Sample headings |
== History == == Governance == == Geography == == Demography == == Economy == == Culture and community == === Culture === === Community facilities === == Landmarks == == Transport == == Education == == Religious sites == == Sport == == Notable people == == See also == == References == {{reflist}} == External links == <!-- Optional headings == Industry and commerce == == Politics == == Media == == Invention and discovery == == Future plans == == Cultural references == == Filmography == == Public services == --> |
How to write about UK settlements covers a set of project guidelines relating to the structure of Wikipedia articles about UK settlements as developed within WikiProject UK geography and WikiProject Cities. We would welcome suggestions on how to improve these guidelines on the talk page, but please refrain from making substantive changes to this article without first discussing them and reaching consensus.
Articles about UK settlements should normally follow the guidelines outlined below as well as the WP:UKGUIDE and the Manual of Style. However, these are not 'written in stone' and can be adjusted where common sense suggests that an exception is appropriate, with an overall aim of professionalism, simplicity and greater cohesion of Wikipedia articles.
See Wikipedia:Naming conventions (geographic names) when choosing a title for the article, and Wikipedia:Disambiguation for how to distinguish between multiple places with the same or similar names. Section titles should generally not start with the word The (see WP:HEAD).
Articles about parts of London should follow WikiProject London's guidelines, and names should follow WikiProject London/Naming conventions, using the format X is a place in the London Borough of Y in lead sections, without "England" or "the UK". Articles on transport in London and local government in London, together with the Greater London Authority and other administrative and ceremonial functions, use different writing and organisational methods than those recommended in this article.
The settlements in the United Kingdom are very diverse and the meaning of "settlement" itself is subject to debate. There are several types of official administrative area that could be described as settlements, but they do not always correspond to what the residents would think of as their own town or city. Similarly, a town or city may spill out of its administrative boundaries; where this has occurred, suburbs and significant places of interest and employment outside the boundary should be mentioned in the article, though it should be noted that they lie within different administrative areas.
Writing about the very smallest settlements in the UK can be difficult due to the lack of source material. If there is no likelihood that an article could ever expand beyond a stub, the place should be dealt with in the article of the smallest notable area in which it lies, such as the council ward, civil parish, community (in Wales), or town, etc. In most cases a redirect should be left to help readers (see Crowden, Devon for an example).
A single name may be in use for a civil parish, an ecclesiastical parish, a council ward and an informal colloquial area, each with slightly different boundaries. On the other hand, one area may have two or three different names – those of a ward, church parish and local names with no official use, for instance. In both these cases, all of the variants should be covered in a single article unless one of the alternatives is sufficiently notable to have an article of its own.
In the United Kingdom, city status can be granted to areas of varying size, from compact urban areas (e.g. Stirling) to large districts which include towns and villages outside their core urban area (e.g. City of Lancaster).
When city status has been granted to an area which includes multiple settlements, we should be guided by reliable sources when deciding whether or not to refer to a particular settlement within that area as a city. For example, although Lancaster, Morecambe, and Carnforth are all in the City of Lancaster district, only the former is referred to as a city in reliable sources. We should therefore refer to Lancaster as a city but Morecambe and Carnforth as towns. Reliable sources should be ignored where they predate the award of city status (see WP:AGEMATTERS). The exact area which was granted city status should always be noted in an appropriate place, such as the article body or a lead footnote.
When a district is awarded city status its local authority often begins to refer to it as 'City of [Settlement]' or similar. This name can, if necessary, act as a WP:NATURAL disambiguation between the articles about the settlement and the local government district.
A deserted town or village that once had its own ecclesiastical parish (or equivalent) can, subject to consensus regarding its status as a standalone old settlement, have its own article if there is sufficient material to make a good article. Examples are Silchester and Gatton, Surrey. However, if a later city, town or village is located close to the centre of the old settlement and absorbs almost all of it, then it is fair to describe it under the new place's history and create a redirect for the old name, if it was different. If the place was not a town or village then it should not have its own article, but should be covered in an archaeology or history section within the appropriate place of today's name, unless it is sufficiently notable for some other reason.
Technically the term "deserted" is disliked because most villages shrank over a period of years and may have had, or continue to have, some sort of vestigial survival – in this case they are correctly termed "depopulated" rather than "former".
