The stories behind the names on Ordnance Survey maps

How did the names we find on Ordnance Survey (OS) maps get there? Who chose those names? Who decided how they should be spelled? What do those names reveal about the history of the places they describe? And just as importantly, what do they conceal?

These are questions that my colleagues at Lancaster University and I have been trying to answer. Our research centres on a remarkable collection of historical documents: the OS Original Object Name Books for the historic counties of Cumberland and Westmorland.

These books, dating back to the 1850s and 1860s, provide a fascinating account of how the place names we find on early OS maps were gathered, verified and recorded. They offer not only a glimpse into the practices of Victorian mapmaking but also a window into much older landscapes and identities.

Historic OS map courtesy of Jean Norgate The Name Books form the backbone of a digitised collection we are compiling, which is the first step in a larger project that seeks to make these unique records more accessible. Specifically, we are focused on the Name Books used to make the first edition, six-inch-to-the-mile OS maps of Cumberland and Westmorland.

These volumes, now housed at The National Archives, were produced by the OS’s Royal Engineer surveyors and their civilian assistants. In addition to conducting detailed geographical surveys, they collected the names of local landmarks from a variety of sources, including the residents of the areas they mapped.

The process was both systematic and collaborative. Surveyors used the Name Books to log the names and variant spellings of every feature, from mountains and rivers to villages and farmsteads. They noted the sources of these names, which were attested by local clergy, landowners and long-time residents. The result is a rich, layered account of place-naming that reflects not just topography, but also tradition and regional identity.

Many of the names are of Celtic, Old Norse or Old English origin The importance of these records cannot be overstated. They reveal how people living at a time of immense social and technological change tried to make sense of their world. At the same time, they also preserve evidence of names and name elements that originated centuries earlier.

Many of these names are of Celtic, Old Norse or Old English origin, reflecting waves of settlement and cultural interaction that shaped the British Isles in the early Middle Ages. Take the terms derwā (British Celtic), eik (Old Norse), and āc (Old English), all refer to the oak tree and appear in local names like Derwent (‘with oaks’), Lyzzick (‘the bright oak’) and Aikbank (‘slope where oaks grow’).

As Professor Diana Whaley has noted, the Name Books allow ‘us to imagine life and landscape in the mid-nineteenth century’, casting new light on places that continue to exist today and illuminating others that have since vanished. This historical perspective makes the Name Books especially valuable. They are both a record of their own time and a portal into a more distant past.

Historic OS map courtesy of Jean Norgate What makes our project particularly important is the rarity of these documents. Most of the Name Books for England and Wales were destroyed during a bombing raid on Southampton in 1940. Only those for a handful of counties – ¬Cumberland, Westmorland, Northumberland, Durham and part of Hampshire – have survived. This scarcity enhances the importance of our work and underscores the responsibility we have to preserve, digitise and interpret what remains.

Previous efforts, such as the successful digitisation of the Northumberland Name Books led by Prof Whaley, have paved the way for our research. Until now, though, the Name Books for Cumberland and Westmorland had never been fully digitised or studied in detail.

Our project, titled ‘Envisaging Landscapes and Naming Places’, is a pilot study that focuses on the Name Books for the parish of Grasmere. Situated in the heart of the Lake District, Grasmere is a location steeped in literary, cultural and natural heritage, making it a perfect starting point for our work.

Historic OS map courtesy of Jean Norgate The information we’re gathering is more than just a list of names. It includes alternative name spellings, descriptions of features and notes about the sources from whom the names were gathered. It captures debates and disagreements between locals, informants and surveyors, and sometimes within communities themselves, about the ‘correct’ form of a place name. It documents a negotiation between oral tradition and official record, between lived experience and institutional authority.

By digitising and analysing this material, we aim not only to preserve it, but also to make it available to a wider audience. Our hope is that the Name Books can serve as a resource for everyone from local historians to students, allowing people to explore the linguistic and cultural layers that underpin Cumbrian places they know and love.

In the longer term, we intend to expand our work to include the remaining Name Books for Cumberland and Westmorland, ultimately creating a comprehensive and searchable online database. This will provide a tool to understand how local place names have shaped and continue to shape our world.

You can discover and explore the OS Name Books for Grasmere via Lancaster Digital Collections (https://digitalcollections.lancaster.ac.uk/collections/osnb/1). We expect to expand this collection to cover the rest of Cumberland and Westmorland in the future.