We could not match "BIRCHINGTON" in our simplified list of the main towns and villages, or as a postcode. There are several other ways of finding places within Vision of Britain, so read on for detailed advice and 10 possible matches we have found for you:

• If you meant to type something else:
  
  



• If you typed a postcode, it needs to be a full postcode: some letters, then some numbers, then more letters. Old-style postal districts like "SE3" are not precise enough (if you know the location but do not have a precise postcode or placename, see below):
  
  
  
  
  
• If you are looking for a place-name, it needs to be the name of a town or village, or possibly a district within a town. We do not know about individual streets or buildings, unless they give their names to a larger area (though you might try our collections of Historical Gazetteers and British travel writing). Do not include the name of a county, region or nation with the place-name: if we know of more than one place in Britain with the same name, you get to choose the right one from a list or map:
  
  
  
  
  
• You have just searched a list of the main towns, villages and localities of Britain which we have kept as simple as possible. It is based on a much more detailed list of legally defined administrative units: counties, districts, parishes, wapentakes and so on. This is the real heart of our system, and you may be better off directly searching it. These administrative units are not currently included within "places" and exactly match your search term:

  Unit Name	Type of Unit	Containing Unit (and Type)
  BIRCHINGTON LG_Ward	Parish-level Unit	MARGATE MB (Local Government District)

  It may also be worth using "sound-alike" and wildcard searching to find units with names similar to your search term:
  
  



• If you are looking for hills, rivers, castles ... or pretty much anything other than the "places" where people live and lived, you need to look in our collection of Historical Gazetteers. This contains the complete text of three gazetteers published in the late 19th century — over 90,000 entries. Although there are no descriptive gazetteer entries for placenames exactly matching your search term (other than those already linked to "places"), the following entries mention "BIRCHINGTON":

  Place name	County	Entry	Source
  Birchington	Kent	Birchington , par. and vil. with ry. sta., E. Kent, 2 miles SW. of Margate, 1681 ac., pop. 1393; P.O., T.O.	Bartholomew
  BIRCHINGTON	Kent	BIRCHINGTON , a village and a parish in Thanet district, Kent. The village stands adjacent to the Kent Coast railway, 3¼ miles	Imperial
  CANTERBURY	Kent Surrey	Birchington, Acol, Broadstairs, Christchurch-Ramsgate, Hoath, and Whitstable. The deanery of Dartford includes the rectories of Beckenham, Chelsfield, Chiselhurst, Crayford	Imperial
  Gore End	Kent	Gore End , hamlet, Birchington par., E. Kent, 5 miles SW. of Margate.	Bartholomew
  GORE-END	Kent	Birchington parish, Kent; 5 miles W by S of Margate. Gore Cliff is near it; and Gore Patch, a shoal	Imperial
  Hemming's Bay	Kent	Hemming's Bay , on N. coast of Kent, near Birchington, 3½ miles W. of Margate.	Bartholomew
  MONKTON	Kent	Birchington and Acol, in the diocese of Canterbury. Value, £670.* Patron, the Archbishop of Canterbury. The church is ancient	Imperial
  Quex	Kent	Birchington par., Kent, 3 miles SW. of Margate; was the resting-place of William III. on his way to and from	Bartholomew
  QUEX	Kent	Birchington parish, Kent; 3 miles W S W of Margate. It belonged to the Queke or Quex family; passed, in the time	Imperial

  It may also be worth using "sound-alike" and wildcard searching to find names similar to your search term:
  
  



• Place-names also appear in our collection of British travel writing. If the place-name you are interested in appears in our simplified list of "places", the search you have just done should lead you to mentions by travellers. However, many other places are mentioned, including places outside Britain and weird mis-spellings. You can search for them in the Travel Writing section of this site.



• If you know where you are interested in, but don't know the place-name, go to our historical mapping, and zoom in on the area you are interested in. Click on the "Information" icon, and your mouse pointer should change into a question mark: click again on the location you are interested in. This will take you to a page for that location, with links to both administrative units, modern and historical, which cover it, and to places which were nearby. For example, if you know where an ancestor lived, Vision of Britain can tell you the parish and Registration District it was in, helping you locate your ancestor's birth, marriage or death.