Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

These digital boundaries were created by the Great Britain Historical GIS Project and form part of the Great Britain Historical Database, which contains a wide range of geographically-located statistics, selected to trace the emergence of the north-south divide in Britain and to provide a synoptic view of the human geography of Britain, generally at sub-county scales.

They represent the boundaries of Registration Districts in England and Wales as in use at the date of each Census of Population between 1851 and 1911, 1911 being the last census to report extensively on these units.

Main Topics:

These digital boundaries can be used to map economic, social and demographic statistics from the Censuses of Population, 1851 to 1911, the Registrar-General's reports from the same period, and other relevant statistical sources. They can also be used as reference maps for these administrative units.

Note that these Registration Districts were mostly identical to the Poor Law Unions which existed in the same period, but there are significant exceptions, most often where one Registration District was divided into multiple Poor Law Unions. These differences have been recorded by the Great Britain Historical GIS.

The boundary data contain the same numerical identifiers as are included in the GBHD transcriptions of census and vital registration statistics for Registration Districts, making statistical mapping straightforward.

ArcGIS shapefile of 288 polygons providing boundary and attribute data for the fifty-five ancient counties of England and Wales as given in the 1831 census for England and Wales. As such this represents the counties of England and Wales as they were before the boundary changes caused by the Counties (Detached Parts) Act, 1844 (7 & 8 Vict. c. 61) which led to the elimination of some of the detached portions of counties.These data were created as part of a research program directed by Leigh Shaw-Taylor and Tony Wrigley, which aims ultimately to reconstruct the evolution of the occupational structure of Britain from the late medieval period down to the early twentieth century. These data derive from the 173 digital maps of the boundaries of English and Welsh parishes and their subdivisions produced by Roger Kain and Richard Oliver based on the listing in the 1851 census. The maps were subsequently converted into a single GIS by Burton et al. The GIS attribute data were checked, edited and enhanced with extra data from the census by Max Satchell, Tony Wrigley and a small army 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. Of these the most important were digital scans of the Ordnance Survey first edition 1:2500 and 1:10560 maps from the Landmark Group distributed by Edina , the series of maps of registration districts and sub-districts boundaries prepared for the Registrar General prior to the censuses of 1861, 1871 and 1891 and the description of enumeration district boundaries given in the Census Enumerators Books for the censuses from 1851, 1861 and 1871. The 1:63,360 maps and Census Enumerators Books are held in The National Archives, Kew (TNA, RG 18/3-155, 198-227, HO 107, RG 9, RG 10). 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 Kain and Oliver GIS. This editing process saw the redigitisation of 644 of the 22,729 polygons, the deletion of 81 polygons, and the digitisation of 525 new polygons. The original Kain and Oliver parish and place dataset did not give details of which counties its units belonged to in 1831, though the authors did note some units had changed county under the auspices of the act of 1844. Max Satchell with help from Geoffrey Stanning and input from Peter Kitson and Tony Wrigley added the 1831 census counties as an attribute to the parish GIS primarily by systematic comparison between the censuses of 1831 and 1851 - the latter's footnotes being particularly informative concerning changes in the county boundaries. In situations where the 1831 county boundary deviated from the post-1844 alignment the polygons from the Burton et al. GIS were subdivided. At the end of this exercise all 23,177 polygons of the enhanced parish GIS could be assigned an 1831 ancient county. This attribute was then used to generate the shapefile of ancient counties.

