Great Britain Historical GIS Project: A Vision of Britain though Time Generating Vector Data and Statistics from the Stamp survey Brian Baily and Humphrey.

Great Britain Historical GIS Project:A Vision of Britain though Time

Generating Vector Data and Statistics from the Stamp survey

Brian Baily and Humphrey Southall(Department of Geography,University of Portsmouth)

29th June 2006 2


Structure of presentation:

• Published and unpublished maps of the Land Utilisation Survey of Great Britain

• How accurate was the LUSGB?• Generating Quantitative Data from the LUSGB:

– Scanning– Geo-rectification– Classification– Vectorisation

• Research funded by:– Environment Agency– DEFRA– Frederick Soddy Trust

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LUSGB One Inch sheets

• Published using 9 different printers, so significant variation

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LUSGB unpublished maps of upland Scotland

• 56 sheets covering upland Scotland never published due to lack of funds, although survey work fully complete

• Water-colour versions deposited with RGS

• Individually signed-off by Stamp

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LUSGB 10 mile to the inch summary sheets

• Use slightly simplified classification

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LUSGB Colour separations

• Held by LSE library

• Survive only for 20 sheets, and the southern national summary sheet

• Sample shows light green layer, i.e. pasture

• Very easy to computerise

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Digitising the Land Utilisation Survey

• Project in 2004 funded by Environment Agency and DEFRA scanned and geo-referenced all published sheets– Greatly assisted by map

librarians around Britain

• Additional project in 2005 funded by Soddy Trust added unpublished Scottish sheets– Whole LUSGB finally

published!

• All now available on Vision of Britain web site:– www.VisionOfBritain.org.uk

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How accurate could the Stamp survey be?

• Carried out by schoolchildren• Instruction leaflet only 4 sides

– Little discussion of defining either the urban fringe or the moorland fringe

• And were the terms well-defined anyway?– "We have never been able to get a satisfactory dividing line

and our definition has not in practice amounted to much more than saying that rough grazings are grazings that are not smooth" (Minute of 28/7/1941, in PRO MAF 38/211)

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Comparing the LUSGB and the 1931 Farm Census

Land utilisation Survey

1931 Agricultural Census

Arable Arable land

Permanent grass Permanent Grass. For hay Permanent grass. Not for hay

Orchards

Forests and woodland

Rough grazing Rough Grazings

Houses with gardens

Land agriculturally unproductive

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The 1930s in longer-term perspective

England and Wales

Worcestershire

Arable versus Permanent Grass from the Farm Census

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Comparison of total acreages:

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Comparing Arable Land

Cornwall

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Mapping Arable Land

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Comparing Permanent Pasture

R2 = 0.9525

0

100000

200000

300000

400000

500000

600000

700000

800000

900000

0 100000 200000 300000 400000 500000 600000 700000 800000 900000 1000000

Permanent Grass: LUS

Pe

rma

ne

nt

Gra

ss

: A

gri

cu

ltu

ral

Ce

ns

us

Cornwall

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Comparing Rough Grazing

R2 = 0.9532

0

50000

100000

150000

200000

250000

300000

350000

400000

0 50000 100000 150000 200000 250000 300000 350000 400000

Rough Grazing: LUS

Ro

ug

h G

rax

ing

: A

gri

cu

ltu

ral C

en

su

s

Cornwall

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From the Cornwall County Report• “It is clear that the Land Utilisation surveyors have included as arable

only land under crops or newly laid down to grass; all other grassland has been recorded as permanent grass (including long-ley) whilst some neglected grass returned by farmers as “rough grazing” has also been included as grassland. The Survey’s total of rough grazing is nearly all true unenclosed moor, some of which escapes the agricultural returns.” (p. 465)

• Farms within Cornwall typically “have 25-30% of their acreage under crops, and the remainder under long-ley or permanent grassland. This long-ley grassland, which may be under grass for from four to eight years, is typical of Cornwall as it is of many other counties on the west side of Great Britain” (p. 418)

• It was not true that the surveyors were ill-trained children. Local volunteers only surveyed about a third of the county and “it became apparent that the survey could best by carried out by academically trained geographers” (p.465). Stamp was particularly keen on the correct representation of Cornwall as he was a part-time resident himself (p. 408)

Great Britain Historical GIS Project: A Vision of Britain though Time Generating Vector Data and Statistics from the Stamp survey Brian Baily and Humphrey.

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