Ed

In the "places" authority of the Collections Management System we divide
the UK up as follows:

Nation State                    = United Kingdom
1st level political division    = England, Scotland etc. 
	
(kingdom/Principality/Province)	
2nd level political division  = Government Region in England
                                          Unitary Authority in Scotland
& Wales
                                          District in Northern Ireland
Former (1974) county            = Used in England to group Unitary
                                          Authorities with the remainder
of the county
3rd level political division  = Unitary Authority or County in England
                                          Community in Wales
                                          Parish in Scotland
4th level political division  = District in England
                                          (I fudge this because in UA's
the civil
                                           is technically level 4)
5th level political division  = Civil Parish /Non-parish area in England
Settlement                              = Any distinct settlement which
has a name
                                          different to that of its
Parish
Locality                                = Any named part of a settlement

The generic 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc. level can be applied world wide.  So far
I haven't needed more than 5 levels.   In a world wide context we also
have a level called "Dependency" which should sit in a separate
hierarchy under nation state but given the limitations of my software is
actually squeezed in between Nation state and 1st level PD.

Possibly "administrative" would be better than "political".
For England I find myself searching and providing output for all the
levels at some time or other.

Incidentally Magic uses Wards to divide up Non-parish areas (but doesn't
give their names).

Trevor Reynolds
Collections Registrar, English Heritage, Room 530, 23 Savile Row, London
W1S 2ET, United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7973 3482  Fax: +44 (0) 20 7973 3209

> -----Original Message-----
> From: The Forum for Information Standards in Heritage (FISH)
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of LEE, Edmund
> Sent: 21 June 2004 14:37
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [FISH] FISH Interoperability Toolkit: advice on types of area
> recorded
> 
> Hello folks,
> 
> I would like thoughts from list subscribers on a specific issue
relating
> to the types of administrative or other areas that are included in
> heritage datasets. I'm interested in instances of these area types
being
> used to assist with the retrieval or presentation of heritage data.
> 
> What is needed is as full a list as needed of what types of area are
in
> use.
> 
> MIDAS already identifies:-
> 
> Country
> County
> District
> Unitary Authority
> Civil Parish
> Named Location
> To which we might add e.g. Government Office Regions
> 
> Clearly there are also others...
> 1) other current area types (e.g. those equivalents to Civil Parishes
in
> use in Scotland, Ireland, and Wales).
> 2) historic area types that we might want to include, such as pre-1974
> English counties, ecclesiastical parishes.
> 
> But I'm sure there are others. Does anyone use electoral wards for
> example?
> 
> Please could folk contact me (either off-list or simply posted to FISH
> to get discussion going) and let me know what they use.
> 
> Edmund Lee
> FISH Interoperability Toolkit.