Local resident Richard West is an applied linguist who started to work at Manchester University 40 years ago and in his retirement, he has turned his attention to the names of places that he has lived and worked in. After spending his early career working in Zambia, he recently had his ‘Zambian Place Names’ published in Lusaka.
Richard then turned his attention to Greater Manchester where there are many intriguing place names that have not been gathered together and explored. The only book on the place names of Manchester was published in 1862 and, while there have been books on Lancashire and Cheshire place names published more recently, nothing since the formation of Greater Manchester in 1974. A vast amount of work has been done by local historians, archaeologists and conservationists, but this is scattered across booklets, newsletters and hundreds of websites.
Richard thought it would be interesting and useful to pull these sources together and to date has over 1000 entries from all across Greater Manchester, including Bramhall and the surrounding area. Richard is currently working in more detail on the place names of Bramhall.
It’s taken a little longer than he hoped but the dictionary of Greater Manchester place names is now up and running on the website: greatermanchesterplacenames.net
At present, this is a simple Word document but a fully-searchable version is being developed. There is also a contact form enabling people to suggest additions and revisions.
It’s a fascinating insight into our local history exploring the place names of Greater Manchester from the earliest, which probably date from the 7th century, to those which have emerged in the 21st century.
