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. |
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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 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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How search results are displayed | ||||||||||||||||||||||
The example (below) shows a search on an early historical form of Nottingham: snotengaham . 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’ at the top of the Search Results page. Clicking on the historical form or modern name in the search results will take you to the complete record for that place-name . | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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 allows you to sort names in ascending and descending alphabetical order. The drop down menu allows sorting by modern name, historical form, settlement and county. Use ‘Jump to’ 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 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 will help you navigate and retrace the steps of your searches. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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 . All of the Gazetteer entries of modern names that contain ‘Nottingham’ 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 as well as links to other places in Nottingham . | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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) , and field-names 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 are in bold italic, followed by date of attestation , e.g., 1610 and the source (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 . 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 are derived from three sources: Geonames, Unlock and the Key to English Place-Names. Search results give the bibliographic reference to the English Place-Name Survey volume which provides the source of the historical forms and attestations in the Gazetteer. |
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