West Ham, Essex : Historical writing

Descriptive gazetteer entries

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

Place Type of entry Source
HAM, or WEST HAM a village, a parish, a sub-district, and a district Imperial
Ham, West parliamentary borough, parish, and local government district Bartholomew
West Ham parliamentary borough, parish, and local government district Bartholomew

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

Place Type of entry Source
BARKING-ROAD a chapelry, with a r station Imperial
CANNING-TOWN a chapelry Imperial
CHURCH-STREET a ward Imperial
FOREST-GATE a village Imperial
Plaistow 2 ecclesiastical districts Bartholomew
PLAISTOW a village, a chapelry, and a ward Imperial
SILVERTOWN a village Imperial
Stratford town Bartholomew
STRATFORD a town, a ward, and three chapelries Imperial
Stratford Marsh ecclesiastical district Bartholomew
Upton village Bartholomew
UPTON a village Imperial
Victoria Docks ecclesiastical district Bartholomew

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 West Ham 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 1, Part 1: Through Essex to Colchester 2

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
Stratford 9 2
Stratford Marsh 0 1
Upton 0 2
Plaistow 4 2
Forest Gate 0 2
Bromley 0 2
Bow 7 2
Cann Hall 0 2
Old Ford 1 2
Canning Town 0 3
Upton Park 0 1
Hackney Wick 0 1
Bow Common 0 1
Blackwall 6 2
Victoria Park 0 3
Mile End 4 3
Poplar 5 3
East Ham 0 3
Leyton 4 2
Aldersbrook 0 2

Names from historical writing

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

Name Author Source
HAM 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).
HAM OR WEST HAM John Marius Wilson Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (Edinburgh: A Fullarton & Co., 1870-72).
HAM WEST John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
WEST HAM John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
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).

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.