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Lancashire Place Name Survey 
Newsletter September 2021 
http://lancspns.weebly.com/ 

Please send Notes & Queries, reviews of events, information about place names research, and any other News to: 
j.masters1@lancaster.ac.uk 

LPNS AGM 2020 
The LPNS 2020 AGM was held online as a video-conference call on February 16 2021 due to ongoing social 
distancing restrictions in response to the current pandemic. The meeting was well attended by LPNS 
members as well as attendees interested in the annual lecture given by Jonathan Masters, a PhD student at 
Lancaster University. The presentation described his current and ongoing research into Lancashire's rural 
development during the middles ages and the evidence of minor medieval place-names. The election of new 
officers and positions in the committee were announced and ratified during the meeting, and the current 
committee members and roles moving forward are as follows: 
Chairman - Nigel Neil 
Secretary - John Wilson 
Treasurer - Carolyn Dalton 
Committee members - Jacquie Crosby, Dr Fiona Edmonds, Peter Iles, Prof John Insley (EPN-S editor for 
Lancashire), Jon Masters (newsletter), Michael Prescott (website), Philip Walsh. 

The Lancashire Tithe Transcription Project 2019-20 
A couple of years ago the North West U3A was looking for a hands-on history project. As LPNS's tithe 
apportionment transcription project had been suspended, in order to divert volunteers to excerpting the 
sources required by Prof John Insley for his Lancashire volume, archivists suggested that as a possible 
activity. More than twice the anticipated number of participants arrived for the initial training session and enthusiastically set to work. To date, 32 schedules have been transcribed. 

Due to the ongoing pandemic, the project has again been suspended. However, the good news is that Liz 
Field, who wrote the following article, is keen to continue; and some of the regular Lancashire County 
Council volunteers will soon start to check the rest of the spreadsheets so that they can be uploaded to LANCAT. 

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The Lancashire Tithe Transcription Project 2019-20 
Elizabeth Field, Lancaster and Morecambe U3A 
When I first heard about the Tithes Transcription Project through my local U3a History group, I was 
intrigued, knowing very little about the process, but interested to learn more and become involved since I had time to spare aside from the other activities I undertook in retirement. I went to a meeting in Preston and was impressed by the scope of the project and very keen to learn more about the task. I wanted to get started and quickly familiarised myself with the methods and the scope of the job. We were given excellent 
guidance and encouraged to get involved and use our initiative to resolve any puzzling entries we came across. Any queries were resolved and sometimes threw up other interesting questions about spelling of 
place names and family circumstances at this time. Issues with how to photograph them in the most useful way were part of the learning curve we encountered. 
I soon began researching the whole process of tithe apportionment from the 1830s and 1840s, but then 
became more intrigued by the names of landowners and occupiers and the places being listed. I deliberately 
chose areas local to me and could actually identify places and families, some of whom were famous in our 
area for other reasons. This led me to want to find out more about the families and their estates, but it also 
stimulated an interest in the social history that can be seen in these snapshots of details from this precise 
time. The task was straightforward and just needed me to be accurate and thorough, which I was used to in 
my teaching. I was fascinated by the names and land use information for places I knew, and I followed up 
some of this with my own research into place and field names and the history of the most prominent 
families, especially the women landowners of the time. I speculated about their lives and went in search of more facts and information from other sources. 
In the months before the lockdown period from Match onwards, I was able to visit Lancashire Archives 
many times, and was given help and advice about their resources, and this was a place I had never been able to visit while I was working. I chatted with others doing the same thing and made friends with a few and we 
corresponded, especially when the country went into lockdown, and we couldn't visit. Fortunately, I had 
taken photographs of a schedule for a very large area and that kept me busy, as well as checking for errors on the others. I was concerned to be accurate, though I know in the thousands of entries one or two slips will occur. 
Independently, I joined a research group and contributed my knowledge and insights into this area of 
information, alongside others who were working on old maps, census documents and even those looking for family history information, especially if they had local ties. 
I have enjoyed the whole process and it has opened another area for me to look into at this time. I would 
like to thank the project leaders and all those who helped us. I will continue to do the work if that is possible. 

Summary of presentation given at AGM 2020, hosted online 16 Feb 2021 
The economic and social evolution of Lancashire's coastal areas c. 1150-1550: The evidence of minor place- 
names 
Jonathan Masters, PhD student, Lancaster University 

My project is a CASE studentship supported by the Economic and Social Research Council and was devised 
and supervised by Dr Fiona Edmonds and Prof Ian Gregory at Lancaster University in collaboration with Jacquie Crosby and Lancashire Archives. 

