Adwick upon Dearne in the Domesday Book (1086)
Adwick upon Dearne is named in the Domesday Book, compiled by Norman commissioners in 1086, entered under the hundred of Strafforth in Yorkshire. The survey assessed Adwick upon Dearne at 60.8 carucates of taxable land.
At the time of the survey, Adwick upon Dearne supported a recorded population of 11 villagers, 19 smallholders, 5 freemanmen, working 13 ploughs between them.
Something went badly wrong here between the two surveys. Before 1066, Adwick upon Dearne was worth 10 shillings; by 1086 that had dropped to 3 shillings – a fall of 70%. Most Yorkshire villages that lost value on this scale were swept up in the Harrying of the North – William’s scorched-earth campaign of 1069–70.
Resources Recorded at Adwick upon Dearne (1086)
- Churches: 1
- Meadow: 4 acres
- Woodland: 2 leagues + 3 furlongs * 2 leagues + 3 furlongs & 9 * 9 leagues mixed measures
Other Settlements in Strafforth
- Adwick [le Street]
- Armthorpe
- Aston
- Attercliffe
- Auckley
- Aughton [Hall]
- Austerfield
- Balby
- Barnbrough
- Barnby [Dun]
- Bentley
- Bilham [House]
- Billingley
- Bolton [upon Dearne]
The Meaning of the Name
The name Adwick upon Dearne is of Anglo-Saxon origin. Its final element derives from the Old English word wīc, a dwelling, dairy farm or trading settlement. The first element is most likely a personal name or an early descriptive term, now difficult to recover with certainty. Taken together the name probably meant something close to ‘a specialised farm’.
Remarkably, the name has changed little since 1086, when the Domesday scribes wrote it as Adwick upon Dearne.
Listed Buildings Near Adwick upon Dearne
Historic England records 8 listed buildings within about a mile of Adwick upon Dearne. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.
Grade II*
- Church of St John - 0.58 km
Grade II
- Base of Cross Approximately 5 Metres to South of Porch of Church of St John - 0.58 km
- Poplar Farmhouse - 0.6 km
- Dovecote Approximately 12 Metres to North West of Adsetts Cottage - 0.71 km
- Tithe Barn Cottage - 0.72 km
- Adwick Bridge - 0.78 km
- Bank End Farmhouse - 1.16 km
- Old Hall - 1.19 km
Scheduled Monuments Near Adwick upon Dearne
Scheduled monuments are nationally important archaeological sites given legal protection. 1 lies within roughly a mile of Adwick upon Dearne:
Adwick upon Dearne Today
Today Adwick upon Dearne lies within the administrative area of Doncaster, and the settlement recorded a population of 284 at the 2021 census. Nine and a half centuries separate that figure from the small rural community the Domesday survey recorded here in 1086.
Read more about modern Adwick upon Dearne on Wikipedia .
Nearby Domesday Settlements
Other places recorded in the 1086 survey within a few miles:
- Mexborough - 1.0 km S
- Bolton upon Dearne - 2.2 km NW
- Barnbrough - 2.2 km NE
- Denaby - 2.2 km SE
- Swinton - 2.8 km SW
- High Melton - 3.0 km E
Heritage Around Adwick [upon Dearne]
Photographs of churches, listed buildings and monuments in the vicinity, contributed by volunteers to the Geograph project and reused here under a Creative Commons licence.
© Richard Croft · Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
© Richard Croft · Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
© David Wilkinson · Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
Images © their respective photographers, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 and reused here with attribution. Photographs depict listed buildings, churches and monuments near this settlement and may show neighbouring villages.
Data derived from the Open Domesday project (opendomesday.org), based on the Domesday Book dataset compiled by Professor J.J.N. Palmer and team. The Domesday Book (1086) is in the public domain.
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