In the UK, the uncommonly used term "ghost town" describes somewhere with no more commerce and many vacant homes ( Tyneham is an example). The important principles are whether the settlement had its own parish (in northern England, that is extended to cover townships), and that there are substantial remains (standing or archaeological).
Available categories are: Deserted medieval villages in England, Former populated places in England and Ghost towns in England. There is also a List of lost settlements in the United Kingdom.
Articles should almost always conform to the basic structure of a lead/infobox followed by history, governance, geography, demography and economy, as those sections contain much of the basic information about any settlement. Beyond that, editors are advised to come to a consensus that works best for the settlement in question. Additional or alternative headings are listed under the "Optional headings" section below.
Use Template:Infobox UK place at the top of the article for all settlements of the United Kingdom. There is one exception, for which Template:Infobox settlement should be used:
Where more than one infobox is used, it is recommended that Template:Infobox UK place is placed in the lead. For example Bath, Somerset has a second infobox in the Architecture section describing its status as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Infobox contents:
A lead image to represent the settlement should be used within the main article infobox. For a small settlement this should be a picture of a notable local landmark such as a church, high street, marketplace or other streetscape.
For larger settlements such as cities a montage may be used, subject to consensus among the article's editors, however care should be taken to avoid creating montages that create a poor visual impression of the article.
The lead (see also WP:LEAD) is the text before the first heading. It should not exceed four paragraphs and should normally cover the following:
The opening sentence of the lead is particularly important and should be kept as simple as possible in order to be easily understood by readers with no particular knowledge of administrative geography. If a place is part of a settlement which shares the same name as the district, or if the district / unitary authority / non-metropolitan county has the same name as the ceremonial county, there is no need in the opening sentence to repeat those names for every role they play in the hierarchy. For example: "...is a suburb of Colchester..." rather than "...is a suburb of Colchester in the Colchester district...", or "...is a village in County Durham..." rather than "is a village in the County Durham district in the ceremonial county of Durham...".
Lead: Example1 — Chew Stoke
Chew Stoke is a small village and civil parish in the Chew Valley, in Somerset, England, about 8 miles (13 km) south of Bristol. It is at the northern edge of the Mendip Hills, a region designated by the United Kingdom as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and is within the Bristol/ Bath Green Belt. The parish includes the hamlet of Breach Hill, which is approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) southwest of Chew Stoke itself.
Chew Stoke has a long history, as shown by the number and range of its heritage-listed buildings. The village is at the northern end of Chew Valley Lake, which was created in the 1950s, close to a dam, pumping station, sailing club, and fishing lodge. A tributary of the River Chew, which rises in Strode, runs through the village.
The population, approximately 900, is served by one shop, two public houses, a primary school and, a bowling club. Together with Chew Magna, it forms the ward of Chew Valley North in the unitary authority of Bath and North East Somerset. Chew Valley School and its associated leisure centre are less than a mile (1.6 km) from Chew Stoke. The village has some areas of light industry but is largely agricultural; many residents commute to nearby cities for employment.
Lead: Example2 — Neilston
Neilston is a village in East Renfrewshire, amongst the west central Lowlands of Scotland. It lies in the Levern Valley, 2 miles (3.2 km) southwest of Barrhead, 5.7 miles (9.2 km) south-southwest of Renfrew, and 3.8 miles (6.1 km) south of Paisley, at the southwestern edge of the Greater Glasgow conurbation. Neilston is a dormitory village comprising a resident population of just over 5,000 people.
Mentioned in documents as early as the 12th century, Neilston's early history is marked by its status as an important ecclesiastical parish linked with Paisley Abbey to the north. Neilston Parish Church—a Category B listed building—has lain at the centre of the community since 1163. Before industrialisation, Neilston was a farming and weaving community comprised of a series of single-storey houses, many of them thatched.
The urbanisation and development of Neilston largely coincided with the Industrial Revolution. Industrial scale textile processing was introduced to Neilston around the middle of the 18th century with the construction of several cotton mills. Neilston became a centre for cotton and calico bleaching and printing in the 18th century, which developed into a spinning and dying industry and continued into the early 20th century. Although known today as a former milling village, agriculture has, and continues to play an economic role for Neilston. The annual Neilston Agricultural Show is an important trading and cultural event for farmers from southwest Scotland each spring.
