Vice-county Data Sets
When the Conchological Society of Great Britain and Ireland was founded in 1876 the Honorary Secretary, W. Denison Roebuck, started compiling a systematic record of the distribution of British land and freshwater species. A few years later Roebuck proposed that the Society should start a system of recording the localities of British non-marine Mollusca, and that H. C. Watson’s arrangement of county areas should be used. So was born the “Census of Distribution” (which was to later become the Vice-county Recording Scheme) much in imitation of the methods of the Botanical Exchange Club.
In 1961, following the example of the botanists, the Society decided to adopt the method of grid mapping, and by 1976 about 115,000 new 10-kilometre squares had been filed. All earlier useable records contained in the Vice-county Recording Scheme were also incorporated, along with – for rarer species – records from publications and museum collections.
In addition to the grid mapping, we continue to maintain records on a Watsonian vice-county basis, and it is this data which is freely downloadable.
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If you do not have a copy, it is available as a free download by clicking on this logo.
When you have a copy, click below on the data set which interests you.