GB Counties - Past and Present
Explore the county boundaries of Great Britain throughout time with our counties map, which shows historic and ceremonial counties.
Get this ProductView Technical InformationFree to use for everyone
Get this ProductView Technical InformationFree to use for everyone
What GB Counties - Past and Present provides you with
Historical boundary data
OS has been mapping the changing physical landscape of Great Britain for the past 224 years. It is not only the landscape which has changed, but our county boundaries have also changed over the past two centuries.
Ceremony and history
Ceremonial counties, as defined by the Lieutenancies Act 1997, refer to the areas relating to the Lord-lieutenants, the monarch’s representatives. And historic counties are geographical boundaries that date back over many centuries, and form the basis of the counties we know today.
Different definitions
The term ‘counties’ has three slightly different definitions in Great Britain. The first would be counties defined by the Local Government Act 1972 and used for administrative purposes.
Designed collaboratively
These datasets have been created as part of a project with the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG). The current and historic county boundaries have been added to our administrative boundary data under the open data portfolio.
GB Counties - Past and Present
Technical information
Specifications
- Access
- Download
- Data theme
- Administrative and Statistical Units
- Data structure
- Vector - Polygons
- Coverage
- Great Britain
- Scale
- 1:10 000
- Format
- ESRI Shapefile
- MapInfo TAB
- Ordering area
- All of Great Britain
- OS Data Hub plan
- OS OpenData Plan (FREE)
- Premium Plan
- Public Sector Plan
- Energy & Infrastructure Plan
Additional information
Different definitions
The term ‘counties’ has three slightly different definitions in Great Britain. The first would be counties defined by the Local Government Act 1972 and used for administrative purposes.
Designed collaboratively
These datasets have been created as part of a project with the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG). The current and historic county boundaries have been added to our administrative boundary data under the open data portfolio.
GB Counties - Past and Present
Get this product
What you get
- Key features
- Historical boundary data
- Ceremony and history
- Different definitions
- Designed collaboratively
- Category
- Addressing and location
- Access
- Download
- Data structure
- Vector - Polygons
How to access
OS OpenData is free
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Further support
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