English Place-name Society

Survey of English Place-Names

A county-by-county guide to the linguistic origins of England’s place-names – a project of the English Place-Name Society, founded 1923.

The Band

Early-attested site in the Parish of Grasmere

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.

Places in the same Parish

Early-attested site

Other OS name