Townships (Welsh: 'tref', Latin: 'villa') are the smallest civil administrative unit that was used across Wales. Like many old forms of administrative unit, the formation of the townships is unknown. As the townships form the basis for the commotes, which themselves are sub-divisions of cantrefs it is certain that that are contemporary with these territorial entities are early medieval in origin. Townships usually contain some form of settlement (such as village or small town) and usually a church. Townships played a key role in the administration of the local community in matters such as taxation and legal proceedings. Townships are often the main unit referred to in medieval extents and surveys and there are even records of some townships being further divided, such as in the township of Maenan on the River Conwy, but these are rare. Townships remained in use until the mid-nineteenth century, and where used for all manner of legal and secular administration. They where even widely used in the 1851 census. The earliest large-scale Ordnance Survey (OS) mapping for Wales recorded some of their boundaries (Flintshire, eastern parts of Denbighshire and some of Glamorgan), but OS stopped recording them c.1872. Soon after they dropped out of everyday use, but they remain the single most important unit for understanding the geography of Wales. There is currently no dataset accurately depicting all township boundaries in Wales, and this is the first attempt to accurately map these areas in a digitally accessible format. This dataset was created in Esri ArcPro 3.2.1 and reflects the historical hundred boundaries as recorded on the Ordnance Survey 6" to the Mile County Series Mapping surveyed for Wales between 1867 and 1888.

This map shows the extent of the various datasets comprising the World Elevation dynamic (Terrain, TopoBathy) and tiled (Terrain 3D, TopoBathy 3D, World Hillshade, World Hillshade (Dark)) services.The tiled services (Terrain 3D, TopoBathy 3D, World Hillshade, World Hillshade (Dark)) also include an additional data source from Maxar's Precision3D covering parts of the globe.Topography sources listed in the table below are part of Terrain, TopoBathy, Terrain 3D, TopoBathy 3D, World Hillshade and World Hillshade (Dark), while bathymetry sources are part of TopoBathy and TopoBathy 3D only. Data Source Native Pixel Size Approximate Pixel Size (meters) Coverage Primary Source Country/Region

Topography

Australia 1m 1 meter 1 Partial areas of Australia Geoscience Australia Australia

Moreton Bay, Australia 1m 1 meter 1 Moreton Bay region, Australia Moreton Bay Regional Council Australia

New South Wales, Australia 5m 5 meters 5 New South Wales State, Australia DFSI Australia

SRTM 1 arc second DEM-S 0.0002777777777779 degrees 31 Australia Geoscience Australia Australia

Burgenland 50cm 0.5 meters 0.5 Burgenland State, Austria Land Burgenland Austria

Upper Austria 50cm 0.5 meters 0.5 Upper Austria State, Austria Land Oberosterreich Austria

Austria 1m 1 meter 1 Austria BEV Austria

Austria 10m 10 meters 10 Austria BEV Austria

Wallonie 50cm 0.5 meters 0.5 Wallonie state, Belgium Service public de Wallonie (SPW) Belgium

Vlaanderen 1m 1 meter 1 Vlaanderen state, Belgium agentschap Digitaal Vlaanderen Belgium

Canada HRDEM 1m 1 meter 1 Partial areas of Canada Natural Resources Canada Canada

Canada HRDEM 2m 2 meter 2 Partial areas of the southern part of Canada Natural Resources Canada Canada

Denmark 40cm 0.4 meters 0.4 Denmark KDS Denmark

Denmark 10m 10 meters 10 Denmark KDS Denmark

England 1m 1 meter 1 England Environment Agency England

Estonia 1m 1 meter 1 Estonia Estonian Land Board Estonia

Estonia 5m 5 meters 5 Estonia Estonian Land Board Estonia

Estonia 10m 10 meters 10 Estonia Estonian Land Board Estonia

Finland 2m 2 meters 2 Finland NLS Finland

Finland 10m 10 meters 10 Finland NLS Finland

France 1m 1 meter 1 France IGN-F France

Bavaria 1m 1 meter 1 Bavaria State, Germany Bayerische Vermessungsverwaltung Germany

Berlin 1m 1 meter 1 Berlin State, Germany Geoportal Berlin Germany

Brandenburg 1m 1 meter 1 Brandenburg State, Germany GeoBasis-DE/LGB Germany

Hamburg 1m 1 meter 1 Hamburg State, Germany LGV Hamburg Germany

Hesse 1m 1 meter 1 Hesse State, Germany HVBG Germany

Nordrhein-Westfalen 1m 1 meter 1 Nordrhein-Westfalen State, Germany Land NRW Germany

