Historic County

The Historic counties data shows the county boundaries based on records and mapping circa 1888, using the following acts as primary sources:

• Local Government (England and Wales) Act 1888

• Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889

• Sheriffs Act 1887

The dataset shows the boundaries in place in 1888 in England and Wales, and those established a year later in Scotland. The alignments of the counties for England and Wales are derived from mapping sourced from the National Archives which dates from 1890. The most recent available county alignment mapping for Scotland is from 1940.

Historic counties are not updated; therefore, the lifecycle dates will not change.

Temporal filtering

The earliest date on which you can request a one-off snapshot of a date in the past for data in this feature type is 29 September 2022.

Feature type attributes

The following sub-sections provide details about the attributes included with this feature type, their data types in the different output formats, and other important metadata about them.

osid

Primary identifier for the feature. The OSID is a Globally Unique Identifier (GUID) and requires no centralised authority to ensure uniqueness. Note that the same OSID can occur in more than one feature type when a single feature is represented multiple times in the OS NGD.

• Data Types: String (GPKG), String (CSV)

• Nullable: false

• Max Length: 36

• OS Select+Build Filterable: No

• Data Schema Version: 1.0

versiondate

Date when the version was last updated.

• Data Types: Date (GPKG), Date (CSV)

• Nullable: false

• OS Select+Build Filterable: No

• Data Schema Version: 1.0

versionavailablefromdate

The date this version of the feature became the latest version.

• Data Types: DateTime (GPKG), DateTime (CSV)

• Nullable: false

• OS Select+Build Filterable: No

• Data Schema Version: 1.0

versionavailabletodate

The date this version of the feature was superseded by an update or ceased to exist.

• Data Types: DateTime (GPKG), DateTime (CSV)

• Nullable: true

• OS Select+Build Filterable: No

• Data Schema Version: 1.0

changetype

The type of change that generated a new version of the feature.

• Data Types: String (GPKG), String (CSV)

• Nullable: false

• Code List Name: changetypevalue

• Max Length: 50

• OS Select+Build Filterable: No

• Data Schema Version: 1.0

geometry

Geometry for the feature.

• Data Types: Geometry (GPKG), WKT (CSV)

• Nullable: false

• OS Select+Build Filterable: No

• Data Schema Version: 1.0

• Geometry Type: MultiPolygon

geometry_area

The measured area of the geometry in square metres.

• Data Types: Float (GPKG), Real (CSV)

• Nullable: false

• Precision: 18

• Scale: 6

• OS Select+Build Filterable: No

• Data Schema Version: 1.0

theme

The OS NGD theme to which this feature belongs.

• Data Types: String (GPKG), String (CSV)

• Nullable: false

• Code List Name: themevalue

• Max Length: 40

• OS Select+Build Filterable: No

• Data Schema Version: 1.0

description

A single descriptive value intended for a quick understanding of what the feature represents.

• Data Types: String (GPKG), String (CSV)

• Nullable: false

• Code List Name: historiccountydescriptionvalue

• Max Length: 50

• OS Select+Build Filterable: Yes

• Data Schema Version: 1.0

name1_text

Name assigned to identify the feature.

• Data Types: String (GPKG), String (CSV)

• Nullable: false

• Max Length: 254

• OS Select+Build Filterable: Yes

• Data Schema Version: 1.0

name1_language

The language of name1, provided as a 3-digit ISO 639-2 code ('eng, 'cym', 'gla').

• Data Types: String (GPKG), String (CSV)

• Nullable: true

• Code List Name: languagevalue

• Max Length: 3

• OS Select+Build Filterable: No

• Data Schema Version: 1.0

name2_text

The alternative language name assigned to identify the feature.

• Data Types: String (GPKG), String (CSV)

• Nullable: true

• Max Length: 254

• OS Select+Build Filterable: Yes

• Data Schema Version: 1.0

name2_language

The language of name2, provided as a 3-digit ISO 639-2 code ('eng, 'cym', 'gla').

• Data Types: String (GPKG), String (CSV)

• Nullable: true

• Code List Name: languagevalue

• Max Length: 3

• OS Select+Build Filterable: No

• Data Schema Version: 1.0

boundarytype

A single description value for boundary type.

• Data Types: String (GPKG), String (CSV)

• Nullable: false

• Code List Name: boundarytypevalue

• Max Length: 50

• OS Select+Build Filterable: Yes

• Data Schema Version: 1.0

landareahectares

The inland area of the feature in hectares.

• Data Types: Float (GPKG), Real (CSV)

• Nullable: false

• Precision: 15

• Scale: 6

• OS Select+Build Filterable: No

• Data Schema Version: 1.0

tidalareahectares

The non-inland area in hectares.

• Data Types: Float (GPKG), Real (CSV)

• Nullable: false

• Precision: 15

• Scale: 6

• OS Select+Build Filterable: No

• Data Schema Version: 1.0

totalareahectares

The total area in hectares.

• Data Types: Float (GPKG), Real (CSV)

• Nullable: false

• Precision: 15

• Scale: 6

• OS Select+Build Filterable: No

• Data Schema Version: 1.0