This GIS shapefile provides boundary and attribute data for the parishes and places enumerated in the 1851 census for England and Wales. These data derive from the 173 digital maps of the boundaries of English and Welsh parishes and their subdivisions produced to a very high standard by Roger Kain and Richard Oliver in 2001, which was expertly converted into a single GIS of some 28000 polygons by Burton et al in 2004. However, what they produced was not yet ready for the mapping of census data due to a modest number (<10%) of administrative units which either lacked boundaries, were unlocated, had labelling errors, or incorrect census numbers. The Occupational Structure of Britain c.1379-1911 research programme undertook the task of enhancing the Burton et al. GIS to provide a comprehensive shapefile of parish and places as listed in the 1851 and 1831 censuses for the mapping of demographic and occupational data with tolerable accuracy for the whole of England and Wales. To this end it was also decided to add additional attributes concerning counties, hundreds and boroughs in 1831, counties in 1851 and registration sub-districts, districts and counties in 1851 from which shapefiles of these different larger scale administrative units could be assembled.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.

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.