is to encourage and promote interest in archaeology and history, particularly of the County Palatine of Lancashire. There is a yearly programme of 5 evening talks, plus a members' evening, and visits to sites of interest.

The Society is enabled, through the Ben Edwards LAS Fund, named in honour of our Founder Member and former President, to grant on occasion some small financial support or assistance, up to a maximum of £200.00 per project, to individuals or organisations who are working, on an amateur basis, on archaeological or historical research projects which are intended to further the knowledge and understanding of the (pre-)history of the North-west of England. Anyone may apply for a grant from the Fund, by completing and submitting an electronic Grant Application Form, available here. Each Application must be supported by appropriate information and documentation, and must also be accompanied where necessary by proof of approval and/or permission from the relevant authority(ies) to carry out the work.

In return for the receipt of a grant from the Fund, each successful applicant will be required to provide to the Society a full, timely and well-presented illustrated account of the outcome of the Project, accompanied where possible by photographs, drawings and other supporting documentation and in a form suitable for display on the Society's website. Additionally the support from the Society is to be formally acknowledged in the Project Report and in any other associated publications.

The information provided on the Grant Application Form will be sent to the Secretary when the "Submit" button is pressed. Other information in support of the Application is to be sent to the Secretary by post, to the address above.

UCLAN Archaeology Research Seminars 2012

The programme for the latest series of UCLAN Research Seminars can be seen here.

5th LANCASHIRE ARCHAEOLOGY DAY SCHOOL

This Day School is programmed for 21st April 2012, at the Darwin Building at UCLAN. For details see here.

Emma Heslewood

Emma is currently Curator of History at Harris Museum & Art Gallery, Preston, she is an established member of the Society, and the Committee hope that her knowledge and experience will prove to be a great asset.

Placename Studies

If you are interested in place names - their origins, meanings and usages - there are several organisations (local and national) holding huge stores of information. Some of these organisations would like some extra help.

• The Lancashire Place Name Survey. This local group is headquartered at the Lancashire Record Office, in Bow Lane, Preston. They don't have a website yet but the secretary can be contacted here, if you would like to take part.
• The Society for Name Studies in Britain & Ireland (SNSBI). The Society's website here is self-explanatory.
• The English Place Name Society. This is headquartered at Nottingham University and their website here gives all the details. This Society is the national umbrella organisation for the County surveys, including Lancashire, as above.

"A History of Chipping".

This book, by T. C. Smith, published in 1894, is full of interesting data about the village, the surrounding area and some of its more notable inhabitants over a period of some 600 years. It is now freely available in digitised form in PDF format on the internet here for anyone to read and download. Local family historians will find it a useful source.

Snippets

....The "Victoria County History of Cumbria" Project. The Victoria County History for Cumberland was started, and 2 volumes were published, but the work was not completed, and for Westmorland was never started. A new Project has been set up, (a) to update the existing volumes and (b) to prepare and publish the "missing" volumes. Details of the Project can be found on the Project website

....The Lancashire Local History Network has a new sub-group - The Fylde History Network - which is intended to provide a liaison and co-ordination function in the activities of the area's local historians. Contact details are on the page.

....The Lancashire County Council, with additional external funding, is running a project on the history and culture of the Forest of Bowland AONB.

....The Bibliography of our former President BJN Edwards is now on line here.

For people interested in Lancashire history, literature, people etc, Bob Dobson runs a second-hand book service. His current catalogue, with contact details, is available here.