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I am in my third year of doctoral research exploring documentary and minor place-name evidence 
concerned with economic development of the rural countryside surrounding the settlements bordering on 
the vast areas of moss and marsh covering much of Lancashire's south-west coastal plain during the 
medieval period from 1150 to 1550. My research addresses the following questions: how did the landscape evolve on the coastal plain from 1150-1550, and how did rural society exploit the surrounding countryside for economic benefit? While engaging with the overarching question: in what ways do minor place names 
reveal evidence of socio-economic practices in the medieval period? 
Lancashire Archives holds a remarkable volume of medieval charters dating from the late twelfth century 
onwards that reveal the exploits of local communities, suggestive of a burgeoning rural society well 
established on the south-west coastal plain. A large proportion of the source materials consulted are drawn from four large manorial archives: DDIN Blundell of Ince Blundell, DDBL Blundell of Crosby, DDM Molyneux 
of Sefton, and DDSC Scarisbrick of Scarisbrick. These collections offer documentary evidence for many of the 
villages in the parishes of Altcar, Aughton, Halsall, North Meols, Ormskirk and Sefton. My research also extends to the development of the medieval borough of Liverpool during the medieval period. 

Documentary evidence 1150-1550 

Collection 	Reference Total No. of Documents Charters, Title deeds 

Scarisbrick of Scarisbrick 	DDSC 	318 	214 

Molyneux Earls of Sefton 	DDM 	411 	254 

Blundell of Ince Blundell 	DDIN 	356 	197 

Blundell of Little Crosby 	DDBL 	188 	130 

300 

250 

200 

150 

100 

50 

0

Total documentary records for research area 1150-1550 
Lancashire Archives catalogues DDBL, DDIN, DDM, DDSC, DDFO, 
DDN, DDCL, DDTR, DDK, DDPD, DDSH 

263 

235 

207 
187 

146 

80 

7

206 

1150-1199 	1200-1249 	1250-1299 	1300-1349 	1350-1399 	1400-1449 	1450-1499 	1500-1550 
Date range 

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Deeds for property inform us of the patterns of landholding and land occupancy within the surrounding 
countryside. Closer examination of available charter evidence and the minor place names recorded in deeds 
reveal a remarkable amount of detail related to agricultural activity, especially on the periphery of townships in marginal landscapes. 
An essential part of my research is to expose what impact this social and economic development had on the 
evolution of the wetland landscape. Therefore, as a way of uncovering the medieval landscape, my research draws on the rich topographical evidence contained in minor place names that were recorded in land deeds that identify places of social, economic, and environmental significance to the local communities. 
So far, I have uncovered 391 individual medieval names that describe places of agricultural use, landmarks, 
and features in the surrounding countryside. My collection of names adheres to the guidance used by 
Lancashire Place-Name Survey volunteers with the intention that any place-name data collected can be easily shared with the survey as a research output. 
Careful interpretation of their meaning has revealed topographical details that have informed my 
understanding of the natural environment and agricultural activity surrounding local settlements, such as 
topographical features, the local environment, land-use, farming practice, wildlife, and even mention of those who made a notable impression on the local area, which also help to envisage the past. 

Distribution map of generic terms found in medieval minor place-names identified as field- names, presented by township and frequency. 

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My analysis also uses digital mapping to compare geographical data sets and to create my own layers from imported data collected from deeds and place names. Locating medieval place names relies to some extent 
on the preservation of corresponding names in later records such as estate surveys and tithe registers. In some cases, field names of a much later date may bear some relation to medieval names, or at least offer 
some reflection on past topographical features. Where names can be located, ArcGIS allows for a more 
concise spatial analysis of historical points of interest, and where possible, I can map areas of agriculture activity and the boundaries of property based on details drawn from medieval sources. This approach has 
received less interest for studying social and economic developments during the later medieval period despite the number of boundary clauses recorded in extant deeds. 
Some simple deductions can be made from presenting the dispersal and frequency of generic terms of 
minor place names. For example, there is a high frequency of names with generics typically associated with 
arable farming recorded at settlements on the south bank of the Alt, particularly Ince Blundell (32), Lt Crosby (18), and Thornton (12). Many of these names are recorded in charters towards the end of my 
period of focus and are a testament to earlier efforts to clear and drain marshland. Indeed, a closer examination of charter materials and the agreements made between local landholders and religious 
communities during the thirteenth century is of great interest for understanding the scope of drainage required to make this area suitable for farming. 
My study of charter evidence for this area aims to uncover aspects of rural life for a unique landscape in the 
north-west of England and contribute a meaningful examination of a lowland setting yet to be considered as 
part of our broader understanding of socio-economic developments during the medieval period. Wetlands 
are a rich natural resource, and studies based on the historical evidence of human contact with these 
environments have captivated scholars worldwide and are a growing research area. 

