Research spotlight:
The place-names of
Shropshire, Staffordshire
and beyond
Dr John Baker, Dr Jayne Carroll, and colleagues from the Institute for Name-Studies (INS) are transforming understanding of local landscape, dialect and identity, and the importance of place-names in interpreting the past. They have long-standing partnerships with schools, heritage organisations, and local interest groups across Shropshire and Staffordshire.
Research overview
Dr John Baker and Dr Jayne Caroll are specialists in English place-names. Dr John Baker is especially interested in early medieval society and culture, the ways in which the evidence of place-names can contribute to their study, and the potential for a rigorous onomastic approach to inform and clarify interpretations, supplementing and testing the evidence of other disciplines such as archaeolgoy and history. Dr Jayne Carroll specialises in the history of the English language, in particular Old English and Old Norse language and literature. They lead and collaborate on a varied portfolio of interdisciplinary research projects and play an active role in outreach and public engagement initiatives with heritage organisations, schools, and local interest groups.
Research projects
Place-names of Shropshire
Dr Jayne Carroll is principal investigator for this AHRC-funded project. She is collaborating with INS colleagues and the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studes (University of Wales) to complete the English Place-Name Society survey of Shropshire.
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This project, launched in January 2013, brings to completion a long-term study of Shropshire place-names begun by Dr Margaret Gelling, former president of the English Place-Name Society (EPNS) and one of the subject’s leading exponents of the last fifty years.
Gelling published six volumes of Shropshire place-names between 1990 and 2012. The project team published the seventh volume in 2018, and two further volumes are due to be published in 2020.
In 2015-16, the project team partnered with Shropshire Archives and museums and libraries across Shropshire to co-curate a travelling exhibition that went on display in Oswestry, Ludlow, and Shrewsbury. The exhibition was accompanied by a fully illustrated 50-page booklet and a series of public lectures. Through these activities, the research has enhanced heritage provision in Shropshire and increased public interest in and knowledge of Shropshire history, landscape, and identity.
Visit the project website
Staffordshire Place-Names
The INS have launched a digital database of Staffordshire place-names, which is being used to complete the Staffordshire place-name survey. The team oversee a volunteer study group, based at Staffordshire Record Office, who are helping to compile the database.
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This project has been running since February 2017, with a regular group of volunteers meeting on a weekly basis at the Staffordshire Record Office. Volunteers have received training in specialist data handling and digitsation skills to collect place-names and enter them into the database.
Visit the project website
Learning the Landscape through Language
This one-year AHRC-funded project is exploring and developing ways to enhance childhood learning through the use of place-name material.
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Working with local heritage organisations and primary schools in Shropshire, the INS team are developing ways to use place-names in existing educational programmes and curricula, and devising new learning materials and experiences with a focus on place-names.
The team are running training and development days for local educators, demonstrating how place-names can be used as an educational tool in understanding the development of language, landscape and community.
New innovative learning materials and lesson plans will be developed in conversation with KS2 educators and these resources will be freely available on the INS website.
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I now have a greater understanding of how place-names can lead to so many learning opportunities!
So many local contexts and opportunities for History and Geography teaching.
Travel and Communication
This three-year interdisciplinary project was funded by the Leverhulme Trust and investigated travel and communications in Anglo-Saxon England.
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This interdisciplinary project was a collaborative venture between the INS and the Institute of Archaeology at University College London. It ran from November 2014 and brought together archaeologists, historians, and place-name scholars to reconstruct Anglo-Saxon England’s overland route-system (and its intersections with the riverine route-system) using textual, landscape archaeological, and onomastic evidence.
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Flood and Flow
Dr Jayne Carroll collaborated on this Leverhulme-funded project using place-names to study river flooding and water/land management in 700-1000AD.
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This two-year project brought together scholars from the Universities of Leicester, Southampton, and Wales, as well as Nottingham.
The period 700-1000AD was the last major episode on record of rapid global warming before the present day. This project considered what we might learn from place-names from that time. Can we learn from the information they contain? What warnings do they hold for us in terms of where we might build? Might they be useful in guiding where we might restore wetlands or replant woodland in order to Slow the Flow?
Visit the project website
Project funding
These projects were made possible through funding from:
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