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Title:
GIS of the Ancient Parishes of England and Wales, 1500-1850

Subject Categories:
Land use and planning - Environment, conservation and land use
Historical geography - History
Population history - History

Depositor(s):
Southall, H.R., University of Portsmouth. Department of Geography
Burton, N., University of Portsmouth. Department of Geography

Principal Investigator(s):
Southall, H.R., University of Portsmouth. Department of Geography
Burton, N., University of Portsmouth. Department of Geography

Sponsor(s):
New Opportunities Fund

Other Acknowledgements:
Roger Kain and Richard Oliver of Exeter University are responsible for collection of the data converted to a GIS.

John Westwood and Paul Carter of the Department of Geography of University of Portsmouth are responsible for the technical work.

Abstract:
Main Topics:
In the middle of 2001 Roger Kain and Richard Oliver, from the University of Exeter, published a substantial work entitled Historic Parishes of England and Wales: Electronic Map - Gazetteer- Metadata. This was the final product of a project aimed at locating and mapping the boundaries of parish and sub-parish units of the mid-nineteenth century. The authors published the results in a series of electronic maps supplied on CD-ROM. Each one of these 115 maps contain a scanned 1”:1 mile OS New Popular Series map, overlain by the boundaries. A reference number can be found in each of the polygons that can then be used to look up information about that parish in gazetteer in an accompanying book.

A major limitation of this work is that although the boundaries are in digital form, they are divided into 115 tiles, none of which have any spatial co-ordinate information inherent in them. This means that although the maps are invaluable as a reference tool, they can not be used together within a GIS to select, analyse and present historic information.

We have therefore created a single digital map of the boundaries to provide a single, continuous coverage of polygons, each of which contain the information provided by Kain and Oliver in their accompanying book. This information includes the parish name, Ancient County, and a reference number that coincides with entries for that parish in the 1851 census report.

It is recommended that users also order disc 1 of study 4348; Historic Parishes of England and Wales : an Electronic Map of Boundaries before 1850 with a Gazetteer and Metadata



Please note: this study does not include information on named individuals and would therefore not be useful for personal family history research.

Coverage:
Time Period Covered: 1500-1850
Dates of Fieldwork: 01 April 2002-31 December 2002
Country: England and Wales
Spatial Units: County, parish and sub-parish as reported in the 1851 census report
Observation Units: Administrative units (geographical/political)
Kind of Data: Textual data; Numeric data; Image

Universe Sampled:
Location of Units of Observation:Cross-national; National; Subnational
Population:County, parish and sub-parish as reported in the 1851 census report

Methodology:
Time Dimensions: Cross-sectional (one-time) study
Sampling Procedures: No sampling (total universe)
Method of Data Collection: Conversion of electronic boundaries to GIS format
Weighting: No information supplied
Data Sources: Kain, R.J.P., and Oliver, R.R. (2001) "Historic parishes of England and Wales: Electronic Map - Gazetteer - Metadata", Colchester: History Data Service. ISBN 0 9540032 0 9.

Language(s) of Written Materials:
Study Description: English
Study Documentation: English

Access:
Access Conditions: The depositor has specified that registration is required and standard conditions of use apply. The depositor may be informed about usage. See terms and conditions for further information.
Availability: History Data Service, UK Data Archive
Contact: Help desk: hds@essex.ac.uk

Date of Release:
First Edition: 30 March 2004

Copyright:
Copyright Humphrey Southall, Nick Burton and the University of Portsmouth

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