Unnamed Unit, Sussex : Historical writing

Descriptive gazetteer entries

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

Place Type of entry Source
Eastbourne watering-place, municipal borough, hundred, and parish Bartholomew
EASTBOURNE a town, a parish, a sub-district, a district, and a hundred Imperial
Eastbourne (or Southern) Division Bartholomew

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

Place Type of entry Source
Meads ecclesiastical district and village Bartholomew
RODMILL a hamlet 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 Eastbourne 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 Berkshire, Surrey and Sussex 1
William Cobbett Oct. 18th to 26th, 1826: Weston to Kensington 1
Daniel Defoe Letter 2, Part 2: Canterbury and Sussex 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
Meads 0 2
Willingdon 0 3
Jevington 0 2
Beachy Head 0 2
East Dean Near Eastbourne 0 3
Friston 0 2
Westham 0 2
Polegate 0 2
Birling Gap 0 2
Folkington 0 2
Litlington 0 2
Lullington 0 2
West Dean Near Eastbourne 0 3
Wilmington 0 2
Pevensey 17 4
Longbridge 0 2
Hailsham 0 2
Arlington 0 2
Berwick 0 2
Alfriston 0 2

Names from historical writing

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

Name Author Source
BOURN Daniel Defoe A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain, divided into circuits or journies (London: JM Dent and Co, 1927).
EAST BOURN William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
EASTBOURNE 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).
EASTBOURNE OR SOUTHERN DIVISION John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).

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.