History of Tonbridge, in Tonbridge and Malling and Kent

Place:

Tonbridge Kent

Names from historical writing:

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

Name	Author	Source
TONBRIDGE AND TONBRIDGE WELLS	John Bartholomew	Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
TUNBRIDGE	John Bartholomew	Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
TUNBRIDGE	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.

Names for administrative units:

These names were used for units associated with Tonbridge. Click on the links for details of the units and their names:

Name	Unit Type	Source
29UP	District/Unitary Authority	Census of Population (2001 Key Statistics)
E190541	Local Government District (UD)
E190558	Local Government District (RD)
KENT SOUTH WESTERN	Constituency (PDivCon)	Richard H.A. Cheffins, Parliamentary Constituencies and their registers since 1832 (London: The British Library, 1998)
KENT SOUTH WESTERN OR TUNBRIDGE	Constituency (PDivCon)	Richard H.A. Cheffins, Parliamentary Constituencies and their registers since 1832 (London: The British Library, 1998)
KENT TONBRIDGE	Constituency (PDivCon)	Richard H.A. Cheffins, Parliamentary Constituencies and their registers since 1832 (London: The British Library, 1998)
KENT TONBRIDGE	Constituency (CCon)	Boundary Commission for England, First Periodical Report (London: H.M.S.O., 1954)
KENT TUNBRIDGE	Constituency (PDivCon)	Richard H.A. Cheffins, Parliamentary Constituencies and their registers since 1832 (London: The British Library, 1998)
LEUCATA DE TONEBREGG	Ancient District (Hundred)	Robin Glasscock, The Lay Subsidy of 1334 (London: British Academy, 1975)
LOWEY OF TONBRIDGE	Ancient District (Hundred)	1821 Census of Great Britain, Table [1], 'Population Abstract'.
LOWY OF TONBRIDGE	Ancient District (Hundred)	Robin Glasscock, The Lay Subsidy of 1334 (London: British Academy, 1975)
SOUTH WESTERN KENT	Constituency (PDivCon)	Richard H.A. Cheffins, Parliamentary Constituencies and their registers since 1832 (London: The British Library, 1998)
TONBRIDGE	1841 Occupation reporting area	1841 Census of Great Britain, Table [1], 'Occupation Abstract'.
	Ancient District (Borough)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 634.
	Ancient District (Hundred)	1801 Census of Great Britain, Table [1], 'Population Abstract'.
	Archdeaconry	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 783.
	Constituency (PBCon)	Richard H.A. Cheffins, Parliamentary Constituencies and their registers since 1832 (London: The British Library, 1998)
	Constituency (CCon)	Richard H.A. Cheffins, Parliamentary Constituencies and their registers since 1832 (London: The British Library, 1998)
	Ecclesiastical Parish (EP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 292.
	Local Government District (RD)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 640.
	Local Government District (UD)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 640.
	Parish-level Unit (AP/CP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 292.
	Parish-level Unit (CP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 292.
	Poor Law Union/Reg. District (RegD/PLU)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 637.
	Registration sub-District	1911 Census of England and Wales, Table 5, 'Registration Counties, Districts and Sub-districts with their constituent civil parishes. - Urban or Rural District in which each parish is situated; Area; families or separate occupiers, and population, 1901 and 1911; and population enumerated in Institutions, large establishments, and on vessels, &c., 1911'.
	Rural Deanery	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 776.
	Sanitary District (USD)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 638.
	Sanitary District (RSD)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 638.
	Urban Labour Market	Great Britain Historical GIS Project
TONBRIDGE AND MALLING	Constituency (CCon)	Richard H.A. Cheffins, Parliamentary Constituencies and their registers since 1832 (London: The British Library, 1998)
TONBRIDGE AND MALLING	District/Unitary Authority	Census of Population (2001 Key Statistics)
TONBRIDGE LOWEY	Ancient District (Hundred)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 632.
TONBRIDGE RURAL	Parish-level Unit (CP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 292.
TONBRIDGE ST PETER AND ST PAUL	Ecclesiastical Parish (EP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 292.
TONBRIDGE ST PETER AND ST PAUL	Parish-level Unit (AP/CP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 292.
TONBRIDGE ST STEPHEN	Ecclesiastical Parish (EP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 292.
TONBRIDGE URBAN	Parish-level Unit (CP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 292.
TUNBRIDGE	Constituency (PDivCon)	F.W.S. Craig (ed.), British Parliamentary Election Results 1885-1918 (London: The Macmillan Press Ltd, 1974)
	Parish-level Unit (AP/CP)	1851 Census of Great Britain, Table [1], 'Population Abstract'.
	Poor Law Union/Reg. District (RegD/PLU)	1851 Census of Great Britain, Table [1], 'Population Abstract'.
	Registration sub-District	1881 Census of England and Wales, Table 4, 'Area, Houses, and Population of Civil Parishes in the several Registration Sub-Districts in 1871 and 1881'.
	Sanitary District (USD)	1891 Census of England and Wales, Table 4, 'Area and Population in Rural Sanitary Districts'.
	Sanitary District (RSD)	1891 Census of England and Wales, Table 4, 'Area and Population in Rural Sanitary Districts'.

NB: These are all the names of all the administrative units which we have associated with Tonbridge, and you must judge whether all or even any of them are variant names for the place. They may well include the names of other locations or areas:

For cities, the associated administrative units will usually include parishes, especially ecclesiastical parishes, one of whose names is the name of the city followed by a saint's dedication, with just the saint's name as another variant. Parish names will sometimes also include "places" within towns.
Districts usually contain more than one settlement, and some districts had their names changed to take the name of a completely different settlement. As we link each administrative unit to just one of our "places", usually the last place the unit was named after, in these cases the name for a completely different place will appear on this page.
Similarly, a unit may sometimes be named after a particular settlement it contains and sometimes to indicate its location within a higher level unit. This was very common among British parliamentary constituencies in rural areas, one name referring to their main town and another indicating that they were in, say, the southern part of the relevant county.

Every name listed here is linked to the particular historical source in which it appears, but we cannot claim that these are all the historical names of Tonbridge, or that our references are to the first usage of the names. Similarly, we have tried to ensure that names included here are not transcription errors by ourselves, but it is possible they are the result of errors made when the historical sources were printed, or the result of visiting authors or census officials mis-hearing local names.

How to reference this page:

GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Tonbridge, in Tonbridge and Malling and Kent | Place names, A Vision of Britain through Time.

URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/1024/names

Date accessed: 19th March 2025