads: Britain Six databases on CD ROM (English and Welsh & Ireland 1801-1871 - an ICT resource pack Counties, 1801 - 1871; English and Welsh Poor Law Unions in 1861; London in 1851; Irish Counties, 1821-1871; Irish Poor Law Unions, 1841-1871; Scottish Counties, 1801-1871. Britain and Ireland 1801-1871 Registration districts Gatley, David Alan Census database Victorian Census Project. UK 1831, 1861 GenDocs – Geneaological Research in England and Wales City of London Churches Anglican Church (Church of England) List of London churches. Sources: City of London Parish Registers ~ Guildhall Library Research Guide 4 ISBN 0-900422-30-0; Atlas & Index of Parish Registers ~ Phillimore & Co ISBN 0-85033-950-2; London
Type/Format URL
Microfiche Hypertext CD ROM http://www.data archive.ac.uk/findingDat a/snDescription.asp?sn
=3895 d.a.gatley@staffs.ac.uk
http://www.ac777.dial.pi
pex.com/counting_head s/count_heads.htm Streets, post codes Database http://www.staffs.ac.uk/s chools/humanities_and_ soc_sciences/census/do wncen.htm http://www.gendocs.de
mon.co.uk/city-ch.html
78
Author Name Notes Area Covered
Vanished Churches of the City of London - Gordon Huelin (1996) City of London Churches - John Betjeman. Genealogical Publishing Company General Register Office for Scotland (GROS) Genmap v2 Index to the Townlands & Towns, Parishes & Baronies of Ireland Summary list of old Parish Registers/Registration Districts, including current Registration Districts 1881 UK ancient counties+ EW registration districts (E & W only) The volume comprises the Census of Ireland and includes the Ordnance Survey map sheet numbers, the county, barony, parish and poor law union in which the townlands are situated and the volume & page of the townland census of 1851. This contains the population and number of houses in 1841 & 1851 and the poor law valuation in 1851. Ireland Scotland England and Wales GENUKI (UK & Ireland 1891 Census Gazetteer A database containing the names of places Geneology) encountered in the 1891 census. It has a fairly wide coverage of places, but does not contain the smaller ones. You can use it to help locate places, or to find out the film on which the 1891 census records can Ireland be found. GENUKI (UK & Ireland Parish Locator Geneology) The parish locator is a database of the geographic location of churches, registration districts etc in the UK, with details of their founding and closing dates. It is not a primary source, as many churches are missing and information about each is being developed. So use it as a guideline to churches in a particular area at a point in time, but consult other references for exact details. UK
Time Period Covered Units
1851 1881 1891 County, barony, parish and poor law union Registration Districts Ancient counties+ EW registration districts Registration districts
Type/Format URL
Mapping software on CD Look-up tables Database http://www.nireland.com
/genealogy/index.html http://www.gro scotland.gov.uk/groswe b/grosweb.nsf/pages/op r http://www.archersoftwa
re.co.uk/ http://www.genuki.org.u
k/ http://www.genuki.org.u
k/ 79
Author Name Notes Area Covered
Getty Vocabulary Program, J. Paul Getty Trust Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names® The Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names ® (TGN) is a structured vocabulary containing around 1,000,000 names and other information about places. The TGN includes all continents and nations of the modern political world, as well as historical places. It includes physical features and administrative entities, such as cities and nations. The emphasis in TGN is on places important for art and architecture. TGN generally provides information on the place of parishes only within the hierarchy of districts and counties. Gibson, Jeremy and Mervyn Medlycott Great Britain Historical GIS Project Local Census Listings, 1522-1930: Holdings in the British Isles 2nd edn (Federation of Family History Societies, 1994). Victorian registration districts/ ancient parishes. British Isles Great Britain Historical 1981 Census Gazetteer This gazetteer was provided by the Office of GIS Project National Statistics and currently includes c. 62,000 places in England and Wales, providing information on their grid reference and their place in the post 1974 Local Government system. Great Britain Historical GIS Project Great Britain Historical Gazetteer Parish-level table from the 1911 Census. England and Wales Great Britain Green, Peter Roman Military Sites in Britain A Gazetteer organised regional by sections which are in turn organised into counties and unitary authorities Southern England and East Anglia (70k) Central England (70k) Northern England (130k), Wales (40k) and Scotland (130k). Great Britain and Channel Islands
Time Period Covered Units
1973 to mid 1990s Parishes only within the hierarchy of districts and counties 1522-1930 1981 1911 Victorian Parishes
Type/Format URL
Point-based http://www.getty.edu/res earch/tools/vocabulary/t Point-based Gazetteer Look-up tables gn/about.html
Registration districts, ancient parishes Counties and unitary authorities Boundary changes (hosted by Edina) Point-based Gazetteer http://www.morgue.dem
on.co.uk/Britannia.html 80
Author
Groome, Francis
Name Notes Area Covered
Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical, and Historical. Volumes I-VI. London: William Mackenzie. Scotland
Time Period Covered
1881
Units
Registration sub district
Type/Format URL
CD ROM http://www.ancestry.co.
