Colchester, Essex : Historical writing

Descriptive gazetteer entries

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

Place Type of entry Source
Colchester division Bartholomew
Colchester parliamentary and municipal borough, market town, and river port Bartholomew
COLCHESTER a town, a district, and a division Imperial
COLCHESTER, SUDBURY, AND HALSTEAD RAILWAY a railway Imperial
St Botolph parish and railway station Bartholomew

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

Place Type of entry Source
Blatch Ground hamlet Bartholomew
SPITAL 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 Colchester 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 1: Through Essex to Colchester 22
Celia Fiennes 1698 Tour: London to Bury St Edmunds 8
William Camden Essex and Suffolk 6
Daniel Defoe Letter 1, Part 2: Harwich and Suffolk 5
William Camden Romans in Britaine (1) 4
John Wesley 1785-90: Collects Money for the Poor; Visits House of Lords; Reasons for his Long Life 3
Arthur Young 1784 Tour of Suffolk 3
Daniel Defoe Letter 2, Part 1: Kent Coast and Maidstone 2
Daniel Defoe Appendix to the second volume 2
Robert Gammage Chelmsford, Oxford and Nottinghamshire 2
John Wesley 1757-9: "I do Indeed Live by Preaching"; Advice to Travelers; French Prisoners 2
Henry Broadhurst In Journeyings Often 1
William Camden The Division of Britaine 1
William Camden Yorkshire: West Riding 1
Daniel Defoe Letter 1, Part 3: Norfolk and Cambridgeshire 1
Daniel Defoe Appendix to letter 1 1
Daniel Defoe Letter 4, Part 2: Somerset and Wiltshire 1
Daniel Defoe Letter 7, Part 2: East Midlands 1
Daniel Defoe Letter 8, Part 3: South and West Yorkshire 1
Robert Gammage Eight months in Sherborne 1
Robert Gammage Working and Campaigning in Chelmsford in 1841-2 1
John Wesley 1774-6: Wesley Arrested; A Terrible Ride; A Methodist Isaac Newton; the American War 1
Thomas Pennant Gorhambury and Verulamium 1
Thomas Pennant Ampthill to Luton 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
Hythe 0 2
Mile End 0 2
Greenstead 0 2
Lexden 6 3
Shrub End 0 1
Blackheath 0 1
Berechurch 0 2
East Donyland 0 3
Wivenhoe 4 3
Stanway 0 1
Stanway All Saints 0 1
West Bergholt 0 3
Ardleigh 1 2
Abberton 0 2
Great Horkesley 0 2
Elmstead 0 2
Layer de la Haye 0 2
Fingringhoe 0 2
Boxted 1 2
Langham 0 2

Names from historical writing

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

Name Author Source
CAER COLIN William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
CAMALODUNUM William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
CAMOLODUNUM Thomas Pennant The Journey from Chester to London (London: Wilkie and Robinson, 1811).
COLCHESTER John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
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).
COLCHESTER SUDBURY AND HALSTEAD RAILWAY John Marius Wilson Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (Edinburgh: A Fullarton & Co., 1870-72).
COLE CEASTER William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
COLONIA William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
ST BOTOLPH 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.