South Oxfordshire, Oxfordshire : Historical writing

Descriptive gazetteer entries

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

Place Type of entry Source
Birstall parish and town with railway station Bartholomew
BIRSTALL a village Imperial

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

Place Type of entry Source
LATHAM 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 Birstall 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.
Charles Wesley Jan. 1 - Apr. 30, 1744: London to Newcastle 8
Charles Wesley Sept. 2 - Dec. 30, 1745: Yorkshire and Durham 5
Charles Wesley Sept. 17 - Nov. 5, 1756: Midlands, Yorkshire and Manchester 3
Charles Wesley May 17 - Aug. 28, 1743: Bristol to Newcastle, then Cornwall 2
Charles Wesley Jan. 1 - Aug. 26, 1751: London to Bristol and the north 2
Charles Wesley Sept. 2 - Dec. 31, 1746: The Midlands and the North-East 1
Charles Wesley Jan. 1- Apr. 27, 1747: Yorkshire, Manchester and Bristol 1
Daniel Defoe Letter 8, Part 4: Leeds and North Yorkshire 1
John Wesley 1740-2: Preaching Incidents; Wesley's Labor Colony; Dispute with Whitefield 1
John Wesley 1774-6: Wesley Arrested; A Terrible Ride; A Methodist Isaac Newton; the American War 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
Brownhill 0 2
Adwalton 1 2
Birkenshaw 0 2
Carlinghow 0 2
Drighlington 0 2
Gomersal 0 2
Bruntcliffe 0 2
Batley 1 2
Heckmondwike 0 2
Staincliffe 0 2
Gildersome 0 2
Mill Bridge 0 2
Purlwell 0 1
Hunsworth 0 2
Spenborough 0 3
East Bierley 0 2
Hightown 0 1
Liversedge 0 2
Batley Carr 0 1
Morley 1 3

Names from historical writing

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

Name Author Source
BIRSTAL Charles Wesley The Journal of the Rev. Charles Wesley (London: Hutchinson & Co., 1849).
John Wesley The Journal of John Wesley (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Christian Classics Ethereal Library, 2000).
BIRSTALL 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).
BURSTALL Daniel Defoe A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain, divided into circuits or journies (London: JM Dent and Co, 1927).

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.