Corfe Castle, Dorset : Historical writing

Descriptive gazetteer entries

These other entries in our collection of descriptive gazetteers are also about Corfe Castle. You may be able to find further references to Corfe Castle in the descriptive gazetteers by doing a full-text search here.

Place Type of entry Source
Corfe Castle small town, hundred, and parish Bartholomew
CORFE-CASTLE a small town, a parish, and a sub-district Imperial

This additional information from our descriptive gazetteers is for locations within the parish or parishes associated with Corfe Castle.

Place Type of entry Source
Blaskenwell tithing Bartholomew
BLASKENWELL a tything Imperial
Encombe hamlet and seat Bartholomew
KINGSTON a village Imperial
OWER a tything Imperial
REMPSTONE a tything Imperial
ROLLINGTON a tything Imperial

Travel writing

This website includes the complete texts of books describing journeys around Britain, written between the twelfth and nineteenth centuries. Selecting one of the links below will take you to the first reference to Corfe Castle within the selected text. This will not always be a description of a visit: travellers often mention places other than where they are, for example as a basis for comparison.

Traveller Section No. of Refs.
Daniel Defoe Letter 3, Part 2: Salisbury and Dorset 2
William Camden Dorset and Somerset 1
Celia Fiennes Wiltshire and Dorset 1
John Wesley 1774-6: Wesley Arrested; A Terrible Ride; A Methodist Isaac Newton; the American War 1

This website includes two large libraries, of historical travel writing and of entries from nineteenth century gazetteers describing places. We have text from these sources available for these places near your location:

Place Mentioned in Travel Writing Mentioned in Historical Gazetteer
Downshay 0 2
Haycroft 0 2
Kingston 0 2
Quar 0 2
Puddlemill 0 2
Church Knowle 0 3
Hasilor 0 2
Rowberrow 0 2
Worth Matravers 0 2
Eastington 0 2
Langton Matravers 0 2
Encombe 0 2
Renscombe 0 2
Weston 0 2
Arne 0 2
Studland 0 2
Swanage 1 2
Kimmeridge 0 2
Stoborough 0 2
Steeple 0 2

Names from historical writing

The following appear as names for Corfe Castle. Follow the links for what the author actually said:

Name Author Source
CORF William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
Daniel Defoe A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain, divided into circuits or journies (London: JM Dent and Co, 1927).
CORF CASTLE Daniel Defoe A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain, divided into circuits or journies (London: JM Dent and Co, 1927).
CORFE CASTLE John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
John Marius Wilson Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (Edinburgh: A Fullarton & Co., 1870-72).
CORFFE CASTLE Celia Fiennes Through England on a Side Saddle in the Time of William and Mary (London: Field and Tuer, The Leadenhall Press, 1888).

NB: These variant names come from our collections of historical travel writing and descriptive gazetteers:

  • The above links take you to the first reference to this particular version of the name within a book of travel writing, or to the relevant gazetteer entry.
  • Some names may derive from research by antiquarian writers such as William Camden and Thomas Pennant into the Roman, Saxon and medieval names of places. Their claims are not always supported by modern place-name researchers.
  • References by travel writers to the place using its "normal" name are not included. Descriptive gazetteer entries are included only if the name does not appear anywhere else.