Dartford, Kent : Historical writing

Descriptive gazetteer entries

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

Place Type of entry Source
Dartford market town and parish with railway station Bartholomew
DARTFORD a town, a parish, a sub-district, 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 Dartford 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.
Karl Moritz Chapter 2: Entering London 3
William Camden Kent 2
William Cobbett Dec. 4th to 5th, 1821: Kentish Journal 2
John Byng A Tour into Kent, 1790 1
Charles Wesley 1745: London, Bristol and South Wales 1
Daniel Defoe Letter 2, Part 1: Kent Coast and Maidstone 1
Celia Fiennes 1697: Through Kent to Canterbury and Dover 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
Crayford 2 2
Slade Green 0 2
Wilmington 1 2
Hawley 0 1
Bexley 18 2
Stone 0 2
Northumberland Heath 0 2
Erith 2 2
Sutton At Hone 0 3
Darenth 0 5
Bexleyheath 0 2
North Cray 2 2
Lessness 0 2
Greenhithe 0 2
West Thurrock 0 3
Blendon 23 2
Swanley 0 2
Ruxley 0 3
Greenstreet Green 0 2
Belvedere 0 2

Names from historical writing

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

Name Author Source
DARENTFORD William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
John Marius Wilson Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (Edinburgh: A Fullarton & Co., 1870-72).
DARTFFORD Celia Fiennes Through England on a Side Saddle in the Time of William and Mary (London: Field and Tuer, The Leadenhall Press, 1888).
DARTFORD 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).
DORTFORD William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
TARENTFORD 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.