522:, but uses the ontologies in the underlying system to create clickable links between pages: most pages the site can create can be reached without filling out a search form, or clicking on an image map, and this makes the site's content generally accessible to search engines. One result is that Google searches for historical information for particular places in Britain are very likely to return links to Vision of Britain. For the most reliable results, search in Google for "place county history"; for example, "Portsmouth Hampshire History".
537:
The post-2000 GB Historical GIS makes no use of commercial GIS software, except for editing parts of the content, and implements a data model which could not be implemented using packages such as ArcGIS or MapInfo, so is it a GIS at all? It is certainly not a conventional GIS, but one answer is that
515:
statistics for the unit, to boundary maps and to formal information on official names and status, relationships with other units and boundary changes. All these web pages are generated by software from the data held in the underlying GB Historical GIS. Many
Knowledge pages refer to Vision of Britain.
467:
Britain has had an unusually large number of changes to its local government geography, and the current districts date back only to 1996, to 1974 or, in London, to 1965. As census reporting has always been based on local government units, it is hard to study how any particular area has changed in the
514:
The site is designed mainly as a resource for studying local history but also includes extensive mapping facilities. It includes home pages both for "places", i.e. towns and villages, and for the individual administrative units based on places. Administrative unit pages provide access to census
223:
Almost all the original digital boundaries are included in the new system, but they are held as polygons rather than line segments. Many units, especially those lacking associated statistical data, do not have boundary polygons. Most of these have approximate centroids, inferred from their
343:: The sub-system recording sources of statistical information holds a complete list of all the tables published in British census reports up to 1961, enabling the system to reconstruct selected tables. The system also holds the introductory text from selected reports, and the
119:
software. Dates of creation and abolition were held for each line segment (or "arc") and custom software was developed to assemble line segments into polygons, creating conventional boundary maps for particular dates. Meanwhile, the Labour
Markets Database evolved into the
380:
A GIS consisting entirely of administrative boundaries can create maps but these are hard to relate to the real world. The project has therefore constructed a second GIS consisting entirely of scanned images of historical maps, supporting an on-line
421:
New Map of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland: on which the Turnpike, and Principal Cross Roads, are carefully described. Particularly distinguishing the Route of the mail Coaches, the course of the Rivers, and Navigable canals;
124:(GBHDB), which stored a large collection of historical statistics from the census, vital registration and records of poverty and economic distress. These were held in thousands of columns within hundreds of separate tables, within an
479:
release from the 2001 census for many earlier dates, including total population from 1801, occupational structure for selected censuses from 1841 onwards, and age and gender structure for every census from 1851 onwards.
363:
and a new gazetteer of
Scottish counties, parishes and burghs created by the Scottish Archives Network. It also holds additional variant names found in census reports, and is designed to be used for name
472:
from various historical units to modern districts. This is done using a vector overlay methodology, using parish-level counts of total population to weight the reallocation of district-level data.
419:. The least detailed nineteenth century map is from 1812 and is by Robert Wilkinson, at a scale of 1:1,625,000 (British Library shelfmark Maps 177.d.2.(15.)). The intermediate scale map is Smith's
542:
combines the boundaries of local government districts, data on unemployment from the 1931 census, and a scanned image of an
Ordnance Survey ten mile-to-one inch map from the early 20th century.
546:
165:
95:
between 1994 and 1999, although it was originally conceived simply as a mapping extension to the existing Labour
Markets Database (LMDB). The system included digital boundaries for
789:
439:. These maps include all the published one inch sheets, plus the 56 maps covering upland Scotland, hand painted in water colour to show land use, that Stamp deposited with the
489:
804:
799:
784:
243:. This sub-system does not simply provide text defining variables, it directly drives the graphical presentation of data. Each data value is located within an nCube or
396:
New
Popular Edition, from the late 1940s. These are the most recent detailed maps of Britain to be free from OS copyright. The smallest scale twentieth century map is
459:
standard. This is how they are used by the GB Historical GIS project's Vision of
Britain system, but they are also available for use as base maps by other web sites.
388:
Three complete sets of one inch to one mile maps of Great
Britain have been scanned and geo-referenced, each accompanied by less detailed maps from the same period:
794:
573:
represents the world rather than the
British Isles, although more detailed decisions about map projections mean that the system is in practice limited to Europe.
176:
in which all content is held in Oracle, although GIS software is used to edit content. It is designed to overcome the limitations of the original system:
83:
data to produce a visual picture of the iterations or popularity of a particular set of statistics, overlaid on a map of the geographic area of interest.
