Great Yarmouth, Norfolk : Historical writing

Descriptive gazetteer entries

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

Place Type of entry Source
Great Yarmouth municipal borough and parish Bartholomew
Yarmouth (Great) parliamentary and municipal borough Bartholomew
YARMOUTH, or Great Yarmouth a town, a parish, and a district 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 Great Yarmouth 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 3: Norfolk and Cambridgeshire 22
William Camden Norfolk and Cambridgeshire 8
Daniel Defoe Letter 1, Part 2: Harwich and Suffolk 6
Daniel Defoe Letter 2, Part 2: Canterbury and Sussex 3
Daniel Defoe Letter 11: South-Eastern Scotland 3
Henry Broadhurst In Journeyings Often 2
William Cobbett Dec. 10th to 24th, 1821: Norfolk and Suffolk Journal 2
Daniel Defoe Letter 9: Eastern Yorkshire, Durham and Northumberland 2
Daniel Defoe Letter 13, Part 2: Dundee, Aberdeen and the Highlands 2
Daniel Defoe Letter 1, Part 1: Through Essex to Colchester 1
Daniel Defoe Letter 2, Part 1: Kent Coast and Maidstone 1
Daniel Defoe Letter 3, Part 2: Salisbury and Dorset 1
Daniel Defoe Letter 5 (London), Part 2: The City 1
Daniel Defoe Letter 5 (London), Part 3: The Court and Westminster 1
Daniel Defoe Appendix to the second volume 1
Celia Fiennes 1698 Tour: London to Bury St Edmunds 1
George Head Hull 1
George Head North Riding 1
John Wesley 1769-70: Opens a New Church; Comments on Rousseau; Geology; Swedenborg 1
John Wesley 1774-6: Wesley Arrested; A Terrible Ride; A Methodist Isaac Newton; the American War 1
John Wesley 1785-90: Collects Money for the Poor; Visits House of Lords; Reasons for his Long Life 1
Arthur Young 1784 Tour of Suffolk 1
Arthur Young 21st to 30th September 1776: Cork and Kerry 1
Arthur Young Section 19: Manufactures 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
Southtown 0 5
Gorleston 2 2
Bradwell 0 2
Burgh Castle 3 2
Belton 0 2
Hopton on Sea 0 1
Runham 0 2
Caister Next Yarmouth 3 3
Mautby 0 2
Lound 0 2
Ashby 0 2
Fritton 0 2
Corton 0 2
Reedham 0 2
Halvergate 0 2
Wickhampton 0 2
Herringby 0 2
Filby 0 2
Ormesby St Margaret 0 3
Thrigby 0 2

Names from historical writing

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

Name Author Source
GAR MUTH William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
GREAT YARMOUTH 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).
LIER MUTH William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
YARMOUTH William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
Daniel Defoe A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain, divided into circuits or journies (London: JM Dent and Co, 1927).
Celia Fiennes Through England on a Side Saddle in the Time of William and Mary (London: Field and Tuer, The Leadenhall Press, 1888).
George Head A Home Tour through the Manufacturing Districts of England in the Summer of 1835 (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1836).
John Wesley The Journal of John Wesley (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Christian Classics Ethereal Library, 2000).
John Marius Wilson Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (Edinburgh: A Fullarton & Co., 1870-72).
Arthur Young Tours in England and Wales, selected from the Annals of Agriculture (London: London School of Economics, 1932).
Arthur Young A Tour in Ireland, made in the years 1776, 1777, and 1778 (London: T. Cadell, 1780).
YARMOUTH GREAT John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
YARMOUTH OR GREAT YARMOUTH 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.