How to use

Whether you are interested in a place, a person, or a topic such as pubs, schools, quarries, shipwrecks, Roman antiquities or dialect words in place-names, we hope you will find some leads and fascinating details within the Name Books. The documents do not set out to be a nineteenth-century Domesday Book or a detailed Census or Directory, but they do give a marvellously comprehensive overview of the Northumberland of c. 1860 and complement more specialized sources.

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How to use this website

BROWSING

The BROWSE function takes you to the index for each Name Book (normally covering one parish), and the Indexes collectively contain approaching 20,000 names (or ‘Objects’ such as Post Office or School). Simply click on place-names or page numbers in the Index to go to the relevant entries in the transcriptions. From there you can consult the original images, and this is recommended especially where detail is important.

SEARCHING

The SEARCH function enables you to search for strings of characters e.g. Holy Island, knowe, wagonway or William Robson, and there are several options to enable you to refine your search – it’s worth experimenting with these.

It is also worth bearing in mind that spelling may vary, especially in personal names (e.g. Whelan/Whellan; and forenames are often abbreviated), but also place-names (Walbottle/Wallbottle, or names with Lynn/Linn) and words (e.g. color/colour, wagon/waggon). The wild card * can be useful in these cases.

The Search results appear in rank order according to the number and relevance of matches and provide clickable links to the relevant books and pages. Occasionally the matches are in the Notes and hence not visible on the screen until you ‘hover’ your cursor over the red box. Where the matches found are very numerous, the number displayed may be limited. This can be mitigated by searching individual columns rather than ‘All’, or it is possible to obtain a login which gives you access to fuller results. Please Contact Us to request this.

IMAGES

The images are not fully ‘zoomable’ at present and are uploaded at lowish resolution to reduce overall capacity. Please see below for Conditions of Use and Copyright.

LOCATING PLACES

Some search results add possible georeferences, with links to Second Edition OS maps, at the foot of the page. These are selective and experimental at present, since georeferencing is a highly complex undertaking. Meanwhile, other aids to location include the parish divisions adopted by the Ordnance Survey (shown on the sketch map below); online place-name searches, e.g. on Streetmap (though of course many names are far from unique); and the Sheet/Plan numbers that appear in the headers or Situation columns of many pages. An invaluable collection of First Edition and subsequent OS maps can be found digitised on the National Library of Scotland website, and are searchable by Grid Reference or place-name, or by clicking on a zoomable map.

Parish divisions as adopted in the OS Name Books

Base map adapted from Wikimedia Commons (Creative Commons licence); parish locations based on OS First Edition Six Inch maps and C. Humphery Smith, Atlas & Index of Parish Registers.

Parish abbreviations & explanations:

BED – Bedlington, BLY – (Town of) Blyth, BOL – Bolam, BRI – Brinkburn, BSA – Bywell St Andrews, BXN – Branxton, CAR – Carham, CHA – Chatton, CHI – Chillingham, CRA – Cramlington, DOD – Doddington, EDL – Edlingham, ELL – Ellingham, HED – Heddon on the Wall, KHL – Kirkharle, KID – Kidland, KWT – Kirkwhelpington, LAM – Lambley, LBN – Longbenton, LES – Lesbury, LHL – Longhorsley, LHT – Longhoughton, LOW – Lowick, MEL – Meldon, MIT – Mitford, Newcastle = Newcastle All Saints, Newcastle St Andrew, Newcastle St John, NSH – North Shields, RAM – Ramshope, SHI – Shilbottle, [SHO] – Shotley (Name Book ‘missing at transfer’), SHO(D) – Shotley (Detached), SJL – St John Lee, SLA – Slaley, STA – Stannington, THO – Thockrington, WDH(D) – Woodhorn (Detached), WHA – Whalton, WHI – Whittingham, WLR – Wooler, WSD – Wallsend, WTF – Whitfield.

Possible research topics

If you are interested in a particular area

BROWSE may be the best starting-point, taking you to places within parishes. The ‘Descriptive Remarks’ in the final column of each entry are often revealing, and sometimes go beyond simple objective description.

It’s worth bearing in mind that:

the parishes are those of c. 1860
spellings may differ from current ones
some features such as streams or hills on boundaries may be covered in an adjacent Name Book
the indexes are not entirely complete

For these reasons it’s always worth also doing a SEARCH for places you are interested in.

If you are interested in individual people

SEARCH will be your best starting-point (though at present Search results will tend to be over-inclusive). Thousands of individuals appear as ‘Authorities’ for the place-names and others, especially owners and occupiers of properties, are mentioned in the ‘Descriptive Remarks’. Many place-names contain personal names (e.g. Eppie’s Hill, Kitty Brewster’s Farm or Crutchy Tommy’s Plantations), though usually the individuals commemorated cannot be identified. Points to bear in mind here are:

- people selected as Authorities tend to be male and educated
- the surveyors produced some inconsistent and incorrect spellings
- these names are the most difficult part of the documents to decipher and transcribe.

You may therefore need to experiment with alternative spellings when Searching.

