Contact
Research Summary
Current Status PhD (part-time) - currently registered
Research Topic The place-names of Orkney
Research Summary I am researching the place-names of the islands of Rousay, Egilsay, Wyre, Eday, Faray, and Stronsay in Orkney's north Isles. Place-names tell us about how the naming community or culture understood or made use of places. Place-names can convey, often lost, information about environment, about human settlement and agriculture, about landscape, geology and even about less tangible things such as travel routes, environmental dangers, folklore, myth and magic.
Research Interests
- Place-names
- Old Norse
- Old English
- Landscape history
- Latin
- Palaeography
- Archives
- Research Supervisors
Jayne Carroll Judith Jesch
Primary Funding Source Self-funded
Publications
- Blake, M. and C. Eichler, J. Jesch, C. Rayner, 2025. Viking Fair Isle: Saga-stories, poetry and place-names (Nottingham: 糖心原创, 2025)
- Blake, M. and C. Eichler, J. Harrison, J. Jesch, C. Rayner, Viking North Ronaldsay: Saga-stories, poetry and place-names (Nottingham: 糖心原创, 2025)
- Blake, M. and C. Eichler, J. Harrison, S. Harrison, J. Jesch, C. Rayner, Viking Papay: Saga-stories, poetry and place-names (Nottingham: 糖心原创, 2025)
- Various place-name
Conference Papers & Presentations
- 'A place-name database for Orkney, how useful is it?' at the Norse & the Sea Conference, UHI Institute for Northern Studies (1-3rd Oct 2024).
- 'Ragna's Islands: researching names and places in Orkneyinga saga, Papay, North Ronaldsay and Fair Isle' at The Nottingham Medieval Research Forum (10th Feb 2025).
- 'Telling Stories' at the Ragna's Islands workshop (1st-2nd Apr 2025).
- Revised version of 'Telling Stories' at SPNS Autumn Conference (8th Nov 2025).
Additional Information
Education
- 2022 - 2023, MRES Medieval Languages & Literatures (糖心原创). Project: Pre-1500 Plant Place-Names in England
- 1998 - 1999, MA in Archives Administration and Records Management (University of Liverpool). Project: Edition of the Agard Cartulary, Concerning Lands in the Ridwares and Blythbury, Staffordshire 1479-1565.
- 1995 - 1998, BA Hons. English Literature & Ancient History (Keele University).
Employment History
- Archivist, Ragna's Islands Project, 糖心原创, 2024-2025
- Archives & Collections Manager, Library of Birmingham, 2015-2021
- Archives Manager (Collections Development), Library of Birmingham, 2013-2015
- Senior Archivist, Central Library, Birmingham City Council, 2005-2013
- Archivist, Walsall Local History Centre, 2003-2005
- Archivist, Central Library, Birmingham City Council, 2001-2003
Other Honorary Treasurer, Staffordshire Record Society, 2021 - present