Folkestone, Kent : Place names

Names from historical writing:

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

Name	Author	Source
FOLKESTONE	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).
FOLKESTONE OR FOLKSTONE	John Bartholomew	Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
FOLKSTONE	John Bartholomew	Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
	John Bartholomew	Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
	William Camden	Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
	Daniel Defoe	A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain, divided into circuits or journies (London: JM Dent and Co, 1927).
FOULKSTON	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.

Names for administrative units:

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

Name	Unit Type	Source
CIVIL PARISH OF FOLKSTONE NEXT SANDGATE	Parish-level Unit (CP)	1931 Census of England and Wales, Table 3, 'Industries (condensed list) of Males and Females (exclusive of persons out of work)'.
E05010017	Modern (2024) Ward	Office for National Statistics, Open Geography Portal (Wards (December 2024) Names and Codes in the UK)
E05010018	Modern (2024) Ward	Office for National Statistics, Open Geography Portal (Wards (December 2024) Names and Codes in the UK)
E05010019	Modern (2024) Ward	Office for National Statistics, Open Geography Portal (Wards (December 2024) Names and Codes in the UK)
E14000704	Constituency (CCon)	House of Commons Library, Boundary review 2023: Which seats will change in the UK?
E14001239	Constituency (CCon)	House of Commons Library, Boundary review 2023: Which seats will change in the UK?
E190521	Local Government District (MB)
E63013049	Built-up Area	Office for National Statistics, Open Geography Portal (Built Up Areas (December 2024) Boundaries EW)
EAST FOLKESTONE	Modern (2024) Ward	Office for National Statistics, Open Geography Portal (Wards (December 2024) Names and Codes in the UK)
FOLKESTONE	Ancient District (Borough)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 634.
	Ancient District (Hundred)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 632.
	Built-up Area	Office for National Statistics, Open Geography Portal (Built Up Areas (December 2024) Boundaries EW)
	Ecclesiastical Parish (EP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 271.
	Local Government District (MB)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 634.
	Parish-level Unit (CP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 271.
	Parish-level Unit (CP/AP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 271.
	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'.
	Sanitary District (USD)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 637.
	Urban Labour Market	Great Britain Historical GIS Project
FOLKESTONE AND HYTHE	Constituency (CCon)	Richard H.A. Cheffins, Parliamentary Constituencies and their registers since 1832 (London: The British Library, 1998)
FOLKESTONE CENTRAL	Modern (2024) Ward	Office for National Statistics, Open Geography Portal (Wards (December 2024) Names and Codes in the UK)
FOLKESTONE CHRIST CHURCH	Ecclesiastical Parish (EP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 271.
FOLKESTONE HARBOUR	Modern (2024) Ward	Office for National Statistics, Open Geography Portal (Wards (December 2024) Names and Codes in the UK)
FOLKESTONE HOLY TRINITY	Ecclesiastical Parish (EP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 271.
FOLKESTONE HOLY TRINITY WITH CHRIST CHURCH	Ecclesiastical Parish (EP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 271.
FOLKESTONE NEXT SANDGATE	Parish-level Unit (CP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 271.
FOLKESTONE ST JOHN THE BAPTIST	Ecclesiastical Parish (EP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 271.
FOLKESTONE ST MARY AND ST EANSWYTHE	Ecclesiastical Parish (EP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 271.
FOLKESTONE ST MARY AND ST EANSWYTHE	Parish-level Unit (CP/AP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 271.
FOLKESTONE ST MICHAEL AND ALL ANGELS	Ecclesiastical Parish (EP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 271.
FOLKESTONE ST PETER	Ecclesiastical Parish (EP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 271.
FOLKESTONE ST SAVIOUR	Ecclesiastical Parish (EP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 271.
FOLKESTONE TOWN	Parish-level Unit (CP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 271.
FOLKSTONE	Ancient District (Hundred)	1801 Census of Great Britain, Table [1], 'Population Abstract'.
FOORD	Ecclesiastical Parish (EP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 271.
KENT FOLKESTONE AND HYTHE	Constituency (CCon)	Boundary Commission for England, First Periodical Report (London: H.M.S.O., 1954)

NB: These are all the names of all the administrative units which we have associated with Folkestone, 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 Folkestone, 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.