uk/search/rectype/inddb s/7292.htm http://www.ancestry.co
m/library/view/columns/ eastman/4733.asp?o_xi
d=0040711459&o_lid=0 040711459 http://booth.lse.ac.uk/ Grytzell. K.G Hallett, Mary Charles Booth. Life and Labour of the People in A map of London showing the Proportion of the Inhabitants of each Registration Sub-District in 1881 London, 1st Series, Vol 3, London 1902 in Life and Labour. London Poor Law Union Database Church of England parishes. England England Higginbotham, Peter History of Poor Law Unions Higginbotham, Peter History of Poor Law Unions Ireland Higginbotham, Peter History of Poor Law Unions Scotland Institute of Historical Research Irish Origins The Victoria History of the Counties of England Particularly useful for identifying hundreds and manors. volumes (University of London) Griffith's Primary Valuation of Ireland Source for Irish genealogy online, offering free search over millions of names and access to Origins Exclusive records, including the definitive version of Griffith's Primary Valuation of Ireland, the most important database for Irish genealogical research prior to the 20th century. England Ireland 1834 1838 1835 1900 1847 and 1864 parishes poor law unions poor law unions poor law unions Counties, hundreds and manors Database http://www.fourbears.wo
rldonline.co.uk/poorlaw.
html http://users.ox.ac.uk/~p eter/workhouse/unions.
html http://users.ox.ac.uk/~p eter/workhouse/UnionsIr eland.html http://users.ox.ac.uk/~p eter/workhouse/Unions Scotland.html http://www.british history.ac.uk/ Civil parish and townland Database http://www.irishorigins.c
om/ 81
Author
Jaunay, Graham Kain, R.J.P. Oliver, R.R., Kain, RJP and Oliver, RR Kain, RJP and Oliver, RR Langston, Brett Lewis, Samuel
Name
A Parish Finder for England A Topographical Dictionary of England
Notes Area Covered
Alphabetical index of ancient parishes, with church dedication, and county. England Enclosure, Rating, Drainage and Sanitary Maps of England and Wales in Public Archives, 1598-1936 The dataset covers all the enclosure, parochial England and assessment, drainage and sanitary maps of England and Wales which were available for public Wales consultation at the time of data collection (1993 1997). For all maps, the date of the map, its scale, its centroid on the National Grid, its dimensions, its maker (where known) and all details as to the types of information (boundaries, communications, settlement, land use, water features, public boundaries, cadastral information) contained on each map are recorded. It is possible to analyse the data by late nineteenth century county, by date and by type of map. The tithe maps of England and Wales: a cartographic analysis and county-by-county catalogue (Cambridge, 1995). Historic Parishes of England and Wales: an Electronic Map of Historic Parishes of England & Wales: An Electronic Map of Boundaries before 1850 with a Gazetteer and Metadata. Roger J.P. Kain and Richard R. Boundaries before 1850 with a Gazetteer and Oliver. Access: UKDA. Metadata Registration districts in England and Wales (1837-1930) Lists Registration districts by county, with commencement dates, and the parishes that they covered. England and Wales England and Wales England and Wales Ancestry.com. England Topographical Dictionary. Original data: Lewis, Samuel. A Topographical Dictionary of England. Volumes I-IV. London: S. Lewis and Co, 1831. England
Time Period Covered Units
1598-1936 Ancient parishes, with church dedication, and county Counties, parishes, townships
Type/Format URL
Book and CD http://www.users.on.net/ proformat/books.html http://www.data archive.ac.uk/findingDat a/snDescription.asp?sn
=3820 Pre-1850 1837-1930 County Ancient parishes Registration districts by county and parishes Counties, cities, townships, and parishes of England as well as CD ROM in Adobe Illustrator or Adobe Acrobat Online Online database http://hds.essex.ac.uk/h pew/hpew.asp http://www.data archive.ac.uk/findingDat a/snDescription.asp?sn
=4348 http://www.users.zetnet.
