Aislaby appears in the Domesday Book of 1086, entered under the hundred of Langbaurgh in Yorkshire. The survey assessed Aislaby at 30 carucates of taxable land.

At the time of the survey, Aislaby supported a recorded population of 29 villagers, working 10 ploughs between them.

The numbers record a sharp fall. Before 1066, Aislaby was worth 20 shillings; by 1086 that had dropped to 14 shillings – a fall of 30%. 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 Aislaby (1086)

Mills: 3 mills (valued at 7d)
Meadow: 1 acres
Woodland: 40 swine render

Other Settlements in Langbaurgh

The Meaning of the Name

The name Aislaby is of Scandinavian origin. Its final element derives from the Old Norse word bý, a farmstead or village. 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 farmstead’.

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 Aislaby.

Listed Buildings Near Aislaby

Historic England records 29 listed buildings within about a mile of Aislaby. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.

Grade II*