GIS and the Occupational Structure of Britain 1379-1911
Leigh Shaw-Taylor (History, University of Cambridge)
This research programme aims to reconstruct the occupational structure of Britain in as much detail as possible from 1379-1911 with an eye to improving our understanding of the long-run economic developments which culminated in the Industrial Revolution. I will discuss the ways in which GIS underpins the research programme. We have a created a number of datasets which cover every parish in England and Wales (c.11,000 units and without GIS it would have been very difficult if not impossible to organise the data. GIS allows us to map these data easily and cost-effectively. We have also created a GIS of the historic navigable waterways and railways which we intend to use in combination with the other datasets to assess the impact of transport infrastructure developments on economic development.
