The Essex Place-names database contains names of fields, roads, inns, houses, farms, manors, places, rivers, streams, woods, etc, and names of owners, tenants, landlords, parties to agreements etc, recorded from historic documents such as Tithe Awards, Rental Agreements, Surveys, Maps, Rolls, Inquisitions, Deeds, Charters.
The database is therefore of use to historians, genealogists, linguists, archaeologists and philologists. It is hoped its use will lead to identification and distribution of archaeolgical sites and historic buildings, will enable analysis of place-names as an indicator of early settlement, landholding and agricultural practices, will refine more precisely descriptive words and word-elements given by early settlers to topgraphical features, enable family historians to trace back owners and occupiers of land.
The Essex Place-names Project has been supported by Council for British Archaeology, Essex County Council, Essex Heritage Trust, Essex Society for Archaeology & History, 'Awards for All: Lottery Grants for Local Groups' and the Friends of Historic Essex.