co.uk/blangston/genuki/r eg/ http://www.ancestry.co
m/search/rectype/inddb s/3098.htm?o_xid=0040 711459&o_lid=0040711 82
Author
Lewis, Samuel Lewis, Samuel Local Ireland Loveday, J
Name Notes Area Covered
Topographical Dictionaries of England, Originally prepared by Samuel Lewis, the gazetteers reproduced on this Family Archive contain detailed England, Ireland and Scotland Ireland, and Scotland information on English, Irish, and Scottish locales as they existed in the mid-1800s. Topographical Dictionary of Ireland Diary of a tour in 1732 through parts of England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland Lists all the parishes, baronies, towns, villages and counties in Ireland with some local information including an account of agriculture and industry and the major local houses (“seats”) and their owners. The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. Ireland Place names of Ireland This search of the place names of Ireland allows you to identify the location of any townland, town or Northern Ireland and Eire village in Ireland. There are four methods of searching available: by place name, by county, by civil parish, by poor law union. England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland
Time Period Covered Units
the Islands of Guernsey, Jersey and Man
Type/Format URL
459 1831-1851 1837 County, city, borough, market town, post town, parish, chapelry, township, hamlet, tything, and hundred in England. Civil parish, barony, county, province, principal landowners and the diocese in Ireland. Parish records in Scotland Parishes, baronies, towns, villages and counties CD Rom http://www.genealogy.c
om/270facd.html?AID=1 0273827&PID=1195439 1732 Townlands, town or village, county, civil parish, poor law union. Look-up tables Manuscript http://www.local.ie/gene alogy/place_names/ http://eleanor.lib.gla.ac.
uk/record=b1699825 83
Author
Macky, John Matthews, Keith Murrells, Donovan National Archives Newport J.A
Name Notes Area Covered
A journey through England, in familiar letters, from a gentleman here, to his friend abroad (1714; 2nd ed., 1722). Romano-British Place names In Sussex in Sept. 1713. Extracts in S.C.M., 14(1940), 57-59, probably from 2nd ed.; 28(1954), 182, 184. This hand-list of place-names relating to the British Isles (excluding the Irish mainland) during the Roman period originated as part of an undergraduate dissertation submitted to the University of Lancaster in 1980 as part of the author's degree and has been extended by subsequent research into the nature and origins of the Ravenna Cosmography. The work on which it is based is original, and in many instances the identifications proposed differ substantially from those of A L F Rivet and C Smith in their definitive The Place Names of Roman Britain (Batsford, 1979). England British Isles A series of booklets which maps the registration districts of some eastern counties, as they were in Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Sussex 1836. Those for Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Sussex and Kent have appeared to date. and Kent
Time Period Covered Units
1713 1836 Registration districts An Index to the Civil Registration Districts of England and Wales 1837 to 1989 Districts in alphabetical order (and by county. England and Wales
Type/Format URL
Look-up tables http://eleanor.lib.gla.ac.
uk/record=b1504744 http://www.kmatthews.o
rg.uk/Ravenna_Cosmog raphy/nature_of_names.
