Battersea, Surrey : Historical writing

Descriptive gazetteer entries

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

Place Type of entry Source
Battersea parish and township Bartholomew
BATTERSEA a parish Imperial
Battersea and Clapham parliamentary borough Bartholomew

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

Place Type of entry Source
Lavender Hill ecclesiastical district Bartholomew
Penge township and railway station Bartholomew
PENGE a village and a chapelry 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 Battersea 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 3
Daniel Defoe Letter 2, Part 3: Hampshire and Surrey 2
John Wesley 1765-8: Justice for Methodists; Methodist Character; Instructions to Parents 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
Chelsea 17 2
Walham Green 0 2
Parsons Green 1 2
Lavender Hill 0 1
West Brompton 0 2
South Kensington 0 1
Brompton 0 2
Earls Court 0 2
Wandsworth 2 2
Northend 0 2
Pimlico 0 2
Nine Elms 1 2
Fulham 8 2
Belgravia 0 3
Victoria 0 1
Knightsbridge 4 2
Clapham 5 2
Kensington 21 3
Tothill Fields 0 2
Putney 5 2

Names from historical writing

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

Name Author Source
BATERSEY William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
BATTERSEA 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).
BATTERSEA AND CLAPHAM John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
BATTERSEY Daniel Defoe A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain, divided into circuits or journies (London: JM Dent and Co, 1927).
PATRICII INSULA William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
PATYRYKS EA William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
PETERSEY 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.