Saxony 1m 1 meter 1 Saxony State, Germany Landesamt für Geobasisinformation Sachsen (GeoSN) Germany

Sachsen-Anhalt 2m 2 meters 2 Sachsen-Anhalt State, Germany LVermGeo LSA Germany

Hong Kong 50cm 0.5 meters 0.5 Hong Kong CEDD Hong Kong SAR

Italy TINITALY 10m 10 meters 10 Italy INGV Italy

Japan DEM5A *, DEM5B * 0.000055555555 degrees 5 Partial areas of Japan GSI Japan

Japan DEM10B * 0.00011111111 degrees 10 Japan GSI Japan

Latvia 1m 1 meters 1 Latvia Latvian Geospatial Information Agency Latvia

Latvia 10m 10 meters 10 Latvia Latvian Geospatial Information Agency Latvia

Latvia 20m 20 meters 20 Latvia Latvian Geospatial Information Agency Latvia

Lithuania 1m 1 meters 1 Lithuania NZT Lithuania

Lithuania 10m 10 meters 10 Lithuania NZT Lithuania

Netherlands (AHN3/AHN4) 50cm 0.5 meters 0.5 Netherlands AHN Netherlands

Netherlands (AHN3/AHN4) 10m 10 meters 10 Netherlands AHN Netherlands

New Zealand 1m 1 meters 1 Partial areas of New Zealand Land Information New Zealand (Sourced from LINZ. CC BY 4.0) New Zealand

Northern Ireland 10m 10 meters 10 Northern Ireland OSNI Northern Ireland

Norway 10m 10 meters 10 Norway NMA Norway

Poland 1m 1 meter 1 Partial areas of Poland GUGIK Poland

Poland 5m 5 meters 5 Partial areas of Poland GUGIK Poland

Scotland 1m 1 meter 1 Partial areas of Scotland Scottish Government et.al Scotland

Slovakia 1m 1 meter 1 Slovakia ÚGKK SR Slovakia

Slovakia 10m 10 meters 10 Slovakia GKÚ Slovakia

Slovenia 1m 1 meter 1 Slovenia ARSO Slovenia

Madrid City 1m 1 meter 1 Madrid city, Spain Ayuntamiento de Madrid Spain

Spain 2m (MDT02 2019 CC-BY 4.0 scne.es) 2 meters 2 Partial areas of Spain IGN Spain

Spain 5m 5 meters 5 Spain IGN Spain

Spain 10m 10 meters 10 Spain IGN Spain

Varnamo 50cm 0.5 meters 0.5 Varnamo municipality, Sweden Värnamo Kommun Sweden

Canton of Basel-Landschaft 25cm 0.25 meters 0.25 Canton of Basel-Landschaft, Switzerland Geoinformation Kanton Basel-Landschaft Switzerland

Grand Geneva 50cm 0.5 meters 0.5 Grand Geneva metropolitan, France/Switzerland SITG Switzerland and France

Switzerland swissALTI3D 50cm 0.5 meters 0.5 Switzerland and Liechtenstein swisstopo Switzerland and Liechtenstein

Switzerland swissALTI3D 10m 10 meters 10 Switzerland and Liechtenstein swisstopo Switzerland and Liechtenstein

OS Terrain 50 50 meters 50 United Kingdom Ordnance Survey United Kingdom

Douglas County 1ft 1 foot 0.3048 Douglas County, Nebraska, USA Douglas County NE United States

Lancaster County 1ft 1 foot 0.3048 Lancaster County, Nebraska, USA Lancaster County NE United States

Sarpy County 1ft 1 foot 0.3048 Sarpy County, Nebraska, USA Sarpy County NE United States

Cook County 1.5 ft 1.5 foot 0.46 Cook County, Illinois, USA ISGS United States

3DEP 1m 1 meter 1 Partial areas of the conterminous United States, Puerto Rico USGS United States

