A Survey of English Place-names

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17472, 5 June 1922, Page 6

A Survey of English Place-names

So ready a response has been made to Canon Xevill's appeal for information about the history of our local European place-names, that many of our readers will probably be interested to hear of a similar movement now on foot in England. The extreme desirability of a systematic survey of English placenames, on the lines of the work so successfully done in the three Scandinavian kingdoms, was suggested last October in the pages of "History," the quarterly journal of the Historical Association, by Professor Stenton, an authority on Early English personal names. Professor Stenton urged that in view of its far-reaohing importance the subject should be dealt with exhaustively from all possible points of view. Philology, history, archreology, and topography would all have to be laid under contribution for the complete, or approximately complete, -elucidation of the historical and cultural lore latent in the place-name. In the April issue of the same journal there is a long and interesting letter by Professor Allen Mawer, of Liverpool University, pointing out that such, a surjvey is now actually in operation. Its desirability was first emphasised some twenty years ago by Dr. Round, and interest in the matter was revived by a paper read a twelvemonth since before the British Academy. The Academy could not, unfortunately, see its way to finance the undertaking, but it lant it very powerful support. Such, wellknown scholars as Mr Henry Bradley, Sir Paul Vinogradoff, Professor Tout, Professor Tait, and others have shown the keenest and most practical interest, and the Public Record Office and the Ordnance Survey Department have given much help. The work of the survey falls, roughly, into two parts, first the collection, and secondly the interpretation of material. The collection is now being organised "l>y oountiea or "other convenient areas," under skilled direction. Within two months from the beginning of the work, provision waa made for Berkshire, Essex, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Somersetshire, Sussex," and the North Riding of Yorkshire. Very elaborate and exhaustive information is being gathered from all possible sources, and much use is being made of material hitherto unprinted. It is hoped that within the next five years sufficient material may have been brought together to make it possible to begin the work of interpretation, and to issue ved tunes dealing with those counties where the survey is completed. The aim will be "to satisfy not only the require"inents of the scholar, but also of "teachers of history generally and of " that wider public in whom an interest "in the meaning of place-names seems "to be instinctive." As might be expected, the Historical Association is showing a very active interest in the work, which should add immensely to tho sutp of the knowledge of the England of the past. Would it not be possible—it would certainly be advisable — for our local researchers to take a leaf out of the English book, and organise their own enquiries in local oentres, working in connexion with the History Departments of the University Colleges? Unless something of this kind is done, a good deal of effort will run to waste for lack of proper guidance.