The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales (RCAHMW) appointed Exegesis to build an accessible and bilingual website in line with the Historic Environment (Wales) Act 2016, which required Welsh Ministers to compile and maintain a list of historic place names in Wales.

The Welsh version is accessed here: https://enwaulleoeddhanesyddol.cbhc.gov.uk/

and the English version here: https://historicplacenames.rcahmw.gov.uk/

Exegesis worked with David Parsons (Senior Fellow at the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies) to design appropriate database structures and user interfaces, and to import and enhance around 350,000 records from existing sources including Cynefin and Cwmru 1900. 

The bilingual website allows a user to view all recorded place-names down the ages in an interactive map, or to search for names through a options including period of origin, County and Parish, and by bibliographic and archival sources.

Full details of every recorded name are included, including links to other names in the vicinity and other occurrences of the same name anywhere in Wales.

Staff at RCAHMW and CAWCS are now adding to and enhancing the online records to ensure the site continues to evolve as the most comprehensive resource for Welsh historic place-names.

The dataset is also provided as a series of OGC web services for direct access within other applications in Local Authorities and the Historic Environment Records.

Further information from Crispin Flower.