NRCS 1m 1 meter 1 Partial areas of the conterminous United States NRCS USDA United States

San Mateo County 1m 1 meter 1 San Mateo County, California, USA San Mateo County CA United States

FEMA LiDAR DTM 3 meters 3 Partial areas of the conterminous United States FEMA United States

NED 1/9 arc second 0.000030864197530866 degrees 3 Partial areas of the conterminous United States USGS United States

3DEP 5m 5 meter 5 Alaska, United States USGS United States

NED 1/3 arc second 0.000092592592593 degrees 10 conterminous United States, Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico, and Territorial Islands of the United States USGS United States

NED 1 arc second 0.0002777777777779 degrees 31 conterminous United States, Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico, Territorial Islands of the United States; Canada and Mexico USGS United States

NED 2 arc second 0.000555555555556 degrees 62 Alaska, United States USGS United States

Wales 1m 1 meter 1 Wales Welsh Government Wales

WorldDEM4Ortho 0.00022222222 degrees 24 Global (excluding the countries of Azerbaijan, DR Congo and Ukraine) Airbus Defense and Space GmbH World

SRTM 1 arc second 0.0002777777777779 degrees 31 all land areas between 60 degrees north and 56 degrees south except Australia NASA World

EarthEnv-DEM90 0.00083333333333333 degrees 93 Global N Robinson,NCEAS World

SRTM v4.1 0.00083333333333333 degrees 93 all land areas between 60 degrees north and 56 degrees south except Australia CGIAR-CSI World

GMTED2010 7.5 arc second 0.00208333333333333 degrees 232 Global USGS World

GMTED2010 15 arc second 0.00416666666666666 degrees 464 Global USGS World

GMTED2010 30 arc second 0.0083333333333333 degrees 928 Global USGS World

Bathymetry

Canada west coast 10 meters 10 Canada west coast Natural Resources Canada Canada

Gulf of Mexico 40 feet 12 Northern Gulf of Mexico BOEM Gulf of Mexico

MH370 150 meters 150 MH370 flight search area (Phase 1) of Indian Ocean Geoscience Australia Indian Ocean

Switzerland swissBATHY3D 1 - 3 meters 1, 2, 3 Lakes of Switzerland swisstopo Switzerland

NCEI 1/9 arc second 0.000030864197530866 degrees 3 Puerto Rico, U.S Virgin Islands and partial areas of eastern and western United States coast NOAA NCEI United States

NCEI 1/3 arc second 0.000092592592593 degrees 10 Partial areas of eastern and western United States coast NOAA NCEI United States

CRM 1 arc second (Version 2) 0.0002777777777779 degrees 31 Southern California coast of United States NOAA United States

NCEI 1 arc second 0.0002777777777779 degrees 31 Partial areas of northeastern United States coast NOAA NCEI United States

CRM 3 arc second 0.00083333333333333 degrees 93 United States Coast NOAA United States

NCEI 3 arc second 0.00083333333333333 degrees 93 Partial areas of northeastern United States coast NOAA NCEI United States

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The aims of the project were :
to ascertain how many enclosure, parochial assessment, drainage and sanitary maps survive in England and Wales;
to analyse their cartographic characteristics, including scale, date and mapmaker;
to analyse the way in which central and local government and their agencies used maps as instruments with which to implement policy relating to the ownership, use and taxation of land;
to analyse regional and temporal variations in the coverage of England and Wales by various types of map;
to obtain data on historic parish and township boundaries in England and Wales.
Main Topics:

The dataset covers all the enclosure, parochial assessment, drainage and sanitary maps of England and Wales which were available for public 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.

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

These geolocated datasets derive from annotations of Christopher Saxton's County Maps of England & Wales, annotations of published volumes of John Leland's Itineraries in Wales, and annotations of Wenceslaus Hollar's vignettes intended for publication in Britannia.

Please see the GitHub repository for details of the sources used and visualisation of their geographic scope.

