Western Front Place Search - Free to Use - 40K Entries

[WhiteStarLine]

The search engine / trench gazetteer used by The Western Front Mapping Portal for TrenchMapper has just reached a major milestone and it is worth reminding Forum pals of this free-to-use asset that anyone can benefit from.

A team of over 50 WFA volunteers have trawled thousands of georeferenced maps and recorded the name, description, location and elevation for over 40,000 places.  Here is a metadata sample for the term minden:

Term	Trench Ref	Quadrant	Description	Elevation	Tag	Latitude	Longitude
Minden Avenue	62d.F.18.a.11.20	NE2	Near Fricourt (pop 461)	83	trench	49.984188	2.745906
Minden Post	62d.F.18.c.1.7	NE2	Near Fricourt (pop 461)	92	trench	49.982064	2.746053
Minden Post Dressing Station	62d.F.18.c.20.61	NE2	Historic location featured in WW1 film footage	93	medical	49.981749	2.746602
Minden Trench	57d.Q.4.b.23.20	SE	Near Mailly-Maillet (pop 617)	131	trench	50.088598	2.647256
Tranché de Minden	62c.T.14.d.45.64	SW	Tranchée de Minden	82	trench	49.843446	2.848155
Tranchée de Minden	76.W.24.b.59.87	SE	near Courcy, (pop 1,453)	91	trench	49.310293	4.022671

While the aim is to display a chosen location on the map, the map portal's Quick Search or Advanced Search will first list the items found:

The project is ongoing but has already amassed good coverage of France & Flanders, ranging from the north of Belgium to just north of Reims.  Already, the catalogue covers:

Type	Entries
Trench, sap, dugout, redoubt	17,600
Farm	5,600
CWGC cemetery, monument	3,700
Building, camp, hut	3,400
Wood, forest	2,600
Road, lane, street	1,600
Church, crucifix, chapel	1,500
City, town, locality	1,400
River, stream, dam, bridge	900
Railway line, station, junction	800
Hill, valley, spot height	700

If you can't find something, just let us know.  If you have authoritative data on a missing item we will gladly add it (must be a public domain source).  Around 98% of entries have a specific point identified, usually somewhere in the feature's centre.  The remainder are shown as 'believed to be in this sub-grid square of 500 x 500 yards'.  Coverage is reasonably uniform, as this table of Points of Interest by location shows:

Locality	Sheet	POI
Wijtschate	28.O	611
Sint-Jan	28.C	571
Ieper	28.I	553
Mailly-Maillet	57d.Q	498
Neuville-Saint-Vaast	51b.A	481
Hébuterne	57d.K	448
Ploegsteert	28.U	423
Maricourt	62c.A	402
Kemmel	28.N	397
Prémesques	36.I	364
Tilloy-lès-Mofflaines	51b.H	360
Grandcourt	57d.R	327
Arras	51b.G	325
Beselare	28.J	324
Nieuwpoort	12.M	316
Armentières	36.C	304
Biache-Saint-Vaast	51b.I	291
Monchy-le-Preux	51b.O	290

So, follow the link in the first line and give it a try!

Cheers, Bill

[AOK4]

Hello,

First of all, I think it is a great tool. It is extremely interesting. Well done for all who helped in this project.

"Polderhoek Chateau" is not in the list. Quite remarkable as it was of great importance.

There are quite a few transcription errors as far as I saw from a quick browse, especially in German/French names. Boyau von Haustin should be "Boyau von Haustein", tranché should always be tranchée, ...

I notice very few German maps. Are there plans to include more of them?

Jan

 

[WhiteStarLine]

Jan, thanks for your kind words.  We've fixed all of the specific errors you raised, but due to browser caching it might be a day before you see them.  The Polderhoek Chateau had been transcribed simply as Chateau.

There are some plans with German maps but I don't want to steal someone else's thunder so I will tag @Howard.

Cheers, Bill

[Howard]

On 05/06/2023 at 08:05, AOK4 said:

Hello,

First of all, I think it is a great tool. It is extremely interesting. Well done for all who helped in this project.

"Polderhoek Chateau" is not in the list. Quite remarkable as it was of great importance.

There are quite a few transcription errors as far as I saw from a quick browse, especially in German/French names. Boyau von Haustin should be "Boyau von Haustein", tranché should always be tranchée, ...

I notice very few German maps. Are there plans to include more of them?

Jan

 

Points are not added by importance, volunteers work square by square filling in every point seen, then check on maps of different dates fro that square. This means even trivial points may be added before important ones. We are currently concentrating on the British sectors but will work round to Verdun and beyond as capacity allows.

We have about 2,000 German maps waiting to be georeferenced, once that is done we can add all the German names found. It will be done but not in the immediate future.

Names are added as seen on the map including old spellings. Naturally there will be mistakes and anyone spotting one is welcome to tell us. We notice that some places have different spellings for the same place and where possible those will all be added. For each point we have a description box and that will be searchable as well.

Howard

 

 

[AOK4]

2 hours ago, Howard said:

Points are not added by importance, volunteers work square by square filling in every point seen, then check on maps of different dates fro that square. This means even trivial points may be added before important ones. We are currently concentrating on the British sectors but will work round to Verdun and beyond as capacity allows.

We have about 2,000 German maps waiting to be georeferenced, once that is done we can add all the German names found. It will be done but not in the immediate future.

Names are added as seen on the map including old spellings. Naturally there will be mistakes and anyone spotting one is welcome to tell us. We notice that some places have different spellings for the same place and where possible those will all be added. For each point we have a description box and that will be searchable as well.

Howard

 

 

Howard,

Thanks for your efforts.

I just made my remark about Polderhoek Chateau because the other names in the area were in the index. In the meantime it has been made clear that just "Chateau" had been put in the list.

Of course there are different names for a lot of places as there was the old (non-standardized, usually with a heavy French influence) spelling in Flanders during WW1 (a standardized spelling only was agreed upon in 1948 or so). The Germans introduced "Flemish" spelling for place names during the war as part of their Flamenpolitik.

German names on maps have their own issues as well (among these are translated place names).

How about "moving" place names? Sometimes place names moved around according to the map version and the scale of it. Who decides what spot to take?

And I also notice you attritube points to trench names and "areas" (like hamlets or villages). I assume that it's difficult to implement areas or lines?

Regards,

Jan

 

[Howard]

3 hours ago, AOK4 said:

Howard,

Thanks for your efforts.

I just made my remark about Polderhoek Chateau because the other names in the area were in the index. In the meantime it has been made clear that just "Chateau" had been put in the list.

Of course there are different names for a lot of places as there was the old (non-standardized, usually with a heavy French influence) spelling in Flanders during WW1 (a standardized spelling only was agreed upon in 1948 or so). The Germans introduced "Flemish" spelling for place names during the war as part of their Flamenpolitik.

German names on maps have their own issues as well (among these are translated place names).

How about "moving" place names? Sometimes place names moved around according to the map version and the scale of it. Who decides what spot to take?

And I also notice you attritube points to trench names and "areas" (like hamlets or villages). I assume that it's difficult to implement areas or lines?

Regards,

Jan

 

The idea is that people will search for places from reports written at the time not anything agreed afterwards. It may be possible in the future to add  modern spellings.

We do not attempt to define the geographic location, it is simply a finding aid. A user looks for a point and the system presents the map with it on, the user then takes it from there. There are obvious difficulties trying to define exact locations, not the least the start and end point of a trench, especially long ones. To do that we would need to trace each trench and supply a vector in response. A colossal task!!

Howard