GIS boundary datasets created by the project

Dataset 1 below, 1851 England and Wales census parishes, townships and places, is an extensively corrected, extended and enhanced version of: N. Burton, J. Westwood and P. Carter, GIS of the ancient parishes of England and Wales, 1500-1850. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Archive, May, 2004. SN 4828 which in turn is a GIS version of R.J.P. Kain and R.R. Oliver, Historic parishes of England and Wales: An electronic map of boundaries before 1850 with a gazetteer and metadata. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Archive, May, 2001. SN 4348. Datasets 2-5 and 7-16 were built from dataset 1. Documentation for dataset 1 with a full account of its genesis is available.

All the datasets come with adequate documentation for those with the requisite technical knowledge. Sadly we do not have the resources to provide further assistance. However, we recognise that some scholars may wish to use these datasets, who either lack the requisite technical skills, or require further assistance for other reasons relating to the complexity of these resources. We are investigating mechanisms by which we might be able to fund such assistance and we would encourage registering expressions of interest in case such funding does become available (and registering an expression of interest might help us to secure finding in due course). In the meantime, we may be able to help if you have funding available or if the query requires very little of our time. In the first instance, please contact Dr Max Satchell.

As a general rule, datasets with filenames specified are available for sharing with others, while datasets without file names are not currently available for sharing with others. As of August 2019, we no longer have funding to cover the costs of dealing with enquiries and distributing datasets. We are currently seeking a solution to this problem.

GIS Boundary Datasets for General Use

1. 1851 England and Wales census parishes, townships and places

ArcGIS shapefile providing boundary and attribute data for the parishes and places of England and Wales as given in the 1851 census.

filename: 1851EngWalesParishandPlace.shp

2. 1831 England and Wales census hundreds and wapentakes

ArcGIS shapefile providing boundary and attribute data for the hundreds, wapentakes, wards, divisions, liberties and boroughs of England and Wales as given in the 1831 census. As such this represents the counties of England and Wales as they were before the boundary changes caused by the Counties (Detached Parts) Act of 1844 (7 & 8 Vict. c. 61) which led to changes in the hundred through the elimination of some of the detached portions of counties.

filename: 1831EngWalesHundred.shp

3. 1831 England and Wales ancient counties

ArcGIS shapefile providing boundary and attribute data for the counties of England and Wales as given in the 1831 census. As such this represents the ancient counties of England and Wales as they were before the boundary changes caused by the Counties (Detached Parts) Act of 1844 (7 & 8 Vict. c. 61) which eliminated some of the detached portions of counties.

filename: 1831EngWalesCounty.shp

4. 1851 England and Wales ancient counties

ArcGIS shapefile providing boundary and attribute data for the counties of England and Wales as given in the 1851 census. As such this represents the ancient counties of England and Wales as they were after the boundary changes caused by the Counties (Detached Parts) Act of 1844 (7 & 8 Vict. c. 61) which eliminated some of the detached portions of counties.

filename: 1851EngWalesCounty.shp

5. 1851 Scotland Ancient Counties GIS

ArcGIS shapefile providing boundary and attribute data for the counties of Scotland as given in the 1851 census. As such this represents the counties of Scotland as they were before the boundary changes caused by Inverness and Elgin County Boundaries Act, 1870 (33 & 34 Vict. c. 16) and the Local Government (Scotland) Act, 1889 (52 & 53 Vict. c. 50) which eliminated the detached portions of counties.

filename: 1851ScotCounty.shp

6. 1851 England and Wales Census Sub-districts

ArcGIS shapefile providing boundary and attribute data for the registration subdistricts of England and Wales as given in the 1851 census.

filename: 1851EngWalesRegistrationSubdistrict.shp

7. 1851 England and Wales Census Registration Districts

ArcGIS shapefile providing boundary and attribute data for the registration districts of England and Wales as given in the 1851 census.

filename: 1851EngWalesRegistrationDistrict.shp

8. 1851 England and Wales Census Registration Counties

ArcGIS shapefile providing boundary and attribute data for the registration counties of England and Wales as given in the 1851 census.