Although heavy industry demised during the latter half of the 20th century, the population has continued to grow as a commuting community, supported by its position between Paisley and Glasgow, from roughly 1,000 people in 1800 to 5,168 in 2001. Neilston, part of Scotland's densely populated Central Belt, has continued to expand due to several new housing developments.
The history section should normally include:
Include the following
The geography section should normally include the following:
{{main|Demography of _}} ''OR'' {{further|[[Demography of Example-shire]]}} Demography: Include the following only if data is available
{{main|Economy of _}} Economy: Include the following
Landmarks: Include the following
Transport: Include the following
{{seealso|List of schools in Constituent country subdivision}}
Religious sites (NOTE: May also use the alternative heading of "Religion" should the content extend to material beyond the places of worship themselves): Include the following
Sport (NOTE: May also use the alternative heading of "Sport and leisure"; alternatively this may be a sub-section of "Culture" (below)): Include the following
Sport and leisure: Example —
London Borough of Croydon
The borough has been criticized in the past for not having enough leisure facilities, maintaining the position of Croydon as a three star borough. At the moment only three leisure centres are open for public use and two of these are expected to be closed down in the near future, with plans for only one of them to be re-built. Thornton Heath's ageing sports centre was recently knocked down, and replaced by a newer more modern leisure centre. South Norwood Leisure Centre was closed down in early 2006 so that it could be knocked completely down and re-designed from scratch like Thornton Heath, which would cost around £10 million. In May 2006 the Conservative Party became in charge of Croydon and decided that doing this would cost too much money, so they came up with another idea of just re-furbishing the centre, although this decision did not come without controversy.
Purley Pool is to close soon, but a new "super-pool" is planned in Coulsdon. The ageing New Addington Leisure Centre is also set to close but is to be re-built. A new leisure centre is also going to be built on the A23, southern end of Purley Way in Waddon. Sport Croydon is currently the commercial arm for leisure in the borough and the logo is seen somewhere in each of the centres. Fusion currently provides leisure services for the council which previously used Parkwood Leisure which itself provides services for nearby Lewisham.
Football teams include Crystal Palace F.C., which plays at Selhurst Park, in the Coca-Cola Championship. Coulsdon United F.C. (formerly Coulsdon Town F.C. before the merge with Salfords F.C.) currently play in the Combined Counties League Division One. Croydon Athletic F.C., whose local nickname is The Rams, is a football club based in Thornton Heath's Keith Tuckey Stadium and play in the Isthmian League Division One South, with Croydon F.C. who play at Croydon Sports Arena and Holmesdale, who were founded in South Norwood but currently playing on Oakley Road in Bromley, currently in the Kent League. Non-football teams that play in Croydon are Streatham-Croydon RFC, an historic rugby union club in Thornton Heath who play at Frant Road, as well as South London Storm Rugby League Club, based at Streatham's ground, who compete in the Rugby League Conference. The London Olympians are an American Football team that play in Division 1 South in the British American Football League.
Provide information of notable individuals that were born, or lived for a significant amount of time, in the settlement. Prose is preferred, though a bulleted list noting the connection the person has with the settlement as indicated in Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Lists#"Children" (i.e., indentation) may be used if appropriate. Simple lists of names add little of value and may be subject to abuse. More developed articles, especially those which have gone through WP:GA and WP:FA, tend to have this section written out as prose. The talkpage may be used in the early stages of an article's development to simply list people who are connected with a settlement.
If the section grows then it may be split out per WP:Summary style into a stand alone article or list which can be linked to via the {{ main}} template placed at the top of the section – example: {{main|List of people from Foo}}.
Relevant guidelines are: WP:EMBED, WP:NLIST and WP:Source list, and should be consulted for up to date advice.
See also (this heading is not mandatory): Include the following:
NOTE: Reference sections may follow a number of styles, including separate "Footnote" and "Further reading" sections; please refer to WP:REF for more information.
External links should be added only rarely, and in accordance with the guidelines found in WP:EL. Consequently, this section should only rarely be found in most articles. In particular, the use of links as described in WP:SPAM should always be avoided.
If any links are deemed appropriate for this section, they should always be accompanied by an appropriate description of (a) what they are, (b) their justification, and (c) the date on which they were added in the form "Accessed: 7 July 2007" ( WP:EL#External links section gives some more information about this).
