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. 2020 Jul 7:31:105991.
doi: 10.1016/j.dib.2020.105991. eCollection 2020 Aug.

Dataset for historical lighthouses and light aids to navigation (LAN). England and Wales, 1514-1911

Oliver Buxton Dunn  1 , Eduard J Alvarez-Palau  2
Affiliations

Dataset for historical lighthouses and light aids to navigation (LAN). England and Wales, 1514-1911

Oliver Buxton Dunn et al. Data Brief. .

Abstract

We describe 'LAN', a geospatial data set that documents the development of coastal lights that guided ships around England and Wales from medieval times to 1911. As an additional benefit, LAN provides visibility range of individual lights from 1831. The authors collected all data from scholarly literature and historical coastal navigational charts and official lighthouse surveys. The sources were selected for their good coverage of coastal lighting. LAN allows users to track the development of coastal lighting over time by presenting snapshots of this service as it was during several benchmark periods.

Keywords: Coastal navigation; Historical geography; Lighthouses; Transport infrastructure.

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Conflict of interest statement

None.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Number of lights (all types) reported by benchmark period in LAN. (Establishments fitted with multiple lights are counted as one observation.).
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Evolution of lighthouses and visibility ranges over time. Grey lines show coastal routes and port connections . If the sources gave no visibility value (1753 and earlier) we take the average values from Naish .
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Alvarez-Palau E.J., Dunn O. Database of historic ports and coastal sailing routes in England and Wales. Data Brief. 2019;25 doi: 10.1016/j.dib.2019.104188. . - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Naish J. Stanford Maritime; London: 1985. Seamarks: Their History and Development.
    1. Hague R., Christie D.B. Their Architecture, History, and Archaeology. Gomer Press; Dyfed: 1975. Lighthouses.
    1. Collins G. R. Mount; London: 1693. Great Britain's Coasting-pilot(...) Being a New and Exact Survey of the Sea-Coast of England (…)
    1. Collins G. W. & J. Mount, & T. Page; London: 1753. Great Britain's Coasting-pilot(...) Being a New and Exact Survey of the Sea-Coast of England (…)

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