Wikipedia:WikiProject UK geography/How to write about settlements
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[edit] What are we writing about?
In the UK what a "settlement" is can be quite ambiguous. There are several types of official administrative areas that could be described as a settlement, but these often do not perfectly represent what people think of as their town or city. An encyclopedia has to tell us about each aspect of a settlement.
A city may spill out of its administrative boundary. Where this occurs suburbs, significant places of interest and employment outside the city boundary should be mentioned in the article, but it should be noted that they lie in a different administrative areas.
Smaller settlements may come with a civil parish or council ward. With country villages you may wish to mention significant places within the parish but that you might not immediately consider part of the village. Hamlets that are within another parish could have their own articles, but if there is no more than a couple of paragraphs that could be said about the hamlet it may be better to merge the articles.
Within cities areas and suburbs are often difficult to define. The same name may be used for both a current or former civil parish and a larger council ward. The same (or similar) area may have two or three different names - that of a ward, church parish and local names with no official use. Depending on how much can be written, it may be best to merge.
[edit] Introduction
(this is designed mostly for towns and villages, the intro for cities may need to be slightly different)
This is the opening 3-5 paragraphs. Articles that are 3-5 paragraphs long should look similar to the introduction section of longer articles. This section tells us where the place is and then summarises the article. On longer articles that are sectioned, where possible notes and references should be in the main text and not the introduction.
The opening sentence/paragraph of the introduction should establish what and where the settlement is. Is it a hamlt, village, market town, county town, new town, suburb? Use references to physical geographic features and/or neighbouring towns with distances in miles and km (put "x miles in km" into google and it will calculate it for you) where relevant. The county and home nation must be mentioned (see this page for a lengthy discussion on the matter), mentioning local government areas is encouraged and mentioning the UK is optional. The county mentioned in the introduction should be the modern administrative, and if different, i.e. in a unitary authority, the ceremonial county. If the traditional county is different from the ceremonial county this should be mentioned somewhere in the article, but does not have to be mentioned in the introduction. You may also include coordinates using the {{coor dms}} and {{gbmappingsmall}}.
E.g:
- Exampletown is a market town in Exampleshire, England. It lies on the Example River, A123 road and Example Main Line Railway five miles (8km) south west of Countytown in the West Exampleshire district and parliamentary constituency.
The introduction should introduce important facts about the town. The population is required. The rest should be a summary of the key facts from the rest of the article.
[edit] Infobox
[edit] Sections
A good article will have several sections, each with between two and eight paragraphs each. Note: if the article is less than around eight paragraphs long do not break it into sections unless you intend to expand them soon after. The same goes for breaking up sections further into subsections: we don't need a subsection for every paragraph. (See the Wikipedia:Guide to layout page for a more generic style guide).
The suggested sections below are the sort of sections commonly found on good UK place articles. They are roughly ordered by how common they are, and also coincidently by the order they are typically found in an article. Sections nearest the top are therefore more "mandatory" for a good article, while those near the bottom are optional.
- Lead - Every article on wikipedia should have a lead, or introduction. This should act as a brief, summative version of the article, establishing what and where the settlement is, and highlighting key history and points. Per the Introduction guide above, it must include population as well as the modern county and the constituent country (i.e. England, not United Kingdom). It should be between one and four paragraphs. For more information, see WP:LEAD.
- History - The second major section should deal with the history of the settlement. Histories are often long and may require subsections, these could include the histories from various ages (Stone, Iron, Bronze, Roman, Medieval, Industrial etc); however, don't over-section an article: when this section gets too long, split it to a sub-article "History of ..." using Wikipedia:Summary style.
- Etymology - Etymology is the origins of words and names and a good settlement article should include this. Like any other section, a reliable reference should be provided.
- Relevant sub-sections - including the origins, early history, Stone, Iron, Bronze, Roman Industrial, Recent history of the area.
- Politics and administration - Possibly including constituency/ward/electoral details, history of a settlements administrative arrangements/borders, including any charters, former borough/county boundaries etc.
- Geography or Physical geography/Geology - A description of the local physical geography, including (if not too long) geology, landscape, climate. Can also include info about surrounding places, transport and sub-divisions/suburbs if there is not enough to split into other sections.
- Demographics - This section should generally be used to breakdown the demography of a settlement. It should include total population figures (in cities with their own councils include population of the administrative city, metropolitan area and catchment area), population change, age structure, ethniciy, religion, etc etc.
- Economy or Economy and industry - including major industries and employers (including agriculture and tourism - include statistics on tourist numbers and revenue if available) and, where available, statistics such as GDP and unemployment
- Culture - If appropriate. It may be more suitable to include this in the Present day section if suitable. This section could include local arts, media sports, theatre, radio and literature. Also any important cultural figures, such as artists and musicians associated with the settlement.
- Divisions and suburbs - This section should highlight what divisions and suburbs a settlement may have. This should generally be formatted as prose or as a table. Long lists are not encouraged (see WP:LIST).
- Places of interest - Should serve to highlight local museums and exhibition centres, as well as tourist attractions. This section should include information about major buildings, important architecture, memorials (war or otherwise), public sculpture etc.
- Present day - This section can be used to write about the settlement as it exists today, if the article is not long enough to break down into the sections above, however, remember that "Miscenlaneous" and "Trivia" sections are discouraged, and ultimately this should be replaced with more specific sections. However, for smaller settlements particularly, it could serve to highlight any contrasts with the past, including the settlement's current use/significance, types of housing, any notable controversies, redevelopment, major employers (if not already mentioned in the Economics section. Suitable sub-sections can include:
- Communal facilities - Such as libraries, parks, sports venues etc.
- Transport - Main centres and modes/means of transport of the settlement today (this may require it's own section).