633:
180:
The statistical content is now the core of the system, all data values being held in a single column of a single table, with other columns indicating
428:
275:
585:
216:
355:: the administrative unit ontology described above was created from quite separate sources from the original GIS, including Frederick Youngs'
206:
is recorded not directly as a location but via a reference to a large catalogue of administrative units. This catalogue is organised as an
372:
All of this new content is held in the same Oracle database and linked to the polygons and statistics inherited from the original GBHGIS.
51:
545:
685:
663:
Gregory, Ian N.; Southall, Humphrey (1998). "Putting the Past in Its Place: the Great Britain Historical GIS". In Carver, S. (ed.).
149:
164:
92:
411:
First Series. These were created over several decades during the mid-19th century, and the GB Historical GIS uses the earliest
468:
long term. One of the main reasons for building the GB Historical GIS was to enable demographic and social statistics to be '
265:
240:
72:
447:
This collection of historical maps is not held in the main Oracle system. They are instead managed using open source
351:
236:
207:
717:
Southall, Humphrey (2008). "Visualization, Data Sharing and Metadata". In Dodge, M.; McDerby, M.; Turner, M. (eds.).
452:
440:
436:
320:
328:
145:
59:
639:
443:(RGS Control No. 568206). The ten mile to the inch summary sheets published by the LUSGB are also included.
400:, (London: Geographia, 1921; British Library shelfmark Maps 1080.(70.)). The intermediate mapping is the
432:
316:
96:
104:
80:
538:
any system that can create an image like the one shown below is some kind of GIS. This image from
324:
239:. It was designed as a relational implementation of the aggregate data extension developed by the
402:
Ordnance Survey of Great Britain. Scale of ten statute miles to one inch. 1:633 600 maps from 1904
673:
270:
525:
For a detailed guide to using the Vision of Britain system for research into local history, see
495:
Components of the GB Historical GIS are available for download by academic researchers from the
681:
365:
332:
173:
39:
424:, published in 1806 at a scale of 1:633,600 (British Library shelfmark Maps 177.d.2.(14.)).
496:
456:
416:
408:
393:
300:
125:
55:
43:
260:
This new version of the GB Historical GIS also included several other kinds of content:
27:
Database that documents and visualises the changing human geography of the British Isles
561:
A new system is being developed, partly with funding from the European Union under the
312:
296:
153:
100:
598:
Multiple languages are supported, especially when recording geographical names, using
778:
672:
Gregory, Ian N.; Southall, Humphrey (2002). "Mapping British Population History". In
327:
in 1188. Place-names are identified within these texts using XML tags defined by the
308:
292:
47:
488:"A Vision of Britain" redirects here. For the book by Charles, Prince of Wales, see
220:, which represents the British Isles and to which all other units ultimately belong.
475:
This methodology has been used to replicate the most important statistics from the
304:
17:
451:
software. However, they are mainly accessed via MapServer's implementation of the
291:: The text of most of the best known historical British travel writers, including
111:(1870s to 1974). These boundaries were held not as polygons but as line segments (
511:
web site, developed by the GB Historical GIS project with their lottery funding.
280:
732:
287:
769:
764:
697:
A Vision of Britain through Time: Making sense of 200 years of census reports
736:
581:
507:
system. However, the main way most people can access the system is via the
448:
244:
339:
741:
A short introduction to HGIS by the lead developer of the original GBHGIS
706:
A Vision of Britain through Time: On-line access to statistical heritage"
121:
754:
610:
An enhanced web site based on this extended system was launched in 2009.
577:
382:
232:
108:
279:(1872); Frances Groome's The Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1885); and
592:
331:. This is believed to be the largest collection of British historical
398:
New Map of the British Isles. Produced under the direction of A. Gross
759:
269:: Over 90,000 entries from three late nineteenth century gazetteers:
116:
508:
214:
relationship with a higher-level unit; the obvious exception is the
152:, so the results had to be useful to a far wider audience than most
500:
144:
The second version of the GB Historical GIS was developed at the
738:
A Place in History: a Guide to using GIS in Historical Research
504:
76:
335:
on the web, and is unique in that it is fully geo-referenced.
319:. The earliest source included in the GB Historical GIS is a
719:
Geographical Visualization: Concepts, Tools and Applications
599:
544:
163:
91:
The first version of the GB Historical GIS was developed at
565:
project, which will no longer be limited to Great Britain:
603:
591:
All geographical names and some other text are held using
281:
John Bartholomew's Gazetteer of the British Isles (1887)
210:, each unit having any number of names and at least one
148:
from 2000 onwards. The work was mainly funded by the UK
562:
490:
A Vision of Britain: A Personal View of Architecture
518:Vision of Britain is an unusual web site as it is
357:Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England
345:Guide to Census Reports: Great Britain 1801-1966
224:relationships with units that do have polygons.
