Could you imagine the song of French birds in Cattistock? The estate-name Chantmarle is formed of a surname deriving from a French place-name ‘sing blackbird’.
Brog Street in Sleight, Corfe Mullen, was found to be on the line of a Roman road or strǣt – a demonstration that place-names can be significant for archaeology.
Cancer Drove in Holnest originated less astrologically or oncologically as Canshaw ‘Cana’s copse’.
Sodom Lane in Marnhull remains that despite efforts by inhabitants to change it in 1974 – it probably originated as ‘south down’, but biblical familiarity took over.
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These and many more treasures can be discovered in the five volumes of The Place-Names of Dorset, published by the English Place-Name Society. This survey is grounded in the collection and analysis of an enormous amount of documentary evidence, backed by impressive expertise in the linguistic history of England, leading to explanations of the origin of many thousands of place-names of all kinds. It ranges from those names that are even older than the Anglo-Saxon takeover to modern street-names.
The county editor, A. D. (David) Mills, produced the first volume in 1977, with the final one, containing the county-wide linguistic, historical and geographical analyses and indexes, appearing in high COVID-19 time in 2020. This illustrates the fact that a county survey is an academic lifetime’s work – even longer in some cases, alas, but David has brought his labour to a successful conclusion. The Society hopes that many people in Dorset and elsewhere will find the work to be of consuming interest in itself – a casual browse can lead to hours of distracted fascination ‒ and to be an authoritative and irreplaceable guide in their work as historians, archaeologists, geographers and linguists.
The completion of a county survey is particularly rare, the last being Rutland in 1997 and Leicestershire in 2019 – two in two years being unheard-of in recent times! The Society hopes to contribute to an event in Dorset to publicize this momentous achievement. Another post will follow when arrangements have reached a decisive stage.
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This was a guest blog written for Dorset History Centre by Richard Coates, President, English Place-Name Society, University of the West of England, Bristol.
A truly monumental achievement. Thank you David Mills, I fully appreciate the work that this took. We have used your work, especially the references to medieval documents and surveys in our research on Milton Abbas. We would appreciate your input to a couple of questions we have. Contact us at Milton Abbas Local History Group
https://miltonabbashistorygroup.com/contact/
Where and how can we purchase a copy of these volumes? The library here at Shaftesbury Abbey Museum, or the one at the Gold Hill Museum would appreciate them.
Can anyone answer — why is the Priory church at Wareham known as Lady St Mary? Is this a unique Saxon custom? I do not know of such a combination of Lady and St, unless a titled woman was canonised, rather than it referring to the Biblical Mary (BVM).
They are available to buy at the English Place Name Society. Search the web for them. I had to email them to get a quote for Volume 5. About £40. The other volumes are available at a well known used book seller on the web. I bought Parts 1 – 4 that way.