htm 1837-1974 Civil registration Districts Microfiche http://www.pro.gov.uk/c atalogues/default.htm http://www.oxfordshire.g
ov.uk/print/index/librarie s_heritage_countryside/ cos/resources/familyhist ory/gro/groindexes.htm 84
Author Name
Northern Ireland Place-Name Project Office for National Statistics Office for National Statistics Northern Ireland Place All current place-names on the 1:50,000 map of Name Project Database Northern Ireland. Administrative: Status of place names county/barony/townlands, civil parishes and baronies for Counties Antrim, Armagh, Down, Derry, Fermanagh and Tyrone. Historical: Spellings of names from documents. Bibliography of place-name sources (documents and maps).Information being added to the database. Landholders and family names connected with the places. Local Government districts and Roman Catholic parishes. Northern Ireland Names shown only on large-scale maps, or from oral tradition. Original language spellings and explanations of the meaning of each name. Bibliography and meaning of individual place-name elements. United Kingdom Gazetteer of the Old and New Geographies of the United Kingdom A comprehensive guide to the impact of the recent reorganisations to the geographies of local government in Great Britain and the regions in England. For completeness, the Gazetteer also includes the local government geography in Northern Ireland. Current civil registration districts England and Wales Old maps.co.uk (OS) County Gazetteer Ordnance Survey Landranger Gazetteer: a Gazetteer of all Names Shown on Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 scale Landranger maps (Southampton)
Notes
Digital historical map archive which is jointly owned by Landmark and Ordnance Survey, Britain's national mapping agency.
Area Covered
United Kingdom
Time Period Covered Units
Place names, county, barony, townlands, civil parishes and baronies Civil registration districts
Type/Format URL
Point-based http://www.qub.ac.uk/lla/ Look-up tables microfiche cel/placenameproject.ht
m http://www.statistics.gov
.uk/statbase/Product.as
p?vlnk=3461&More=Y http://www.statistics.gov
.uk/geography/downloa ds/regdist2001.pdf http://www.old maps.co.uk/gazetteer.ht
m 85
Author Name Notes Area Covered
Ordnance Survey Ordnance Survey Gazetteer of Great Britain (London, 1989) Great Britain Palliser, David (Leeds University) Diocesan Returns of Communicants Palliser, David (Leeds University) The Diocesan Returns Numbers of households listed by parishes. Palmer, John and George Slater (Hull University) PRO The Domesday Book Numbers of persons receiving communion, by parish. Public record. A full computerised transcript has been created. The remaining substantial task is to relate the places listed to points and areas on the ground to create a body of information which relates to modern communities. PRO NRA's Manorial Documents Register Registration District Maps (England and Wales) Victorian registration district maps. These class RG18 maps appear to be contemporary OS 1" to a mile maps that were adapted by the Office of the Registrar General for its own purposes. -1891 Census - "The maps are a mixture of Old and New Series 1" to the mile maps with each registration district cut out, and stuck on a separate piece of canvas with sub-districts and civil parishes marked. Any updates were marked in pen on the maps and they were subsequently used for the 1901 Census. They are complete for England and Wales.". 1871 Census - "Class RG18 1-73 are claimed by the PRO to be for 1870. They are complete Old Series 1" to the mile OS maps with registration districts, sub England and Wales districts and tithe districts, but not parish boundaries" Chris Bennett feels that these maps may in fact have been compiled for the 1851 Census, and updated accordingly. "Approximately 20% of England and Wales is missing, especially around London and the Thames Estuary, and also Portsmouth". 1851-1861 Census. This subset of RG18 maps is not complete, as some of the maps do not survive.
Time Period Covered Units
1603 1563 1066-1086 1851-1901 Parishes Parishes Registration districts, sub districts and tithe districts
Type/Format URL
CD ROM http://www.domesdaybo
ok.net/domesday_home frame.htm http://www.hmc.gov.uk/ mdr/mdr.htm Example of an 1891 map 86
Author
PRONI Public Record Office of Northern Ireland RCHAMS Registrar General Registrar General Registrar General Registrar General
Name
Geographical Index Northern Ireland Fifth Annual Report of Births, Deaths and Marriages in England
Notes
Index providing access to information on Northern Ireland's counties, baronies, poor law unions, diocese, parishes and townlands.
