1851 England and Wales census registration districts

Satchell, M. and Shaw-Taylor, L.M.W.S. and Wrigley, E.A. and Kitson, P.K. and Newton, G.H. (2023). 1851 England and Wales census registration districts. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Archive. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-852948

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.

Data description (abstract)

ArcGIS shapefile of 1194 polygons providing boundary and attribute data for the 624 registration districts of England and Wales as given in the 1851 census.

Data creators:

Creator Name	Affiliation	ORCID (as URL)
Satchell M.	The Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure	https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3340-9825
Shaw-Taylor L.M.W.S.	The Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure	http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3703-7689
Wrigley E.A.	The Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure
Kitson P.K.
Newton G.H.	The Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure

Sponsors:

Economic and Social Research Council, The Leverhulme Trust , The British Academy

Grant reference:

RES-000-23-1579

Topic classification:

History
Demography (population, vital statistics and censuses)

Keywords:

census data, digitized map data, maps, boundaries, attributes, GIS, registration districts

Project title:

The changing occupational structure of nineteenth century Britain

Grant holders:

Dr Leigh Shaw-Taylor, Professor E. A. Wrigley

Project dates:

From	To
1 March 2006	28 February 2009

Date published:

06 Apr 2018 15:50

Last modified:

31 Aug 2023 10:17

Coverage and Methodology

Collection period:

Date from:	Date to:
1 March 2006	28 February 2009

Geographical area:

England and Wales

Country:

United Kingdom

Data collection method:

This shapefile derives 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 Burton et al GIS 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 digitised 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).

Observation unit:

Geographic unit

Kind of data:

Geospatial

Type of data:

Census data , Geospatial data , Historical data

Resource language:

English

Access and Administration

Data sourcing, processing and preparation:

Data sources: Kain, R.J.P., Oliver, R.R. (2001). Historic Parishes of England and Wales : an Electronic Map of Boundaries before 1850 with a Gazetteer and Metadata. [data collection]. UK Data Service. SN: 4348, http://doi.org/10.5255/UKDA-SN-4348-1. Southall, H.R., Burton, N. (2004). GIS of the Ancient Parishes of England and Wales, 1500-1850. [data collection]. UK Data Service. SN: 4828, http://doi.org/10.5255/UKDA-SN-4828-1.

Rights owners:

Name	Affiliation	ORCID (as URL)
Satchell M.	The Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure	https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3340-9825
Shaw-Taylor L.M.W.S.	The Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure	http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3703-7689
Wrigley E.A.	The Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure
Southall H.	University of Portsmouth
Burton N.	University of Portsmouth
Kain R.J.P	School of Advanced Study, University of London
Oliver R.R.	University of Exeter