Keswick, Cumberland : Historical writing

Descriptive gazetteer entries

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

Place Type of entry Source
Keswick market town and township with railway station Bartholomew
KESWICK a town, a township, a chapelry, and a sub-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 Keswick 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.
George Head Workington and the Lake District 4
William Camden Cumberland 1
John Wesley 1749-50: Wesley and the Soldiers; In Ireland and Wales Again; Wesley Burned in Effigy 1
John Wesley 1757-9: "I do Indeed Live by Preaching"; Advice to Travelers; French Prisoners 1
John Wesley 1765-8: Justice for Methodists; Methodist Character; Instructions to Parents 1
Arthur Young 21st to 30th September 1776: Cork and Kerry 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
Friars Crag 0 2
Crosthwaite 0 2
Lords Island 0 2
Portinscale 0 2
Castlerigg 0 3
Ormathwaite 0 2
Briery 0 1
Applethwaite 0 2
Druids Circle 0 2
Underskiddaw 0 2
Braithwaite 0 2
Newlands 0 2
St John in the Vale 0 2
Coledale 0 2
Above Derwent 0 1
Wanthwaite 0 1
Thornthwaite 0 2
Lodore 0 2
Grange 0 3
Skiddaw 3 3

Names from historical writing

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

Name Author Source
KESIKE William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
KESWICK 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).

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.