The Survey of English Place-Names
The Survey of English Place‑Names is the principal project of the EPNS. The survey aims to examine the origins and development of all English place-names.
The Survey is arranged by historic counties: the first volume, covering Buckinghamshire, appeared in 1925; the most recent, volume 91 dealing with part of Leicestershire, appeared in 2016.
EPNS Survey volumes and prices
The current coverage of The English Place-Name Society Survey
From the beginning the Survey has received the generous support of the British Academy and, latterly, the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).
Director: Dr David Parsons (Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies, University of Wales)
The Survey is the principal research project of the English Place‑Name Society.
Current County Editors of the Survey of English Place-Names
Work to complete the Survey of English Place-Names is currently being undertaken by the respective county editors:
Cornwall: Dr Oliver Padel
Hampshire: Professor Richard Coates
Herefordshire: We hope to publish the work of the late Herefordshire editor, John Freeman, in due course.
Kent: Dr Paul Cullen
Lancashire: Professor John Insley
Northumberland: Work on a 'popular' Northumberland dictionary is underway.
Shropshire has an editorial team, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council: Dr John Baker, Mrs Sarah Beach, Dr Jayne Carroll, Dr Paul Cavill, Dr David Parsons, and Ms Helen Watt.
Somerset: Work on a 'popular' Somerset dictionary is underway.
Staffordshire: Work on a 'popular' Staffordshire dictionary is underway.
In addition, Professor Diana Whaley has supervision of the collection for Northumberland, while Professor John Insley is overseeing the publication of Lincolnshire material collected by the late Professor Cameron. Collection of Staffordshire material is also underway.
Coverage and Scope of the Survey
Before the Second World War, the Survey was largely limited to coverage of 'major' place-names, the names of towns, villages, larger rivers, forests, etc. From the 1950s onwards rich collections of minor names, field-names and street-names have also been included. (Major names are also nowadays given a very much fuller treatment than in the early years.) This detailed material provides an excellent resource for local investigators, social, urban and agricultural historians of the medieval and early modern periods, linguists, geographers and archaeologists. The growing scale of coverage, however, has inevitably slowed down the country-wide progress of the Survey, and counties are nowadays covered by multiple volumes. This accounts for the current partial coverage of some counties.
The map above indicates the current coverage of the country.
The Digital Survey of English Place-Names
Work on a digitised version of the Survey volume began in 2011 as part of a Jisc-funded project involving staff at the Institute for Name-Studies and coleagues from Queen's University Belfast and the University of Edinburgh. The aim was digitise most volumes published between 1925 and 2009 and to make them available in searchable form on a website. With continued financial and practical support from the Faculty of Arts at the University of Nottingham, Institute for Name-Studies staff have worked with the University's Digitial Research Services team to produce a new site, which will shortly be available.
Reports from projects funded by Professor Jim and Mrs Mary Ann Wilkes
Short reports are now available for EPNS projects enabled by the generous funding of Professor Jim and Mrs Mary Ann Wilkes. These reports can be downloaded via the links below.
Herefordshire report (2016)
Norfolk report (2016)
Staffordshire report (2017)