Area Covered
Ireland Northern Ireland CANMORE is the Computer Application for National Monuments Record Enquiries. Registrar General England and Wales 1911 Census Report The 1911 census saw the "preparation of preliminary set of maps, begun two years in advance of the England and Wales census". This "was carried out by reference to local maps and records which were borrowed for the purpose. With the co-operation of the Ecclesiastical Commission and of the Diocesan Registrars the boundaries of all the ecclesiastical parishes of England and Wales were charted. The preliminary set was then sent to the Ordnance Survey Department where a second set of maps was prepared for each registration sub-district showing in distinctive colours the boundaries of civil parishes; urban districts; municipal boroughs; wards of urban districts; municipal boroughs and parliamentary divisions, and ecclesiastical parishes." Registrar General for the 1961 census The first maps of enumeration district boundaries to become available from the Registrar General are for the 1961 census. Registrar General's These list the districts affected, the area transferred, Decennial Supplements (1861 to 1896) some measure of the population involved, and the exact date of the change. England
Time Period Covered Units
1911 Counties, baronies, poor law inions, dioceses, parishes, townlands Counties, baronies, poor law unions, diocese, parishes and townlands Ecclesiastical parishes of England and Wales
Type/Format URL
http://proni.nics.gov.uk/g eogindx/geogindx.htm http://proni.nics.gov.uk/g eogindx/geogindx.htm http://www.rcahms.gov.
uk/canmore/login.show 1961 1861-1896 1843 Enumeration district boundaries Districts London 87
Author
Richards, Melville Robert Slade
Name Notes Area Covered
Welsh Administrative and Territorial Units Welsh administrative units, including Ancient Parishes and Hundreds, ecclesiastical hierarchies (parishes, deaneries, arch-deaconries, etc) and Poor Wales Law Unions. University of Wales Press, 1969. Parish Locator UK
Time Period Covered Units
Welsh administrative units, including ancient parishes and hundreds, ecclesiastical hierarchies (parishes, deaneries, arch deaconries, etc) and poor law unions Parishes
Type/Format URL
Towns, villages, bens and glens http://www.robslade.de
mon.co.uk/parish/parish .htm http://www.geo.ed.ac.uk
/scotgaz/ Robertson Trust, The Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, The Royal Scottish Geographical Society, The Department of Geography, University of Edinburgh Gazetteer for Scotland The Gazetteer for Scotland is a vast geographical database, featuring details of towns, villages, bens and glens from the Scottish Borders to the Northern Isles. It describes tourist attractions, industries and historic sites, together with histories of family names and biographies of famous people associated with Scotland. A unique feature of the Gazetteer is thousands of connections between all of these entries. Scotland Roffe, David Doomsday, Hundred Rolls, King's Thegns University of Sheffield. Rootsmap UK Rosier, M.E Briant Index to Census Registration Districts 1841 to 1891 Rowlands, Marie (Wolverhampton) and Keith Snell (Leicester) The Compton Census 5th edition: Waterlooville, Hampshire: The Author, 1995. A record of religious observance, by parish, identifying Catholics ('Papists'), conformists and non conformists. 1881 Counties 1841-1891 Registration districts 1676 Parish http://www.roffe.freeserv
e.co.uk/sitemap.htm http://www.rootsmap.co
m/ http://privatewww.essex.
ac.uk/~alan/family/N Compton.html 88
Author
Roy Newton Royal Geographical Society SCAN Schurer, K and M Woollard Scots Origins Scottish Place-Name Data Ltd
Name
1837-1851 EW superintendent's registration districts England and Wales 1841 Census - 2 volume set in the library They only cover the area south of an imaginary line roughly drawn between Preston and Hull, as the OS 1" maps from which they are drawn were only drawn for this area by 1841. The parish boundaries seem to be representative rather than accurate. The Scottish Archives Network's Gazetteer Scotland Historical Censuses and Surveys Research British Historical Censuses (1881 Census). Access: UKDA. There is no base map for 1881. Back Group projected using textual change data from 1991. Channel Islands; England and Wales; Isle of Man; Scotland Place Names List Scottish Place-Name Database
Notes
the Statutory Registers and Census records from 1855. The lists do not contain every place name further names will be added from time to time.
