Dunstable, Bedfordshire : Historical writing

Descriptive gazetteer entries

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

Place Type of entry Source
Dunstable municipal borough, market town, and parish, with railway station Bartholomew
DUNSTABLE a 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 Dunstable.

Place Type of entry Source
Maiden Bower ancient circular camp Bartholomew
MAIDEN BOWER an ancient British camp 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 Dunstable 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 Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire 12
Thomas Pennant Towcester to Redborn 5
Daniel Defoe Appendix to the second volume 3
Arthur Young 1776 Tour from Essex to Shropshire 3
Daniel Defoe Letter 7, Part 2: East Midlands 2
Celia Fiennes 1697 Tour: Coventry to London 2
Karl Moritz Chapter 13: Northampton to London 2
Celia Fiennes Another tour of the Midlands 1
Celia Fiennes Bedfordshire 1
John Wesley 1757-9: "I do Indeed Live by Preaching"; Advice to Travelers; French Prisoners 1
Thomas Pennant Tamworth to Meriden 1
Thomas Pennant Tyringham to Woburn 1
Thomas Pennant Ampthill to Luton 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
Houghton Regis 0 2
Maiden Bower 2 2
Kensworth 0 2
Totternhoe 1 2
Leagrave 0 4
Caddington 0 2
Eaton Bray 0 2
Whipsnade 0 2
Tilsworth 1 3
Chalgrave 0 2
Edlesborough 0 2
Biscot 0 3
Humbershoe 0 2
Limbury 0 2
Markyate 4 2
Luton 8 2
Studham 0 2
Sundon 1 2
Manshead 0 2
Stanbridge 0 2

Names from historical writing

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

Name Author Source
DUNSTABLE 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).
DUNSTABLEL Karl Moritz Travels in England in 1782 (London: Cassell and Company, 1886).
MAGINTUM William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
MAGIONINIUM William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
MAGIOVENTUM Thomas Pennant The Journey from Chester to London (London: Wilkie and Robinson, 1811).
MAGIOVINIUM William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
MAGIOVINUM Thomas Pennant The Journey from Chester to London (London: Wilkie and Robinson, 1811).

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.