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

Oliver Buxton Dunn; Eduard J Alvarez-Palau

doi:10.1016/j.dib.2020.105991

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

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

Authors

Oliver Buxton Dunn¹, Eduard J Alvarez-Palau²

Affiliations

¹ University of Cambridge, UK.
² Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain.

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.