Alwoodley in the Domesday Book (1086)

The settlement of Alwoodley is recorded in William I’s Domesday survey of 1086, entered under the hundred of Skyrack in Yorkshire.

Other Settlements in Skyrack

• Adel
• Allerton [Bywater]
• Arthington
• Austhorpe
• Baildon
• Bardsey
• Barwick [in Elmet]
• Bichertun
• Bicherun
• Bingley
• Birkby [Hill]
• Bramhope
• Burden [Head]
• Burley [in Wharfedale]

The Meaning of the Name

The name Alwoodley is of Anglo-Saxon origin. Its final element derives from the Old English word lēah, a woodland clearing or glade. 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 clearing’.

Remarkably, the name has changed little since 1086, when the Domesday scribes wrote it as Alwoodley.

Listed Buildings Near Alwoodley

Historic England records 6 listed buildings within about a mile of Alwoodley. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.

Grade II

• Alwoodley Lodges, Gates and Flanking Walls - 0.18 km
• Milestone to Front of Number 1 Grove Cottages - 0.8 km
• Herd Farmhouse - 0.87 km
• Smithy Close to South End of Barn at Herd Farm - 0.88 km
• Barn Immediately North West of Herd Farmhouse - 0.9 km
• Milestone Approximately 250 Metres North of Wikefield Farm - 0.94 km

Alwoodley Today

Today Alwoodley lies within the administrative area of Leeds, and the settlement recorded a population of 8,952 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 Alwoodley on Wikipedia .

Nearby Domesday Settlements

Other places recorded in the 1086 survey within a few miles:

• Wike - 2.2 km NE
• Lofthouse - 2.2 km NE
• Stub House - 2.2 km NW
• Burden Head - 2.8 km NW
• Eccup - 3.2 km W
• Shadwell - 3.6 km SE