Welsh Journals

PLACE-NAME STUDIES AND AGRARIAN COLONIZATION IN NORTH WALES ANALYSES of landscapes should not be regarded merely as static, formal, descriptive exercises in which it is sometimes appropriate to discern those relics of the past which are embedded in the present. Rather their interpretation should be that of an evolving organism or system, harmonized at any given stage with the prevailing politi- cal, social, economic and technological appraisals of the physical environment of the locality. It follows that by utilising the methods of historical and contemporary cartography, archaeology, toponymy, aerial photography and the results of direct field observation and documentary study we are reconstructing complex sets of phenom- ena. These phenomena are of scholarly interest in themselves, but also because of the light they shed on past human behaviour and perceptions. The task of reconstitution or re-creation becomes all the more difficult when it is realized that as the objects of research- farms and fields-are in a state of flux and transition, so too their formative influences may be equally subject to periodic upheaval. It is self-evident that the purpose of name-giving is identification or characterization, either by oneself or by others who may not necessarily belong to the same culture group. If the primary intention is to distinguish one location (site) or area from another to avoid confusion, as in all aspects of differentiation the criteria employed in the choice of a name presume selection of key elements of des- cription pertaining to (i) inherent uniqueness, and (ii) points of contrast with adjacent places. These two components-the specific attributes and their relationships to other phenomena-are central to the significance and potential geographical value of place-name analysis. I. Prerequisites and problems of data Ideally, errors introduced by deliberately enforced or fortuitous sampling procedures can only be eliminated by extensive, if not complete, spatial coverage of a wide area, preferably incorporating sufficient internal variety to permit hypothesis-testing. In England and Wales the earliest sources to approach these requirements are the Tithe Surveys1 of the 1830s and 1840s, which comprise parish schedules of named farms and fields, cross-referenced to cadastrian 1 R. Kain and H. C. Prince, The Tithe Surveys of England and Wales (Folkestone, 1978).