Heritage & Society
Lost Place-Names and Intangible Heritage: Case Studies from Yorkshire
Katie Hardy
University of Nottingham
- Date
- Time
- -
- Room
- A22
- Format
- Paper
- Chair
- Jen Pearce
Presentation abstract
Abstract
This paper explores the importance of the information contained in medieval place-names, and the effects of these names being lost over time. The place-names coined in England in the medieval period contain a wealth of information, much of it environmental, and demostrate how the landscape was managed and perceived by every day, ordinary people. In the case of field-names, this is on a hyperlocal scale, and as such these are an excellent source for local history and dialect studies. Yet, across England the majority of these field-names do not survive into the modern day and can only be found by searching medieval archival documents - a specialist and time-consuming process. Treating these lost field-names as a type of intangible heritage, this paper argues the importance of their preservation, recognition, and discovery, for the benefit of local people and academic study.
Meet the presenter
About the presenter
Katie Hardy
Katie is a first-year PhD student based at the University of Nottingham’s Institute for Name-Studies. Her research explores the medieval field-names of two areas in Yorkshire, gathering names from historical documents held in archives (the North Yorkshire Archives and West Yorkshire Archive Service). In the later stages of the project, questions of public engagement with and communication of this material will be explored, including the use of mapping and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Her other research interests are historical linguistics, dialect studies, and medieval English literature.