Ashford, Kent : Historical writing

Descriptive gazetteer entries

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

Place Type of entry Source
Ashford parish and market town Bartholomew
ASHFORD a town Imperial
Ashford (or Southern) Division parlimentary division 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 Ashford 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.
John Byng A Tour into Kent, 1790 4
William Camden Kent 1
Daniel Defoe Letter 2, Part 1: Kent Coast and Maidstone 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
Kennington 0 2
Willesborough 0 2
Hinxhill 0 2
Sevington 0 2
Kingsnorth 0 2
Great Chart 0 5
Eastwell 3 2
Hothfield 0 2
Boughton Aluph 0 2
Mersham 1 2
Brook 0 2
Westwell 0 2
Wye 2 2
Shadoxhurst 0 2
Bircholt 0 2
Challock 0 2
Smeeth 0 2
Little Chart 0 2
Calehill 1 2
Brabourne 1 2

Names from historical writing

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

Name Author Source
ASCHEFORDE John Byng The Torrington Diaries: Containing the tours through England And Wales of the Hon. John Byng (Later Fifth Viscount Torrington) between the years 1781 and 1794 (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1938).
ASHFORD 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).
ASHFORD OR SOUTHERN DIVISION John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
ASSCHEFORDE John Byng The Torrington Diaries: Containing the tours through England And Wales of the Hon. John Byng (Later Fifth Viscount Torrington) between the years 1781 and 1794 (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1938).
ESSHETFORD 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.