War Diaries Talk

How to tag trenches

  • Stork by Stork

    The tagging instructions say to tag trenches and positions. I've been tagging the obvious ones, e.g. Robert's Trench, but I'm frequently running into names like First Avenue, Sart Lane, West Road, Sandbag Alley, North Tunnel, etc. Should I tag those as trenches even though I'm not certain? Do you want posts tagged, like Grafton Post? What about camps?

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  • ral104 by ral104 moderator, scientist

    I think in general, I would tag all of those - named features, whether trenches or not are worth recording. But less uniquely-named features, like 'Sap C', for example, aren't so useful.

    The same general rule applies to posts and camps. Grafton post is one I would tag. But Camp 3 isn't.

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  • cyngast by cyngast moderator

    I'm not trying to be difficult, but what about places like the Sand Pit near Meaulte. This turns up frequently in diaries of units in the Somme area. It's not a place that can be found on an ordinary map, but it seems like a term that would be familiar to someone doing research about that area. I have not tagged it as a place, but I wonder if I should.

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  • fisfiris by fisfiris

    This seems to be a bit of a contentious issue: I seem to remember that in a thread some time ago we were told that 'local' names were not official places but simply nicknames and were often repeated in different places, and weren't to be tagged. It actually seems quite important from the research point of view, and authoritative guidance, well publicised, would be appreciated. I have recently had names like 'Fort Mary', 'Fort Prowse' which were not place names and so not tagged.

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  • ral104 by ral104 moderator, scientist

    I know there has been a bit of confusion around this before, but after seeing Richard Grayson's article recently I'm definitely of the opinion that the more we tag, the better.

    So, for both examples above - the Sand Pit and Fort Mary/Prowse - I would advise tagging them as places, unless it is clear from the context that there is a more 'official' name which can be used to locate the unit on a current map. As you say, these sorts of names are likely to be usable by anybody doing research in the area who has access to trench maps and so on.

    The only things I wouldn't tag are the really generic names I mentioned above - Sap C, Point 32 and so on - which are very likely to be duplicated across multiple sectors. Although even those can be tagged if you prefer - it's far easier for us to filter out certain information if necessary than it is to fill in missing items.

    This project is evolving all the time as we begin to see the first tranches of data we're producing actually being used to support research, and certainly some of our original assumptions (and advice) around what to tag and how to tag it has changed.

    Posted