filename: 1851EngWalesRegistrationCounties.shp

9. 1851 England and Wales Principal Towns

ArcGIS shapefile providing boundary and attribute data for the principal towns of England and Wales as given in the 1851 census. Finished except for some minor editing. Available shortly

filename: 1851EngWalesPrincipaltowns.shp

GIS boundary datasets for mapping data from the Occupations Project

These GIS just consist of polygons and joining fields as all the other attribute data are in tables generated by the project's databases. These GIS derive from the Occupations Projects enhanced GIS of Kain and Oliver's digital maps of parish and township boundaries. For more details see the dataset documentation for each GIS.

10. Occupations Project 1851 England and Wales Parish Township Place GIS

This GIS can map the following datasets at the level of parish, township or place:-

1801 to 1891 Census Report of England and Wales: Parish and Registration District Population

1831 Census Report of England: County and Parish Occupations

1881 Census Enumerators' Books for England and Wales: Parish Occupations

filename: OCCPROJ1813_1881EngWalesPTP.shp

11. Occupations Project 1831 England Ancient Counties GIS

This GIS can map the following at the level of the county:-

1831 Census Report of England: County and Parish Occupations

filename: OCCPROJ1831EngCounty.shp

12. Occupations Project 1841 Britain Ancient Counties GIS

This GIS can map the following at the level of the county:-

1841 Census Report of England, Wales and Scotland: County Occupations

filename: OCCPROJ1841EngWalesScotlandCounty.shp

13. Occupations Project 1851 England and Wales Registration Counties GIS

This GIS can map the following at the level of the registration county for England and Wales:-

1851 Census Report of England and Wales: County and National Occupations

1861 Census Report of England and Wales: Registration County and National Occupations

1871 Census Report of England and Wales: Registration County and National Occupations

1881 Census Report of England and Wales: Registration County and National Occupations

1891 Census Report of England and Wales: Registration County and National Occupations

1901 Census Report of England and Wales: County and National Occupations

1911 Census Report of England and Wales: County and National Occupations

filename: OCCPROJ1851_1881EngWalesRegistrationCounty.shp

N.B. Registration county boundaries underwent minor change from 1871 and more radically after 1881. This GIS represents the registration county boundaries as they were in 1851. As a consequence, it maps the datasets with precision up until 1861 but more impressionistically thereafter.

14. Occupations Project 1851 England and Wales Registration Districts GIS

This GIS can map the following at the level of the registration district for England and Wales:-

1817 Estimated Census of Adult Male Occupations for England and Wales in 1851 Registration Districts

1851 Census Report of England and Wales: Registration District Occupations

1861 Census Report of England and Wales: Registration District Occupations

1881 Census Enumerators' Books for England and Wales: Registration District Occupations

filename: OCCPROJ1851_1861_1881EngWalesRegistrationDistrict.shp

15. Occupations Project 1851 Scotland Ancient Counties GIS

This GIS can map the following at the level of the county for Scotland:-

1851 Census Report of Scotland: County and National Occupations

1861 Census Report of Scotland: County and National Occupations

1871 Census Report of Scotland: County and National Occupations

1881 Census Report of Scotland: County and National Occupations

1891 Census Report of Scotland: County and National Occupations

1901 Census Report of Scotland: County and National Occupations

N.B. Two Scottish counties underwent minor boundary change in 1870 and nearly all of them did in 1891. This GIS represents the county boundaries as they were in 1851. As a consequence, it maps the datasets with precision up until 1861 but more impressionistically thereafter.

filename: OCCPROJ1851_1891ScotlandCounty.shp

16. Occupations Project 1851 Wales Counties GIS

This GIS can map the following at the level of the county for Wales:-

1851 Census Report of Wales: County Occupations

1861 Census Report of Wales: County Occupations

1871 Census Report of Wales: County Occupations

1881 Census Report of Wales: County Occupations

1891 Census Report of Wales: County Occupations

filename: OCCPROJ1851WalesCounty.shp