Ainsdale in the Domesday Book (1086)
Ainsdale appears in the Domesday Book of 1086, entered under the hundred of [West] Derby in Cheshire.
Other Settlements in [West] Derby
- Allerton
- Argarmeles
- Aughton
- Barton
- Bootle
- Childwall
- Dalton
- Downholland
- Formby
- Halsall
- Hurlston
- Huyton
- Ince [Blundell]
- Kirkby
The Meaning of the Name
The name Ainsdale is of Scandinavian origin. Its final element derives from the Old Norse word dalr, a valley. 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 valley’.
Names of this type are a fingerprint of Scandinavian settlement: they cluster across the old Danelaw, where Norse-speaking settlers renamed or founded villages from the late 9th century onward.
Remarkably, the name has changed little since 1086, when the Domesday scribes wrote it as Ainsdale.
Listed Buildings Near Ainsdale
Historic England records 1 listed building within about a mile of Ainsdale. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.
Grade II
- Ainsdale War Memorial - 0.33 km
Ainsdale Today
Today Ainsdale lies within the administrative area of Sefton, and the settlement recorded a population of 12,723 at recent figures. Nine and a half centuries separate that figure from the small rural community the Domesday survey recorded here in 1086.
Read more about modern Ainsdale on Wikipedia .
Nearby Domesday Settlements
Other places recorded in the 1086 survey within a few miles:
- Barton - 5.0 km SE
- Formby - 5.1 km S
- Great and Little Altcar - 6.1 km S
- Halsall - 6.3 km E
- Argarmeles - 6.3 km N
- Raven Meols - 6.3 km S
Heritage Around Ainsdale
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.
© David Dixon · Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
© Alexander P Kapp · Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
© Galatas · 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.
Found an inaccuracy? [email protected]