8:
790:Geographical databases in the United Kingdom
404:(British Library shelfmark Maps 1125.(14.)).
231:in the central data table—is recorded via a
699:. Local Population Studies. pp. 76–84.
463:Re-districting statistics to constant units
227:The meaning of the statistical content—the
42:that documents and visualises the changing
805:Historical geography of the United Kingdom
721:. Chichester: John Wiley. pp. 259–75.
361:Welsh Administrative and Territorial Units
54:mainly over the 200 years since the first
800:Demographic history of the United Kingdom
785:Historical geographic information systems
635:Relationships / unit history of The Isles
765:Articles citing GBHGIS in Google Scholar
667:. Taylor & Francis. pp. 210–21.
638:, visionofbritain.org.uk, archived from
429:Land Utilisation Survey of Great Britain
128:. This system is described in detail in
58:. The project is currently based at the
50:, although is primarily focussed on the
624:
602:codes to identify modern languages and
276:Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales
795:History websites of the United Kingdom
678:Past Time, Past Place: GIS for history
557:Extended Historical GIS (2007 onwards)
62:, and is the provider of the website
7:
87:Original GB Historical GIS (1994–99)
52:subdivisions of the United Kingdom
25:
526:
248:
197:
122:Great Britain Historical Database
540:A Vision of Britain through Time
484:A Vision of Britain Through Time
133:
129:
93:Queen Mary, University of London
65:A Vision of Britain through Time
770:GBHGIS Mailing List at JISCmail
576:All coordinates are held using
168:GBH GIS high-level architecture
632:Great Britain Historical GIS,
1:
586:Ordnance Survey National Grid
241:Data Documentation Initiative
140:New GB Historical GIS (2000–)
73:geographic information system
743:AHDS Guides to Good Practice
233:data documentation subsystem
32:Great Britain Historical GIS
704:Southall, Humphrey (2007).
695:Southall, Humphrey (2006).
549:Unemployment in 1931, from
415:for each sheet held by the
352:Geographical name authority
134:Gregory and Southall (2002)
130:Gregory and Southall (1998)
821:
606:codes for historical ones.
487:
453:Open Geospatial Consortium
441:Royal Geographical Society
437:London School of Economics
105:local government districts
40:spatially enabled database
329:Text Encoding Initiative
247:. For more details, see
146:University of Portsmouth
60:University of Portsmouth
760:Vision of Britain site
553:
266:Descriptive Gazetteers
169:
97:registration districts
548:
359:, Melville Richards'
184:the number measures,
167:
665:Innovations in GIS 5
107:(1911 to 1974), and
674:Knowles, Anne Kelly
325:Giraldus Cambrensis
196:it was taken from (
192:it is for, and the
18:A Vision of Britain
554:
271:John Marius Wilson
170:
103:(c.1840 to 1911),
712:. pp. 67–70.
710:, vol. 4, issue 2
551:Vision of Britain
509:Vision of Britain
366:authority control
333:travel literature
235:which is another
79:information with
75:, which combines
71:NB: A "GIS" is a
16:(Redirected from
812:
755:Project homepage
722:
713:
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691:
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256:Expanded content
174:spatial database
160:New architecture
150:National Lottery
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527:Southall (2006)
520:database-driven
497:UK Data Archive
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457:Web Map Service
417:British Library
409:Ordnance Survey
394:Ordnance Survey
378:
376:Historical maps
321:survey of Wales
301:William Cobbett
258:
249:Southall (2008)
172:This is a true
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126:Oracle database
101:poor law unions
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44:human geography
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313:Charles Wesley
297:William Camden
288:Travel Writing
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198:Southall, 2007
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733:Ian Gregory
383:map library
323:written by
81:statistical
779:Categories
646:2008-10-18
614:References
600:Ethnologue
584:, not the
533:GIS status
156:projects.
582:longitude
571:root unit
505:UKBorders
499:and from
449:MapServer
245:Hypercube
217:root unit
132:, and in
115:), using
604:Linguist
595:(UTF-8).
578:latitude
237:ontology
212:IsPartOf
208:ontology
109:parishes
676:(ed.).
593:Unicode
435:of the
46:of the
38:) is a
684:
194:source
117:ArcGIS
36:GBHGIS
619:Notes
501:EDINA
413:state
204:Where
190:where
682:ISBN
580:and
569:The
563:QVIZ
427:The
407:The
392:The
315:and
229:what
188:and
186:when
182:what
113:arcs
99:and
34:(or
30:The
503:'s
455:'s
422:...
273:'s
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781::
735::
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385:.
311:,
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
