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Archiver > SOG-UK > 1999-11 > 0942018094


From: Jeremy Wilkes <>
Subject: [SOG] Parish boundaries
Date: Sun, 7 Nov 1999 18:41:34 -0500


There is another source of information on changes to parish and other
boundaries. It may be of use to anyone requiring precision and willing to
do some work to attain his objective. Guide to the Local Administrative
Units of England by Frederic A. Youngs, jr. is in the Society's library,
and Volume I (Southern England) is within a yard of my computer.

It notes every recorded change in boundaries and cites the authority for
each. It does not say exactly where the new boundary ran, though, unless
the change involved a merger with a whole parish or other unit: that is
where the work would come in. The reader would have to consult the order
or other instrument making the alteration, then refer to a large-scale map.

In case it is not universally known, I can add that a civil parish was
originally defined as an area for which a separate poor rate was levied, so
before the arrival of parish councils one would expect it to be either the
same as the ecclesiastical parish or a division of it.

Jeremy Wilkes

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