Other possible research topics

Besides place-names and family history, many other topics could be investigated including:

Aspects of history such as:

the local history of villages, suburbs or parishes; land ownership and tenure; agrarian history (e.g. land use before and after enclosure; woodland); buildings history; industries old and new; infrastructure, transport and communications (ports; responsibility for roads & bridges; turnpikes; wagonways; railway lines and stations; post offices); education (location, funding and running of schools); places of worship (including diverse non-Conformist denominations); leisure (football, bathing, spas, libraries); public houses.

Language, e.g.

dialect words in the place-names recorded, and the surveyors’ comments on them; the style, vocabulary, spelling and punctuation of the surveyors.

Or, with the emphasis on the survey itself:

perceptions of landscape; recording of archaeological sites; class sensibilities; use of female informants; language used by the surveyors (levels of literacy; 19th century spellings and usages; any traces of Irish?)

And the sources used by the survey:

What maps, registers, gazetteers and directories? What historical works? How is land ownership vouched for (in Alnwick by a solicitor)?

Practical benefits of the Name Book evidence might include:

Background on buildings and sites for Estate Agents; previous land use for those conducting environmental and contaminated land desktop surveys.

About the transcription

The transcription is the product of thousands of hours’ work by some forty dedicated volunteers, and covers all 104 Northumberland Name Books. Working to shared guidelines, our aim has been to be as accurate and consistent as possible within a reasonable timeframe, but given the size and complexity of the task there will be inevitably be mistakes and minor inconsistencies, and where detail is important users are strongly advised to check the original images as well as the transcriptions.We have sought to represent the content and layout of the original Name Book pages as faithfully as possible while at the same time producing a text that will be optimally searchable, since searchability is a major reason for transcribing; we have aimed for the best compromises on particular points. Some important illustrations of these principles are the following.

Layout

The layouts of pages are preserved quite faithfully, but with some important exceptions:

The surveyors occasionally annotate the ‘Names’ column with extras such as cross-references, second thoughts or instructions to engrave a name ‘in German text’ or ‘Old English’ (types of Gothic) or similar, but in the transcription this column is reserved for names, while the extra text appears in a Note.

Most individual pages carry the signature of the surveyor responsible, usually at the bottom right but in northern parishes in the header; in the transcription signatures always appear at bottom right.

Notes

The presence of a Note is shown on the website by a red box around the cell concerned; the Note will appear when the user hovers the cursor over the cell.

Abbreviations

The most common abbreviations, such as Mr, Revd and compass directions, are transcribed exactly as they stand, and not expanded. For all other abbreviations we have, where necessary, standardised them slightly, e.g. typing PH, P.H. or P. H all as PH (= Public House), and tagged them so that they are recognized by the software and expanded when the user hovers the cursor over them. If automatic expansion fails for any reason, the tagging ($…$) will be seen.

Deletions and insertions

The surveyors frequently correct their own work, or each others’, by deletions and insertions. Deletions are shown in order that valuable material is not lost, but insertions not, since most of them are unimportant corrections, and not worth the extra effort for transcribers. Where detail is crucial, however, e.g. in spellings of names, users are advised to check transcriptions against originals.

How to reference the Name Books

The following is offered for guidance to anyone wishing to refer to the books when publishing online or in print; the formats adopted will depend on context, medium and audience.

As a whole

‘Ordnance Survey Name Books’ at first mention, then ‘Name Books’ or ‘OSNBs’.

Referring to individual books, pages and entries

These formats apply equally to images and transcriptions.

Within discussions

Use, e.g., ‘Cullercoats (Tynemouth 23)’

I.e. head-name of entry (parish + page).

In the case of multi-book parishes, the 3-digit OS reference is added, e.g. ‘Steel Rigg (Haltwhistle 374:192)’.

In footnotes or references:

‘The National Archives: OS 34/422/23’ at first mention; thereafter abbreviate ‘The National Archives’ to ‘TNA’ or leave out.

I.e. OS 34 (catalogue number for [First Edition] OSNBs for England) / 3-digit OS reference specifying book (parish or part of a parish) / page number, hence OS 34/422/23 is p. 23 of Tynemouth.

Combined references

E.g. Cullercoats, Tynemouth (OS 34/422/23).

Referring to transcriptions

The formats above can be used for both images and transcriptions.

If referring to transcriptions as a whole, add: ‘transcriptions at http://namebooks.org.uk, accessed [date]’.

If referring to specific page(s), add: ‘transcription at http://namebooks.org.uk/browse/main/?OSref=382&Page=4, accessed [date]’.

Please Note

You are advised always to check transcriptions against original images.
If using images please be sure to observe the Conditions of Use:

Conditions of Use and Copyright

© Images reproduced by permission of The National Archives, London, England.
The National Archives give no warranty as to the accuracy, completeness or fitness for the purpose of the information provided.
Images may be used only for purposes of research, private study or education. Applications for any other use should be made to The National Archives Image Library, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU, Tel: 020 8392 5225 Fax: 020 8392 5266.
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/imagelibrary/

Images of the Berwick Name Book, OS1/5/1 in the National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh, should be acknowledged with:

‘Crown copyright, National Records of Scotland’ preferably plus the image reference.

Contact us

If you should have queries or comments, please contact the Northumberland Name Books project at: