1:50 000 Scale Gazetteer - guidance notes

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Introduction

These guidance notes explain the 1:50 000 Scale Gazetteer data which can be downloaded through Digimap. Some of the information here is also relevant to the use of the Gazetteer as a search tool within Digimap.

The 1:50 000 Scale Gazetteer contains some 260,000 place names taken from the 1:50,000 scale Landranger^® Map Series. It does not contain the names of administrative features, such as Local Council areas, or parishes.

The fields in the data

This table sets out the fields that are present in the data for each Gazetteer entry. The later sections of these notes explain the fields in more detail as necessary.

Each entry in the 1:50 000 Scale Gazetteer contains the following information:

Names that are included

The Gazetteer contains all distinctive names from the Landranger Map Series, but no descriptive names. A distinctive name refers to a specific place or feature, whereas a descriptive name refers to a place or feature type. For example, Birmingham is a distinctive name, as is Alfred's Tower. However, Tower alone is descriptive and consequently will not appear in the Gazetteer. In order to distinguish between which type of name you are looking for, you should ask yourself this: Would you say "this is a ..." or "this is ..."? The first phrase would indicate that you are searching for a descriptive name, the second that you are searching for a distinctive name.

Some examples of distinctive names:

London
Durley Mill
Hugh Town
Greenham Common

Some examples of descriptive text:

Sheiling
Museum
Antiquity
Power Station
Hospital
Waterfall

Coordinate precision

Each entry in the Gazetteer provides the position of a named feature or place. It gives these positions as follows:

• the National Grid square in which the place can be found
• the eastings and northings of the centre of that square
• the latitude and longitude of the centre of that square

National Grid reference: The National Grid reference provided indicates in which 1km square a certain place or feature lies. An explanation of the National Grid naming conventions can be found in the Help pages here: Grid References.

Eastings and Northings: These coordinates indicate the centre point of the National Grid square in which the named feature lies. They are calculated in metres from the origin of the National Grid. This is a point which is 100km north of 49° north and 400km west of 2° west. Because the eastings and northings given mark the centre of the square in which the feature lies, the actual position of the feature may be up to 0.7km or 700m away from the given reference point.

Latitude and longitude: The latitude and longitude given in the Gazetteer identify the centre point of the National Grid square in which the feature lies. Thus, the actual position of the named feature may be up to 0.4 minutes of latitude and 0.2 minutes of longitude from the Gazetteer position. Great Britain lies north of the Equator, and therefore all latitude references included in the Gazetteer are north of the Equator. Great Britain straddles the Greenwich Meridian, and so longitude values in the Gazetteer may be East or West of Greenwich. Therefore, a separate field indicates whether a particular longitude is East (E) or West (W) of the Greenwich Meridian.

Names of large area features (e.g. hill ranges, sea features) may appear more than once in the Gazetteer. Multiple entries such as this will give different locations in the named area. For a named linear feature such as a Roman Road, river or an earthwork, multiple Gazetteer entries may be given along its extent.

Feature codes and county codes

Feature codes: Each Gazetteer entry includes a feature code indicating the type of feature that the name applies to. The Gazetteer uses the following codes:

A = Antiquity
F = Forest or other wooded area
FM = Farm
H = Hill
R = Roman Antiquity
C = City
T = Town
O = Other settlement
W = Water feature i.e. river, lake etc.
X = All other features, including land form features.

County codes: Each Gazetteer entry contains a 2 character code and an abbreviated name of the county where it lies. These county codes and abbreviations can be converted to full names using the County Codes lookup table provided.

Latitude and longitude

Latitude and longitude provide a unique map reference which is separate from the National Grid reference system. Latitude and longitude, unlike National Grid references, are not restricted to Great Britain but can be applied to any place or feature in the world. In the Gazetteer however, we are only concerned with latitude and longitude within Great Britain.

Latitude and longitude are imaginary lines which follow the curve of the earth's surface from east to west and from north to south. In this respect they differ from National Grid lines which refer to a flat surface. Lines of latitude encircle the earth in parallel, the longest of which is the Equator. The Equator is the 'zero' line of latitude to which all others are referenced. All points on the earth's surface can be described by their degrees and minutes north or south of the Equator, for example, 31° 11.5' N or 27° 14.3' S.

Lines of longitude all pass through the north and south poles and fan out towards the Equator creating an effect like the segments of an orange. The 'zero' line of longitude - or meridian - to which all others are referenced is that which passes through the Greenwich Observatory in London. All points on Earth's surface can be described by how many degrees and minutes east or west of the Greenwich Meridian they are, for example 5° 10.2' E or 23° 07.9' W.

Therefore by giving the reference of the lines of latitude and longitude on which a place or feature lies, its precise location can be identified on a map where the two lines intersect.

Conversion between latitude and longitude and the National Grid coordinates is mathematically complex, and is not explained here.

Name conventions

Entries in the Gazetteer appear exactly as they do on Landranger maps, including the use of the definite article, abbreviations, punctuation, word division, accented characters and bilingual forms. Care must be taken when using the Gazetteer data to take account of these factors. The following are some examples:

The definite article: The word "The" is included as part of some Gazetteer entries. In these cases, a named feature may be listed under either "The Feature" or under "Feature, The". For example The Wash is listed under Wash, The. In all other cases the word order of names in gazetteer entries is not altered. For example, there is a Gazetteer entry for Isle of Wight but not for Wight, Isle of.

Name abbreviations: Abbreviations within names, such as Fm (Farm), R (River) and Ho (House) etc. are sometimes used in the Gazetteer. We have compiled a list of the most common abbreviations that are used within names in the Gazetteer.

Punctuation: Some Gazetteer entries include punctuation such as hyphens, apostrophes and brackets. For example, Newcastle-under-Lyme is entered with the hyphens, but Newcastle upon Tyne has no hyphens.

Word division: Similar place names may be split into words in different ways. For example, the Gazetteer includes entries for separate places called Glen Shee and Glenshee.

Accented characters: From 2000, the Gazetteer data includes accented vowels where needed in Gaelic or Welsh placenames. Examples are A' Bhrìdeanach, Berllan-dêg, Crois Mhór. Accents are only used on a, e, i, o, u.

Alternative names: In some cases, commonly in Welsh and Gaelic speaking areas, names may be included in the Gazetteer with an alternative form. Where the Gazetteer entry includes two forms, either brackets, the word "or", or a forward slash ("/") are used to separate them. For example, the Gazetteer includes "Tenby (Dinbych-y-pysgod)", "Anglesey or Ynysmôn" and "Aberdaugleddyf / Milford Haven". In most such cases, two Gazetteer entries exist, each with a different form first. For example, the Gazetteer contains entries for "Isle of Lewis or Eilean Leodhais" and "Eilean Leodhais or Isle of Lewis".