Area Covered
The lists include numerous Scottish place names - towns, villages, geographical areas - indicating the applicable Parishes or Registration Districts for these Scotland places. The lists include all Parish names (over 900) used in the Old Parish Registers (1553-1856), and all Registration District names (nearly 1800) used in Scotland
Time Period Covered Units
1837-1851 Registration districts 1841
Type/Format URL
Parish boundaries http://homepages.newn
et.co.uk/dance/webpjd/i ntro/regmap.htm 1881 for parishes. But county maps are used for 1851 onwards. To 1996 Parishes, registration sub districts, registrations districts and registration counties Standard parish place names, and related sub districts, registration districts and counties for 1881. Towns, villages, geographical areas - parishes or Look-up tables registration districts http://www.scan.org.uk/ aboutus/indexonline.htm http://www.data archive.ac.uk/findingDat a/snDescription.asp?sn
=4375 http://www.data archive.ac.uk/findingDat a/snDescription.asp?sn
=4178 http://www.scotsorigins.
com/Help/about.aspx#pl acename Point-based Scottish Place-Name Database http://www.st andrews.ac.uk/institutes /sassi/spns/ 89
Author
Shennan, H Smith, David
Name Notes Area Covered
Boundaries of Counties and Parishes in Scotland as settled by the Boundary Commissioners under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889 Gives the text of orders made by the Commissioners Scotland and explanations of boundary changes thus made, including details of places transferred from one place to another. Victorian maps of the British Isles' (Batsford, 1985) For the publication of nearly every decennial Census Abstract (1831,1851,1871 and 1891) an British Isles accompanying set of maps was specifically commissioned at a differing scale. (The 1891 maps are scale 1"=12 miles, except London which is 5/8"=1 mile.) The 1831 lithographed maps of grouped counties were divided into 'Parish-Register Limits', gave tables of population statistics around the map for each county, and on the map face, for each area, listed population figures for 1801, 1811,1821, and 1831, and baptism, burial and marriage figures for 1800,1810,1820 and 1830. The 1851 divisional maps bore the signature 'W Bone Del' and 'Day & Son, Lithrs to the Queen', and denoted only registration counties and registration districts, with the districts listed with their 'Area in Acres' and the 1851 population. The 1871 divisional maps of registration districts covering the 11 registration divisions were 'Lithographed by W & A.K. Johnston, 74 Strand'. 'The population of each town (in 1871) is shown in round numbers by the character of the lettering of its name, as well as by the symbol which indicates its position. In the case of towns which have a population of 10,000 and 250,000 each black dot represents 10,000 inhabitants.' The 1891 Census maps were adapted from the 1871 maps by the deletion of the lithographer's signature and the addition of a 'Reference to Boundaries & Symbols' defining registration divisions , registration counties,
Time Period Covered Units
1889
Type/Format URL
County and parish Boundaries boundaries 1831-1891 Registration districts 90
Author Name Notes
registration districts, registration district symbols, and registration county symbols. A note describing 'Detached portions' was also added. The 1851,1871, and 1891 maps are reproduced in the Irish Universities Press reprint of the Census Abstracts, and should be found in most University libraries.
