Survey of English Place-Names

Etymology

The Band, 1865 OS, from ModE  dial. band 'the ridge of a small hill, a long ridge forming an offshoot of a higher mountain' (recorded from 1513 NED, EDD s.v. band ). NED cites from Jenkinson, English Lakes (1879) 23, an example of this use, Jenkinson stating that The Band divides the valleys of Mickleden and Oxendale; cf. also Gregory Band, Broad Bands (ii, 16, 49 infra ), etc., where the names mostly refer to the edge where a mountain top begins to slope down in a steep declivity. In some other cases band also denotes in NCy dial. the interstratification of rock and shale or a thin stratum of any kind (cf. Rock Terms 3). In the p.ns. the first meaning is topographically most evident, but there are several cases of its application to rocky scars, as in Band Knotts, Long Band (i, 166 supra , ii, 77 infra ), etc., and in Silver Band (ii, 121infra ) to a stratum of ore-bearing rock.