The Carmarthenshire Place-name Survey The structure of the place-name database was
designed around the original sources, essentially four map series
(viz: the original OS Surveyors' drawings c. 1812; 1" OS
map of 1830; the Tithe maps of each parish; and the 6"
OS first edition). We took the decision to use the boundaries
of Civil Parishes as shown on these maps
because at that time there was no accurate map of Welsh parishes
and also because these 'parishes' were frozen in time and could
not be changed. The initial task of collection from the main
map trawl in 1997. Subsequently Peter Wihl used manuscript sources
including estate maps in the Carmarthen Record Office to increase
the breadth of sources consulted. Some work has also been undertaken
on collecting forms from medieval sources, but it has to be
admitted that the main weakness at present is the small number
of forms from pre-19th century sources. The computerised data
have been checked for consistency with regard to NGRs and Civic
Parish areas to see that NGRs fall within their assigned parish
boundaries. However with such a large database it is inevitable
that a few NGRs will be wrong or that the wrong parish has been
assigned. Minor problems were identified and remain with some
of the sources cited. In total over 42,000 place-name records
have been entered, based on a headword (Topname) count of just
under 15,000 names. The information includes (where possible)
an accurate map reference and altitude of the 'site' in feet,
a list of the historic forms with sources and dates, and the
parish name. It is possible to undertake searches according
to any chosen place-name element using wild cards, and because
of the consistency of having an NGR with each record , distributions
of all the names from particular sources can be output. A small
number of names are located outside the County. These are from
the holdings of Talley and Whitland abbeys. Despite being at
present a database from quite recent sources, the benefit of
a wholly consistent starting point (i.e. the four map sources
used) means that there is complete and uniform geographic coverage
for the county of Carmarthen.
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