The Historical Gazetteer  >>   User Guide

Browsing

If you don’t want to search for a particular historical form or modern name, but prefer to explore the data, you can browse the Digital Gazetteer instead of using the search functions. Start your search on the main browse page which displays an alphabetical list of counties. Once you’ve selected a county to explore, you can drill down through the settlement hierarchy (see table) to find historic forms and their sources from the largest settlement types to the smallest. To retrace your steps and drill up through the data, use the ‘breadcrumb trail’ at the top of the page.

BrowsingData
BrowsingSelection
 
NB: Depending on the complexity of the individual administrative hierarchies of particularly counties, you may encounter intermediate search steps in your browsing. For example, you may have to drill down through Domesday Hundreds before reaching the parish level, or through chapelries before reaching main settlements and other places
 
Searching by modern names and historical forms
SearchingByNames
01 If you know the modern name [hover] or the historic form [hover] enter it in the place-name form box. Or select modern name or historic form from the drop down menu. If you are searching for a historic form with special characters, e.g., ð or æ, click on the Æ to bring up a menu of special character options to insert into your search text.
   
02 Specify free text searchers or exact character matches.
   
03 Select year span: Use this option to restrict your search results by year of attestation, that is, the date a historical form is recorded in a particular source. For example, you may want search results which include historical forms attested between 1086 and 1886. To search all years, keep the default.
   
04 Source options: Historical place name forms in DEEP are collected from hundreds [thousands] of historical sources. You may wish to restrict your search to particular sources. ‘The 50 most popular’ is a user generated list based on previous searches. Alternatively, you can browse and make a selection from the full list of sources by clicking on the button to the right of the ‘Sources’ box. For both of these, place a tick next to the sources you would like to search. To search all sources, leave blank.
   
05 County or counties: To restrict your search to a particular county or counties, click on the button to the right to browse the list of counties. Tick the box next to the county or counties you want to include in your search results. To search all counties, leave blank.
   
06 Settlement type: Click on the button to the right of the box to browse the list of settlement types and select which ones to include in your search by ticking the boxes. For example, tailor your search to ‘parishes’, ‘fields’ and ‘bridges’. To search all settlement types, leave blank.
 
How search results are displayed
The example (below) shows a search on an early historical form of Nottingham: snotengaham 01. The search results page shows the records that match your search term (i.e, the historical form or the modern name). If you have chosen specific criteria to search by (e.g, counties, sources, settlement types, etc.) you can display a summary in the search results by clicking ‘Search Criteria’ 02 at the top of the Search Results page. Clicking on the historical form 03 or modern name 04 in the search results will take you to the complete record for that place-name 05.
 
Sorting Search Results
The default sort for search results is ascending alphabetical order by the modern name or historical form, depending on which one your initial search was based. There are several options for sorting your results. The A-Z button 06 allows you to sort names in ascending and descending alphabetical order. The drop down menu 07 allows sorting by modern name, historical form, settlement and county. Use ‘Jump to’ 08 to page through the results.
 
Pagination of Search Results
The Historical Gazetteer paginates large sets of results. The default is 20 records per page. Use the drop down menu 09 to increase or decrease the number of results displayed per page.
 
Site Navigation
Use the main menu at the top of the page to navigate through all of the main sections of the DEEP Gazetteer website. The breadcrumb trail 10 will help you navigate and retrace the steps of your searches.
 
Site Navigaton
 
An example of a modern name search
Initial search results on modern names are different from those on historical forms. The example below shows the results for the modern name Nottingham 01. All of the Gazetteer entries of modern names that contain ‘Nottingham’ 01 are displayed. Clicking on a name from the modern place-name form list will reveal and historic forms, attestations, sources, georeferences, map and the Survey bibliographic reference 10 as well as links to other places in Nottingham 04.
 
An example of a medern name search
 
Interpreting browse and search results

Using Alderwasley, a main settlement as an example, the diagram (below) shows, down the left hand side of the page, further links to places within Alderwasley, i.e., larger and smaller settlements under the heading Places(s) 01, and field-names 02 under the heading Additional information. The latter includes field-names, street-names, bridges and other small places. Clicking on these links will reveal the historical forms, attestations and sources for most of these places. For field-names, though, only lists of modern field names (i.e., those still in current use) and historic forms (i.e., those not in current use) are available.

Historic forms 03 are in bold italic, followed by date of attestation 04, e.g., 1610 and the source 05 (displayed in red), e.g., Speed. Placing the pointer over ‘Speed’ reveals further details of the source: J. Speed’s 1610 Map of Derbyshire.

Each settlement type down to the level of larger settlement is individually georeferenced and mapped 06. NB: Smaller names, field-names, street-names, etc., may often inherit the georeference of the larger settlement or parish in which they are located.

Georeferences 07 are derived from three sources: Geonames, Unlock and the Key to English Place-Names.

Search results give the bibliographic reference 08 to the English Place-Name Survey volume which provides the source of the historical forms and attestations in the Gazetteer.

 
Interpreting browse and search results