We could not match "SHELF" in our simplified list of the main towns and villages, or as a postcode. There are several other ways of finding places within Vision of Britain, so read on for detailed advice and 14 possible matches we have found for you:

• If you meant to type something else:
  
  



• If you typed a postcode, it needs to be a full postcode: some letters, then some numbers, then more letters. Old-style postal districts like "SE3" are not precise enough (if you know the location but do not have a precise postcode or placename, see below):
  
  
  
  
  
• If you are looking for a place-name, it needs to be the name of a town or village, or possibly a district within a town. We do not know about individual streets or buildings, unless they give their names to a larger area (though you might try our collections of Historical Gazetteers and British travel writing). Do not include the name of a county, region or nation with the place-name: if we know of more than one place in Britain with the same name, you get to choose the right one from a list or map:
  
  
  
  
  
• You have just searched a list of the main towns, villages and localities of Britain which we have kept as simple as possible. It is based on a much more detailed list of legally defined administrative units: counties, districts, parishes, wapentakes and so on. This is the real heart of our system, and you may be better off directly searching it. These administrative units are not currently included within "places" and exactly match your search term:

  Unit Name	Type of Unit	Containing Unit (and Type)
  SHELF	Manor	HALIFAX AP/CP (Parish-level Unit)

  It may also be worth using "sound-alike" and wildcard searching to find units with names similar to your search term:
  
  



• If you are looking for hills, rivers, castles ... or pretty much anything other than the "places" where people live and lived, you need to look in our collection of Historical Gazetteers. This contains the complete text of three gazetteers published in the late 19th century — over 90,000 entries. Although there are no descriptive gazetteer entries for placenames exactly matching your search term (other than those already linked to "places"), the following entries mention "SHELF":

  Place name	County	Entry	Source
  BARKING, or Berking	Essex	shelf, on which the Gram pus of 54 guns was wrecked in 1799. The great outfall of the new drainage	Imperial
  BLACKWALL	Middlesex	shelf in the upper part, with shoals off the West India docks and at Leaness, and with one or two shifting	Imperial
  Brochel	Inverness Shire	shelf of the rock, outward to its very edge; and another small building of two low stories, surmounted by battlements	Groome
  Coiltie	Inverness Shire	shelf of Mealfourvonie mountain, at an altitude of 1575 feet above sea-level, it rushes impetuously 9¾ miles east	Groome
  Foyers or Fechlin	Inverness Shire	shelf by no means eminent for safety, above the horrid gulf. In ordinary Highland weather-meaning thereby weather neither very	Groome
  Glenroy	Inverness Shire	shelf from 3 to 30 feet wide, and the most striking characteristic of all is their absolutely constant level. The highest	Groome
  HALIFAX	Yorkshire	Shelf, Ovenden, Midgley, Warley, Norland, Sowerby, Soyland, Rishworth, Barkisland, Stainland, Elland-with-Greetland, Hipperholme-with-Brighouse, Rastrick, Fixby, Wadsworth, Erringden	Imperial
  Inverness-shire	Inverness Shire	shelf in the same valley stands at 964 feet. The materials of which the terraces are composed consist for the most	Groome
  Orkney	Orkney	shelf came to a corner which he had to turn, but found at the critical moment that he had the wrong	Groome
  OWRAM (North)	Yorkshire	district contains also Shelf township. Acres, 4, 750. Pop. in 1851, 18, 699; in 1861, 19, 240. Houses, 4, 101.	Imperial
  PORTLAND, or Isle of Portland	Dorset	shelf which causes a dangerous surf well known to sailors as the Race of Portland. Anancient camp, either Roman or Danish	Imperial
  Shelf	Yorkshire	Shelf , town and township, Halifax par., and eccl. dist., partly also in Bradford par., N. div. West-Riding Yorkshire, 3 miles	Bartholomew
  SHELF	Yorkshire	SHELF , a village, a township, and a chapelry, in Halifax parish, W. R. Yorkshire. The village stands 2½ miles	Imperial

  It may also be worth using "sound-alike" and wildcard searching to find names similar to your search term:
  
  



• Place-names also appear in our collection of British travel writing. If the place-name you are interested in appears in our simplified list of "places", the search you have just done should lead you to mentions by travellers. However, many other places are mentioned, including places outside Britain and weird mis-spellings. You can search for them in the Travel Writing section of this site.



• If you know where you are interested in, but don't know the place-name, go to our historical mapping, and zoom in on the area you are interested in. Click on the "Information" icon, and your mouse pointer should change into a question mark: click again on the location you are interested in. This will take you to a page for that location, with links to both administrative units, modern and historical, which cover it, and to places which were nearby. For example, if you know where an ancestor lived, Vision of Britain can tell you the parish and Registration District it was in, helping you locate your ancestor's birth, marriage or death.