Categorisation in Bristol

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This page is part of the England Project.

The City and County of Bristol is a unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England. It has been a county in its own right since 1373, apart from a brief period between 1974 and 1996 when it was a district within the County of Avon. However, it is not considered to be one of the 39 historic counties of England which the England Project uses for place name categories. Vision of Britain considers the part of the city north of the river Avon to be in Gloucestershire, and the part south of the river to be in Somerset.

How to categorise in Bristol

Category:Bristol represents the ceremonial county of the City of Bristol. It is a top level category, with sub-categories for Appointed Officers, Cemeteries, Religious Congregations, etc., and for localities within the city boundary. It should not contain person profiles and should not appear in the category picker, not least to prevent confusion with other cities called Bristol in America.

Individual profiles should as ever be categorised at the lowest possible level, which should wherever possible be the specific location within the city, such as Category:Clifton, Gloucestershire or Category:Bedminster, Somerset. These place categories can be set up in accordance with the existing guidance: those north of the Avon will have "parent=Gloucestershire" and "parent1=Bristol" in the CIB, those south of the river "parent=Somerset" and "parent1=Bristol".

This leaves the problem of how to categorise profiles from the old city centre, or those where the location within the city is not known. According to the current England Project rules, the appropriate category is Category:Bristol, Gloucestershire. This is the default landing category for person profiles who are not associated with a defined locality elsewhere in the city. "Bristol, Gloucestershire" is a sub-category of Somerset as well as of Bristol and Gloucestershire.

"Bristol, Somerset" should not be used: only the southern part of the city was ever in Somerset; for those parts of the city, the appropriate place category should be used.

Location fields (as distinct from categories) on profiles should simply use "Bristol, England".