Some recent publications of interest to readers:

Sir William Addison. Understanding English Place-Names (Futures, 1979, £1.25)
Paperback edition of a 1978 hardback volume. Not a dictionary, but an account arranged in regions, i.e. S-W England, West Midlands, East Anglia, etc, showing how place-names are the product, of personal names, topographical features, old customs, etc. Useful appendix giving a topographical glossary.

Violet Alford. The Hobbv Horse and other Animal Masks. (Merlin Press, 1978, £5)
Although an account of the history of the ancient folk custom of the bobby horse as practised throughout Europe from the first century AD to the present day, a substantial chapter is devoted to the hobby horses of Great Britain, with sections on the Combe Martin horse, Minehead horse, the Salisbury Hob-Nob, the Symondsbury Pony, and Horned Masks, such as the Ooser of Dorset and Wooset of Wiltshire.

Anthony Beeson. Monumental Brasses within 30 miles of Bristol; a list of all effigy brasses together with conditions of rubbing. (Avon County Library, Bristol, 1979, 50p)
A twelve-page booklet listing brasses by county and then alphabetical by parish.

Leslie Brooke. Street Names in Yeovil (Yeovil Archaeological and Local History Society, 1979, £1.40)
The story behind the names of roads, streets, lanes, squares, courts, terraces, places, and fields of the town, illustrated and fully indexed by one of our own members.

Bryan John Hamlyn Brown and John Loosley. The Book of Weston-super-Mare: the story of the town’s past. (Barracuda Books, 1979 £9.95)
History of the town in the same format and style as Robin Bush’s Book of Taunton and Leslie Brooke’s Book of Yeovil.

John Field. Place-Names of Great Britain and Ireland (David & Charles,1979, £7.50)
A dictionary of place-names from, the author of English Field Names.

Guide to the Parochial Registers and Records Measure, 1978 (Church Information Office, 1978, 75p)
Detailed handbook on this new measure which affects the collection, housing, and preservation of parish records by archivists and clergy.

Ann Heeley and Martyn Brown. Victorian Somerset: John Hodges – a farm labourer (Friends of the Abbey Barn, Glastonbury, 1978, 60p)
Booklet telling the story of John Hodges, a farm labourer of Butleigh village during the reign of Queen Victoria. Profusely illustrated, with extracts from farm documents, archives, and photographs, together with oral. evidence from old inhabitants.

Robert Machin. The Houses of Yetminster (University of Bristol Department of Extra Mural Studies, 1979, £2.95)
Detailed account of the farmhouses, cottages, and other properties of this North Dorset village as revealed by examination of archaeological and documentary evidence.

Rosemary March. Sherborne Castle (Sherborne Castle Estates, 1979, £1.25)
Profusely illustrated account of the history of the house with substantial chapters on the members of the Digby family connected with the house.

John E.B.Notley. Compton House (Reprint from Somerset and Dorset Notes and Queries, (March 1979, 30p)
Detailed account of the history and architecture of the manor house at Over Compton, Dorset, and families, connected with it – the Abingtons, and Gooddens.

Susan M.Pearce. Devon in Prehistory (Royal Albert Memorial Museum., Exeter, 1979, £2)
Catalogue of the stock of prehistoric antiquities in the Royal Albert Memorial Museum at Exeter by the present curator of antiquities.
— The Kingdom of Dumnonia, studies in history ant tradition in South Western Britain, AD 350-1150 (Lodenek Press, £7.95)

Norman Rogers. Wessex Dialect (Moonraker Press, 1979, £3.50)
Study of the origins, development, and everyday usage of local speech in Dorset, Somerset, Wiltshire, and adjoining counties, with a useful short glossary of dialect words.

Ralph Whitlock. The Shaping of the Countryside (Robert Hale, 1979, £5.25)
A readable account of man’s impact on do countryside from prehistoric times to the present day, and a look to the future. Illustrated.
— (editor) J.M.Stratton and Jack Houghton Brown. Agricultural Records AD 220 – 1977 (John Baker, 1978, £4.95)
A reprint, brought up to date by Ralph Whitlock, of weather conditions and its effect on agricultural products, year by year to 1977. A useful book for the historian.

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THE SOCIETY’S LIBRARY

All the volumes listed in Vol.1, No.1 and No.2 of ‘Chronicle‘ are available for loan to members. Please apply to the Society’s Honorary Librarian, Mrs. Pat Knight, either at meetings or at ‘Netherfield’, East Street, West Coker (Telephone West Coker 2120) in order to borrow library items. Members who are able to donate books, pamphlets, etc. to our own library should contact Mrs Knight who will be pleased to receive them.

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