Cotswold, Gloucestershire : Historical writing

Descriptive gazetteer entries

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

Place Type of entry Source
COTSWOLD a sub-district Imperial
Cotswolds, or Cotteswolds hill range Bartholomew
COTSWOLDS (The) a hill tract 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 Cotswold 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.
William Camden Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire 4
William Gilpin London to Ross 2
William Camden Wiltshire and Hampshire 1
William Gilpin Bridgend to Bristol 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
Yanworth 0 2
Stowell 0 2
Chedworth 3 2
Coln St Dennis 0 2
Hampnett 0 2
Compton Abdale 0 2
Bradley 0 2
Northleach 9 2
Coln Rogers 0 2
Haselton 0 4
Eastington 0 2
Winson 1 2
Turkdean 0 2
Rendcombe 0 2
Bibury 0 2
Withington 2 2
North Cerney 0 3
Shipton 0 3
Farmington 0 2
Shipton Sollars 0 1

Names from historical writing

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

Name Author Source
COTESWOLD William Gilpin Observations of the River Wye, and several parts of South Wales (London: Cadell Junior and W. Davies, 1800).
COTSWOLD John Marius Wilson Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (Edinburgh: A Fullarton & Co., 1870-72).
COTSWOLDS 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).
COTSWOLDS OR COTTESWOLDS John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
COTSWOLDS THE John Marius Wilson Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (Edinburgh: A Fullarton & Co., 1870-72).
COTTESWALD William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
COTTESWOLD William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
COTTESWOLDS John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
THE COTSWOLDS John Marius Wilson Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (Edinburgh: A Fullarton & Co., 1870-72).

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.