The way places are organized and indexed in the 1939 Register has me somewhat befuddled. Sometimes even when looking at an original page, the parish or village name is not shown, making it difficult to know where the household you are looking at was actually located. This may be due to the fact that other redacted lines on the page cover this key information. Fortunately, for the images I have looked at so far, I know where the addresses were even though it is not always obvious from looking at the record. However, I am wondering if any information can be gleaned from the Enumeration District (ED) codes.
Take this example from reference RG 101/6272A. At the top of the page is written three pieces of location information:
- E.D. Letter Code: ROLQ
- Borough, U.D. or R.D.: Southwell R.D. [Rural District]
- Registration District and Sub-district: 431/2
The enumeration districts used in the 1939 Register were based largely on those from 1931 census. Using the 1931 census reports it is a fairly straightforward matter to determine that registration district 431 is Southwell, and sub-district 2 is Kneesall. However, there are still a large number of parishes in this rural district and registration sub-district.
FindMyPast have published a list of ED area codes which is useful to bookmark even though it does not tell me any more than is on the record itself. This list confirms that ROL corresponds to Southwell RD. The ED letter code is based on this three digit area code plus an additional sequential letter.
Clearly there are a number of EDs within Southwell RD (one of which is ROLQ). Presumably each enumeration district had specific boundaries - otherwise people could be easily duplicated.
I am unsure whether the area covered by an ED was determined by local or national authorities. This could affect where ED information can be found.
How can I determine what area was covered by an ED - either boundary descriptions, maps, or lists of parishes (or parts of parishes) included in that ED?