Study title

United Kingdom

Geographic Unit

This GIS shapefile derives from 173 digital maps of the boundaries of English and Welsh parishes and their subdivisions produced by Kain and Oliver (2001), converted into a single GIS of some 28000 polygons by Burton et al (2004). The GIS attribute data were checked, edited and enhanced with extra data from the census by Max Satchell, Tony Wrigley and a number of research assistants, with technical support from Peter Kitson and Gill Newton. Max Satchell checked and in some cases edited the GIS polygon data using a variety of cartographic and documentary sources. The work involved changing one or more elements of information about place, parish, county, or three figure census number for 2,461 (10.8 per cent) of 22,729 lines of data in the Burton et al. GIS. Each polygon had the name of the ancient hundred, wapentake, borough or equivalent unit added, as given in the 1831 census. In situations where a polygon from the Burton et al. GIS encompassed two or more hundreds it was subdivided, if cartographic sources of boundary data were available. The registration subdistricts, districts and counties were also added from the 1851 census. A fuller account can be found in the associated documentation.