- Education - Indicating local schools, colleges, and universitys (if appropriate) etc.
- Industry and/or /Retail/Commerce - This section may not be required if an economics section is in place.
- Sport - Including sporting venues, local (notable) teams and relevancies.
- Notable residents - you may wish to spread information about notable residents throughout the article (e.g. actors in "Culture", scientists in "Education", historical figures in "History", etc), and use a category to maintain a complete list. However, if you use this section remember: Notability is a key word in this title (as opposed to famous and/or non-notable residents), and wikipedia has a strict policy on who should be included as a notable person (they should meet the criteria set out at Wikipedia:Notability (people)). This section should be preferably be prose, not a list, and must be well referenced like any other. It should make it clear (if applicable) that some people may not have been born in a certain place, any may have just been resident for a time. It should also indicate (if applicable) that some of these people may be from a wider area (such as satellite towns/villages) and that some are historically notable.(see WP:N for more information).
- See also - This section should divert people to related articles. Perhaps towns with the same name in a different part of the world.
- References - Per Wikipedia:Citing sources and Wikipedia:Verifiability, all material in an article should be referenced, preferably using inline citation.
- External links - This should provide links to external websites. Links should give the reader more information on the place, or an aspect of it, in a way that the article can not. Business directories or spam should not be linked.
[edit] Points to consider
With the exception of references and external links the article should generally be in prose. Lists are not generally encouraged and should be kept to a minimum, especially on articles on major cities where the lists can be moved to sub-articles and a prose summary used on the main article instead.
Standalone days, months and years should generally not be linked (see WP:DATE and WP:CONTEXT). For example "He was born in 1974" is not convention and the wrong approach to linking dates. However, in the sentence "He was born February 23, 1974", because the date is in full, it is appropriate to link the dates.
Section titles should not start with the word "The". (see WP:HEAD).
When providing a reference, please note that the word or punctuation goes before the reference, with no space inbetween. Full stops should not appear after a reference.
[edit] Resources
[edit] Resources
- Statistics: Office for National Statistics, Census related resources, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA), Neighbourhood statistics (Parish data etc.)
- Population data (see below for England): Ayrshire, East (PDF), Falkirk, Moray, Lanarkshire, North
- Maps:
- Multimap
- OS Get a map
- Ordnance Survey for Northern Ireland
- OpenStreetMap is starting to get good coverage of some parts of the UK (eg Isle of Wight, North London, NW Surrey, Birmingham, Bedford).
- Ordnance Survey® Election Maps–boundaries of civil parishes, wards, boroughs etc., up to street map scale. The draconian terms and conditions don't seem to prevent GFDL licensing of research by Wikipedia editors, as long as the editors themselves don't use the information for financial gain, and no-one copies actual extracts, mapping data or layers from the maps.
- Books: There is a list of UK geography books and the Wikipedians who own them at Wikipedia:Library/Places#UK. You can request info from the owners of the relevant books.
- Websites: 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica [1]
- Photos : Geograph British Isles project
| England | |
|---|---|
| Bedfordshire | Bedfordshire facts & figures |
| · Luton | |
| Berkshire | West Berkshire 2001 Census data |
| Bristol | Ward finder |
| Buckinghamshire | |
| · Milton Keynes | |
| Cambridgeshire | |
| · Peterborough | |
| Cheshire | |
| · Halton | |
| · Warrington | |
| Cornwall | Parish population data |
| · Isles of Scilly | |
| Cumbria | Census 2001 |
| Derbyshire | |
| · Derby | |
| Devon | East Devon parish population data (PDF) |
| · Plymouth | |
| · Torbay | |
| Dorset | Parish population data (import should be complete) |
| · Bournemouth | |
| · Poole | |
| County Durham | |
| · Darlington | |
| · Hartlepool | |
| · Stockton-on-Tees | |
| East Riding of Yorkshire | |
| · Kingston-upon-Hull | |
| East Sussex | |
| · Brighton and Hove | |
| Essex | |
| · Southend-on-Sea | |
| · Thurrock | |
| Gloucestershire | |
| · South Gloucestershire | |
| Greater London | |
| Greater Manchester | |
| Hampshire | 2001 census |
| · Southampton | |
| · Portsmouth | |
| Herefordshire | 2001 census |
| Hertfordshire | Population and census data |
| Isle of Wight | |
| Kent | 2001 Census Area Profiles |
| · Medway | |
| Lancashire | |
| · Blackburn with Darwen | |
| · Blackpool | |
| Leicestershire | Census 2001 |
| · Leicester | |
| Lincolnshire | Parish population profiles |
| · North Lincolnshire | |
| · North East Lincolnshire | |
| Merseyside | |
| Norfolk | |
| North Yorkshire | |
| · York | |
| · Middlesbrough | |
| · Redcar and Cleveland | |
| · Stockton-on-Tees | |
| · Northamptonshire | |
| Northumberland | Tynedale population data (PDF) |
| Nottinghamshire | |
| · Nottingham | |
| Oxfordshire | |
| Rutland | |
| Shropshire | |
| · Telford and Wrekin | |
| Somerset | Parish population data |
| · Bath and North East Somerset | Census Data |
| · North Somerset | Census Information |
| South Yorkshire | |
| Staffordshire | |
| · Stoke-on-Trent | |
| Suffolk | |
| Surrey | |
| Tyne and Wear | |
| Warwickshire | |
| West Midlands | |
| West Sussex | |
| West Yorkshire | |
| Wiltshire | Wiltshire Community History from Wiltshire County Council giving brief historical information and references for settlements including old maps and Population by community 1801–2001 census data |
| · Swindon | Population by community 1801–2001 census data at Wiltshire Community History from Wiltshire County Council |
| Worcestershire | |