Access API

NSW Administrative Boundaries Theme - County

Please Note
WGS 84 service aligned to GDA94
This dataset has spatial reference [WGS 84 ≈ GDA94] which may result in misalignments when viewed in GDA2020 environments. A similar service with a ‘multiCRS’ suffix is available which can support GDA2020, GDA94 and WGS 84 ≈ GDA2020 environments.
In due course, and allowing time for user feedback and testing, it is intended that the original service name will adopt the new 'multiCRS' functionality.

Metadata Portal Metadata Information

Content Title	NSW Administrative Boundaries Theme - County
Content Type	Hosted Feature Layer
Description	NSW County is a dataset within the NSW Administrative Boundaries theme and depicts historical county divisions of the State of New South Wales. It depicts one of 141 basic divisions of the State of New South Wales, further divided into parishes, for administrative purposes, especially for management and disposal of Crown lands. County and Parish are historical layers and the information contained was gathered from Parish and County maps which are now held at State Records (digital versions can be accessed through the Historical Lands Records Viewer). Boundaries in this dataset can be updated (if necessary) after a title inspection. Features are positioned in topological alignment within the extents of the Lot and Property data for each County and are held in alignment, including changes resulting data maintenance and upgrades. NSW County is a superset of NSW Parish. This dataset contains an historical land administration boundary. The original County definition is static; however, data will move with changes to the NSW Administrative Boundaries Theme.
Initial Publication Date	06/02/2020
Data Currency	01/01/3000
Data Update Frequency	Other
Content Source	API
File Type	Map Feature Service
Attribution	© State of New South Wales (Spatial Services, a business unit of the Department of Customer Service NSW). For current information go to spatial.nsw.gov.au
Data Theme, Classification or Relationship to other Datasets	NSW Administrative Boundaries Theme of the Foundation Spatial Data Framework (FSDF)
Accuracy	The dataset maintains a positional relationship to, and alignment with, the Lot and Property digital datasets. This dataset was captured by digitising the best available cadastral mapping at a variety of scales and accuracies, ranging from 1:500 to 1:250 000 according to the National Mapping Council of Australia, Standards of Map Accuracy (1975). Therefore, the position of the feature instance will be within 0.5mm at map scale for 90% of the well-defined points. That is, 1:500 = 0.25m, 1:2000 = 1m, 1:4000 = 2m, 1:25000 = 12.5m, 1:50000 = 25m and 1:100000 = 50m. A program to upgrade the spatial location and accuracy of data is ongoing.
Spatial Reference System (dataset)	GDA94
Spatial Reference System (web service)	EPSG:3857
WGS84 Equivalent To	GDA94
Spatial Extent	Full State
Content Lineage	For additional information, please contact us via the Spatial Services Customer Hub
Data Classification	Unclassified
Data Access Policy	Open
Data Quality	For additional information, please contact us via the Spatial Services Customer Hub
Terms and Conditions	Creative Commons
Standard and Specification	Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) implemented and compatible for consumption by common GIS platforms. Available as either cache or non-cache, depending on client use or requirement. Information about the Feature Class and Domain Name descriptions for the NSW Administrative Boundaries Theme can be found in the NSW Cadastral Data Dictionary. Some of Spatial Services Datasets are designed to work together for example NSW Address Point and NSW Address String (table), NSW Property (Polygon) and NSW Property Lot (table) and NSW Lot (polygons). To do this you need to add a Spatial Join. A Spatial Join is a GIS operation that affixes data from one feature layer’s attribute table to another from a spatial perspective. To see how NSW Address, Property, Lot Geometry data and tables can be spatially joined, download the Data Model Document.
Data Custodian	DCS Spatial Services 346 Panorama Ave Bathurst NSW 2795
Point of Contact	Please contact us via the <a href='https://customerhub.spatial.nsw.gov.au/servicedesk/customer/portals' rel='nofollow ugc' style='text-decoration-line:none; font-family:"Avenir Next W01", "Avenir