A link to any Wikivoyage article on the area may be added with the appropriate template: Template:Wikivoyage
External links used as a form of verification for facts found in the text of the article should be treated as references and not be added to this section (see WP:EL#References and citation).
Some settlements' entries may be dominated so much by a specific landmark, person or movement (such as a terrorist attack or natural disaster) that it may require its own section (rather than just a sub-section). Where this is applicable, try to insert it beneath the heading to which it is most related. Similarly some of the smallest settlements may be lacking in extensive notability and source material, and so some of the latter sections may be suitable for amalgamation (such as a "Culture and community" section).
There is broad diversity in the settlements of the UK, and as such, some settlements may require extra or alternative headings. These could include:
(Note: consider if material for this section is more suitable for the "Economy" section).
(Note: this should be about political figures and political events, not local and national government arrangements)
(Note: this section may be suitable as a sub-section of "History")
(Note: this should not be of a speculative nature, but be referenced from published material as to certain development, regeneration or gentrification is set to occur)
Public services: Example —
Oldham
Home Office policing in Oldham is provided by the Greater Manchester Police. The force's "(Q) Division" have their headquarters for policing the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham at central Oldham. Public transport is co-ordinated by the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive. Statutory emergency fire and rescue service is provided by the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service, who have two stations in Oldham; at Hollins on Hollins Road, and at Clarksfield on Lees Road.
The Royal Oldham Hospital, at Oldham's northern boundary with Royton, is a large NHS hospital administrated by Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust. It was opened under its existing name on 1 December 1989. Formerly known as Oldham District and General, and occupying the site of the town's former workhouse (named Oldham Union Workhouse in 1851), the hospital is notable for being the birthplace of Louise Joy Brown – the world's first successful In vitro fertilised "test tube baby", on 25 July 1978. The North West Ambulance Service provides emergency patient transport to and from this facility. Other forms of health care are provided for locally by several small clinics and surgeries.
Waste management is co-ordinated by the local authority via the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority. Locally produced inert waste for disposal is sent to landfill at the Beal Valley. Oldham's Distribution Network Operator for electricity is United Utilities; there are no power stations in the town. United Utilities also manages Oldham's drinking and waste water; water supplies being sourced from several local reservoirs, including Dovestones and Chew. There is a water treatment works at Waterhead.
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" (non-breaking space) should be typed between numbers and units, and other numerical/non-numerical components, e.g., "10 miles", which appears on writing 10
miles, similarly for "Boeing 747"
without having to type it.England | |
---|---|
Bedfordshire | Bedfordshire facts & figures |
· Luton | |
Berkshire | West Berkshire 2001 Census data |
Bristol | Ward finder |
Buckinghamshire | |
· Milton Keynes | |
Cambridgeshire | |
· Peterborough | 2001 Census Profile of Peterborough Cambridgeshire County Council, June 2003 |
Cheshire | * George Ormerod, The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester, Vol. 1 2 3, (1819) (Historical & census) |
· Halton | |
· Warrington | |
Cornwall | Parish population data |
· Isles of Scilly | |
Cumbria | Census 2001 |
Derbyshire | |
· Derby | |
Devon | See the Devon WikiProject list of resources. |
· Plymouth | |
· Torbay | |
Dorset | Parish population data (import should be complete) |
· Bournemouth | |
· Poole | |
County Durham | Durham County Council 2001 Census data |
· Darlington | |
· Hartlepool | |
· Stockton-on-Tees | |
East Riding of Yorkshire | |
· Kingston-upon-Hull | |
East Sussex | |
· Brighton and Hove | |
Essex | Epping Forest census data (includes 1961-2001) |
· Southend-on-Sea | |
· Thurrock | |
Gloucestershire | |
· South Gloucestershire | |
Greater London | |
Greater Manchester | |
Hampshire | 2001 census |
· Southampton | |
· Portsmouth | |
Herefordshire | 2001 census Population and demographics Excel sheet of Parish population histories |
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 | Census population (Excel speadsheet) South Norfolk: parish data and ward data Links to parish websites in Breckland Breckland further data |
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 | Local government history |
· Stoke-on-Trent | |
Suffolk | |
Surrey | |
Tyne and Wear | |
Warwickshire | |
West Midlands | |
West Sussex | Ward profiles |
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 |