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The presentation concluded with a short case study based on a small collection of deeds relating to land occupied on the periphery of the townships of Halsall and Scarisbrick. This example demonstrated how 
analysis of minor place-name evidence and GIS-led investigations can augment our understanding of landscape change in the medieval period. 
Several documents dating from the late twelfth and early thirteenth century are related to land surrounding 
the hamlets of Snape and Renacres on the periphery of Halsall Moss. In several documents are detailed boundary clauses and collections of minor place names that provide crucial information about the local 
landscape at the turn of the thirteenth century that also offer potential for geographical analysis and 
mapping. Historians and geographers working with boundary clauses recorded in pre-Conquest records 
have drawn exciting conclusions on the antiquity of territorial divisions to suggest modern districts of 
administration and parish boundaries are based upon territorial units of a much earlier creation. However, 
this approach has received less interest for studying the later medieval period despite the number of boundary clauses recorded in extant deeds. 
From my initial inquiries, I would suggest the boundary in DDSC 14/1 (1192 × 1196) described the limits for 
the area of Snape, depicted on modern OS maps as a sub-division within the civil parish of Scarisbrick. The 
description of the land parcel and its boundary yields some interesting minor place-name evidence for 
further investigation: such as the names Trullebiwra, Thorniheuet and Syirewalacres given to subdivisions of 
the land parcel. The names given to the boundary features Souekar, Rodilache, Wulfawe, Syirewalacres, 
Snapesheued, Snapesbrok are also of interest for understanding the local topography, especially places of 
natural drainage and where water naturally collected. The importance of watery places as boundary 
divisions has received greater attention in recent scholarship, and in the case of Snape, each boundary was 
defined by the natural inundation of water across the low-lying landscape. By comparing their interpreted 
etymological meaning and the context of the local landscape, an attempt was made to locate and map these 
features using geographical data, early editions of OS maps and evidence drawn from documents at 
Lancashire Archives such as estate surveys and tithe records. The resulting map shows the potential location 
of medieval minor names given to features named on early edition OS maps forming the sub-division of Snape. 
This area is of interest for several reasons. Generally, the source materials strongly suggest encroachment 
on the mosses was underway as early as c.1200 and the evidence of deeds show improvements certainly gained pace in the first half of the thirteenth century. The etymology of the term Snape is still undecided, 
but place-name scholars are generally agreed it was often applied to places of rough pasture or boggy 
places, generally giving the sense of land of marginal quality. The deeds give strong evidence of local 
involvement in the improvement and occupation of areas near to wetland and mosses, especially by small holders and religious communities. Some of the earliest attestations of minor names are found in this area and may exhibit evidence of earlier developments before my period of study. 
It remains to be investigated for how long after the medieval period names of landmarks continued in local 
use with the onset of more significant encroachment on the landscape from the sixteenth century onwards. 
Moving forward, my analysis into boundary clauses and place-name evidence continues to uncover little- 
known details about the lay of the landscape and the diversity of its natural resources which contribute 
important details about local economic developments and improvement of wetlands in the north-west of England more generally, from which later developments might be measured. 

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Map showing boundary of Snape sub-division with overlay of medieval stream and place-names based on 
content of deeds DDSC 14/1 and 2, DDIN 23/6 and 24 overlain on extract of OS six-inch Lancashire LXXXIII.NE, Revised: 1906, Published: 1909. 

LANCASHIRE PLACE NAME SURVEY 
Chair: Nigel Neil, Secretary: John Wilson, Treasurer: Carolyn Dalton 
Committee Members: Jacquie Crosby (Archives Service Manager) Dr Fiona Edmonds (Reader in Regional History and Director of the Regional Heritage Centre, Lancaster University), Peter Iles (Lancashire County Council Historic Environment Team), Prof John 
Insley (Heidelberg University, editor for the English Place-Name Society), Jonathan Masters (PhD student, Lancaster University, 
Newsletter), Michael Prescott (website)