This dataset is from the Ordnance Survey and it provides a representation of the hierarchy of administrative and electoral boundaries for GB (England, Scotland and Wales). The product is part of the new OS Open products suite and is designed to be used with other OpenData sets.The dataset is made up of 18 layers which are grouped in their respective categories. It contains all levels of electoral and administrative boundaries, from district, wards, civil parishes (or communities) up to parliamentary and assembly constituencies. The layers can be grouped as followed:Administrative Boundaries• Mean high water (GB)• Country (GB)• Historic European regions (GB)• Historic counties (GB)• Ceremonial counties (GB)• District, Metropolitan district, Unitary authority (GB)• Civil parish and community (GB)• Ward (district, unitary, metropolitan, London borough) (England, Scotland)• English region (England)• County (England)• Community (Wales)Electoral Boundaries• Westminster constituencies (GB)• Scottish and Welsh constituency• Scottish and Welsh electoral region• Polling districts (England)• County electoral division (England)• Unitary electoral division (England and Wales)• Greater London Authority Assembly constituenciesThe currency of this data is 04/2022 and the coverage of this service is GB.The map projection is British National Grid.

A PDF map that shows the counties and unitary authorities in the United Kingdom as at 1 April 2023. (File Size - 583 KB)

Scottish Parliamentary Constituencies and Regions define the electoral areas used to return members to the Scottish Parliament. There are 73 constituencies, each electing one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP), and 8 regional constituencies each electing an additional seven MSPs. The total number of parliamentary seats is 129. Boundaries Scotland is responsible for recommendations on the definition of constituency and region boundaries, however, the definitive dataset is delineated by Ordnance Survey for inclusion in their BoundaryLine product.

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https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/products/boundary-line#technical

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Source:

https://osdatahub.os.uk/downloads/open/BoundaryLine

Licence:

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/

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A county is a sub-national division of a country and where introduced by the Normans after the conquest of England in 1066, although a similar Anglo-Saxon administrative system of 'Shires' where in existence prior to this. Counties where usually overseen by a sheriff (Shire Reeve) who was appointed by the crown to collect taxes, raise militia and keep the peace though the administration of law. The implementation of the county system in Wales is a little complicated. In 1284 the Statute of Rhuddlan created six sheriffdoms or 'Shires' in Wales; Anglesey, Caernarfon, Merioneth, Flint, Carmarthen and Cardigan known as the Principality of Wales. The remainder of Wales consisted of the two Royal Lordships of Glamorgan and Pembroke and various Marcher Lordships which often made use of the earlier Commote and Cantref boundaries. The Marcher Lordships were abolished by the Laws in Wales Acts (1535) and the five new counties of Denbighshire, Monmouthshire, Brecknockshire, Radnorshire and Montgomeryshire were created to replace them. This created a total of thirteen historical counties in Wales. Some townships usually considered a part of Wales were assigned to Shropshire and Herefordshire and minor changes to the boundaries were made in the Laws in Wales Act (1542). The thirteen historic counties remained in use until the Local Government Act 1972, the implementation of which in 1974 saw the abolishment of the historic counties and the creation of eight new administrative counties, Clwyd, Dyfed, Gwent, Gwynedd, Mid Glamorgan, South Glamorgan, West Glamorgan and Powys. These themselves where replaced in 1996 by the creation of twenty two Unitary Authorities (or 'Principal Areas'), although the former eight counties still have ceremonial significance.

Parishes are subdivisions of local authorities in many parts of England, and their councils are the most local level of government. Unlike electoral wards/divisions however, parishes are not found in all parts of England. The Welsh equivalents are communities. Note that the full term for administrative parishes is 'civil parishes', to distinguish them from the ecclesiastical parishes which are found in all parts of the UK.

​

https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/products/boundary-line#technical

​

Source:

https://osdatahub.os.uk/downloads/open/BoundaryLine

Licence:

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/

A PDF map that shows the Fire and Rescue Authorities in England and Wales as at April 2021. (File Size - 251 KB)