People and their places in the Ordnance Survey Name Books for Northumberland c. 1860 – Recording Available

In this webinar, we welcomed Professor Diana Whaley.

The Ordnance Survey Name Books (which survive for most of Scotland and Ireland, but otherwise only for the four northern counties of England) are a wonderful source of information that supplements the great First Edition Six Inch series of mapping. Among other things, they help us to identify who was involved in the survey, who gave information about local places and place-names, who lived there, and how names such as Eppie’s Hill or Henson’s Island came about.

Whilst the talk doesn’t directly contain advice about how to do family history, family and local historians will hear how Britain and Ireland were mapped, who played a part in the process, and what the Name Books reveal about life in the mid-nineteenth century. Those with Northumbrian forbears may well be able to find mentions of people or places of interest to them.

About the Speaker

Diana Whaley is Emeritus Professor of Early Medieval Studies in Newcastle University and is the current President of the Society for Name Studies in Britain and Ireland. She continues to be active in research, especially on English place-names and early Scandinavian texts, and has recently led a project to digitise and transcribe the Ordnance Survey Name Books for Northumberland.

The webinar took place on 4 October 2022 at 7.30pm British Summer Time (BST). It was open to both the public and Guild of One-Name Studies members and was FREE, though you did need to register for the event. The recording is below and below that are some useful links.

Useful Links

• Northumberland Name Books Website
• Catalogue for the Northumberland Books at The National Archives (OS 34)
• National Library of Scotland (OS Maps)
• National Library of Scotland (Main Page for this excellent resource)
• Ordnance Survey People