Area Covered Time Period Covered Units Type/Format URL
Staunton Park Genealogy Centre Civil Registration Districts in England and Lists pre-1946 General Registration Districts in England and Wales, with sub-districts and Wales neighbouring districts; also alphabetical subdistrict index. England and Wales The County Reports The English Place Name Society Key to English Place Names Database The county reports which accompany the 1901 census abstracts contain excellent heliozincographed maps of each individual county. Boundaries are delineated down to registration sub district level. Nottingham University, Institute for name-studies. England Pre 1946 1901 Registration districts, with sub districts and neighbouring districts Registration sub district level Place names http://www.nottingham.a
c.uk/english/ins/ 91
Author Name Notes Area Covered
The National Archive of Ireland The National Gazetteer of Wales The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland OS Parish List The basic unit used by the Ordnance Survey in the Northern Ireland first 6" survey was the parish. Each parish was given a unique reference number. The country was divided and Eire into five districts, A, B, C, D, E, and within these districts each parish was given a separate number. All the records created during the survey of a parish bear the same district/parish number. Survey work began in the north of each district and moved south, for example, in district C, C 5 = the parish of Burt, Co. Donegal, while C 754 = the parish of Inch, Co. Cork. The five districts did not follow county boundaries and, as can be seen from the list of counties below, some are included in more than one district. Place Name Index of Wales: the most comprehensive place name index of Wales available online. It lists National Grid reference, County and Wales administrative area information for over 6,000 places. It includes English/anglicised and Welsh versions of place-names. Ireland Alphabetical Index to the Towns and Townlands of Ireland (Dublin: Alexander Thom and Company, 1877) Alphabetic list of townlands giving which parish, barony, county and poor law union they belong to. The General Alphabetical Index to the Townlands and Towns, Parishes and Baronies of Ireland 1851 (reprinted by the Genealogical Publishing Company Inc, Baltimore 1984) Based on the 1851 census. Ireland
Time Period Covered Units
Parish 1851 County and administrative area Townlands, parish, barony, county and poor law union Townlands and towns, parishes and baronies
Type/Format URL
Look-up tables http://www.nationalarchi
ves.ie/cgi bin/naigenform02?index
=OS+Parish+List http://www.gazetteer wales.co.uk/ 92
Author
The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland Toponymics Turnbull, J. and Pooley
Name Notes Area Covered
Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland (Fullerton and Company, 1846). Pathfinder and Explorer Gazetteers These gazetteers have been compiled so as to be natural companions to the Ordnance Survey Pathfinder Explorer (1:25 000 scale) map series or as a means by which any place/feature can be located within a GIS environment. Longitudinal Study of Residential Histories, 1750-1994 Ireland Scotland, Northumbria and SW Wales Spatial and temporal change in the regional pattern of migration in Britain. Lancaster University. Department of Geography. Access: UKDA. Great Britain
Time Period Covered Units
1750-1994 Counties University of Cork Historical distribution of selected names Atlas of Irish names-online map. University of Sheffield The Hundred Rolls White, Matthew Map of Anglo-Saxon England A more detailed attempt to repeat Doomsday but never completed. What survives covers a broad stretch of country from Warwickshire in the W. to Suffolk in the E. Ireland England 1279 Kingdoms Wilson, John Marius The Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales. Volumes I-II. Edinburgh: A. Fullarton & Co., 1872. Winchester, Angus Wykes, Harry Discovering Parish Boundaries Wingley, E.A and R.S. Parish Register Schofield Aggregate Analyses, 1662-1811 1881 Census of Great Britain Access: UKDA England and Wales Great Britain 1881
Type/Format URL
Point-based CD ROM http://www.data archive.ac.uk/findingDat a/snDescription.asp?sn
=3571 http://www.roffe.freeserv
e.co.uk/shrp.htm 1872 Towns Parish boundaries 1662-1811 Parishes Database online http://britishhistory.abou
t.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.
htm?site=http%3A%2F %2Fwww.georgetown.e
du%2Fcball%2Foe%2F oe-map.html http://www.ancestry.co.
uk/search/rectype/inddb s/7254.htm http://www.wykes.org/di st/ 93
Author Name Notes Area Covered
Young, Arthur Tours in England and Wales (1784-98). England and Wales Youngs, Frederic and Jeremy Gibson Youngs.F.A. Poor Law Union Records (Part) 4- Gazetteer of England and Wales Birmingham: FFHS, 1993. England and Wales Guide to the Local Administrative Units of English administrative units, including ancient parishes and hundreds, ecclesiastical hierarchies England (London, Royal Historical Society, 2 (parishes, deaneries, arch-deaconries, etc) and poor law unions. vols, 1981, 1991) England
Time Period Covered Units
1784-1798 Poor law union
Type/Format URL
Ancient Parishes and hundreds, ecclesiastical hierarchies (parishes, deaneries, arch deaconries, etc) and poor law inions 94
