Rebuilding the Great Britain Historical GIS, Part 3: integrating qualitative content for a sense of place

This article describes the integration of old maps, descriptive gazetteers, and a large library of travel writing into the Great Britain Historical GIS, presenting a range of approaches to geo-referencing diverse historical sources. While previous parts focused on legally defined administrative areas and statistical reporting units, these qualitative sources concern a less formal geography of “places.” The article links these to administrative units in two ways: Places are contained within units, but units are named after places and are consequently subsidiary to them. While rejecting existing gazetteer data standards, the approach aligns well with that of historical place-name researchers. The final section describes how the structure interacts with search engines to support a very popular website for lifelong learners.