> On 17 Nov 2017, at 13:11, Helen Geake <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> Perhaps I am being uniquely dim, but I can't work out how to do a search on GB1900. As I work for the Portable Antiquities Scheme, my problem is usually having a seal matrix with an unfamiliar or incomplete place-name (such as S' GILBERTI : DE : ANEWEL recently, found in Bruton, Somerset). I can't find an Anwell, and the only Amwell I know of is in Herts. So I'd love to be able to do the kind of search that Humphrey showed us.

Sorry — this is why I added the follow-up message I copy below, as the short answer to your question is that you can’t, as the search boxes on both the National Library of Scotland mapping system and the GB1900 site itself don’t search the place-names gathered by the project — this now looks daft, but made some sense when we were starting.

The search results for “Bretton” I listed were created by manually running a command line query in a relational database on a different computer which is not publicly accessible. Obviously not a satisfactory situation, but (a) you could build your own database from what is now a somewhat elderly dump that can be downloaded from here:

	http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/data/#tabgb1900

(b) sometime next spring there will be a final version of that, and (c) we hope to add the Gb1900 data to the gazetteer searches available in Vision of Britain but that needs more resources than making database dumps available.

Anyway, this is what I get when I search for names which include words starting with AMWEL or ANWEL — so no Anwell’s at all, and all the Amwells are in Hertfordshire apart from a street name.

   modern_distict   | grid_ref |      place_name       
--------------------+----------+-----------------------
 BROXBOURNE         | TL373089 | Amwell Ho.
 BROXBOURNE         | TL373089 | AMWELL STREET
 EAST HERTFORDSHIRE | TL364128 | Amwellbury
 EAST HERTFORDSHIRE | TL362129 | Amwellbury Farm
 EAST HERTFORDSHIRE | TL359140 | Amwell End
 EAST HERTFORDSHIRE | TL366126 | Amwell Hill
 EAST HERTFORDSHIRE | TL357139 | Amwell House
 EAST HERTFORDSHIRE | TL352118 | Amwellplace Farm
 EAST HERTFORDSHIRE | TL359119 | Great amwell
 EAST HERTFORDSHIRE | TL357103 | Great Amwell
 EAST HERTFORDSHIRE | TL373124 | Great Amwell
 EAST HERTFORDSHIRE | TL344128 | Great Amwell (Det. )
 EAST HERTFORDSHIRE | TL347125 | Little Amwell
 EAST HERTFORDSHIRE | TL352117 | Little Amwell
 EAST HERTFORDSHIRE | TL335118 | Little Amwell (Det. )
 ISLINGTON          | TQ311829 | AMWELL STREET
 ST ALBANS          | TL166132 | Amwell
(17 rows)



> What I should have added is that the search box on that web site at the National Library of Scotland DOESN’T access the data we have gathered through the project. It was built to provide an overview of progress, so when it was set up we had limited place name data. To help people find locations within it, the search box understands grid references and accesses a modern gazetteer provided by Open Street Map.
> 
> We obviously want there to eventually be a web site which combines the final gazetteer from GB1900 and the NLS’s 6” mapping, but GB1900 as a project has no funding at all, and currently no software developer within the team. What we are committed to is making the final gazetteer dataset available for download, and under a Creative Commons licence.
> 
> I am also VERY interested in discussing the analytical potentials. For now though, the priorities are completing the crowd-sourcing process and planning additional data cleaning.

Humphrey Southall
Professor of Historical Geography/
Director, GB Historical GIS
University of Portsmouth
Geography Dept, Buckingham Bldg,
Lion Terrace, Portsmouth PO1 3HE, UK
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