Ascham in the Domesday Book (1086)

The settlement of Ascham is recorded in William I’s Domesday survey of 1086, entered under the hundred of Land of Count Alan in Yorkshire.

Other Settlements in Land of Count Alan

• Achebi
• Agglethorpe
• Ainderby [Mires]
• Ainderby [Quernhow]
• Aiskew
• Aldbrough
• Allerthorpe [Hall]
• Ascam
• Asebi
• Aske [Hall]
• Askrigg
• Aysgarth
• Baldersby
• Barden

The Meaning of the Name

The name Ascham is of Anglo-Saxon origin. Its final element derives from the Old English word hām, a homestead 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 homestead’.

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

Listed Buildings Near Ascham

Historic England records 32 listed buildings within about a mile of Ascham. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.

Grade II

• Stable Block Approximately 5 Metres to West of the Vicarage - 0.44 km
• The Vicarage - 0.44 km
• Blue Lion Stables - 0.46 km
• The Blue Lion - 0.46 km
• Church of St John the Evangelist - 0.47 km
• Old Holly Tree - 0.47 km
• 1, East Witton - 0.5 km
• Old School With Railings, Gate and Gate-piers - 0.51 km
• 10, East Witton - 0.53 km
• 12, East Witton - 0.54 km
• Reading Room - 0.54 km
• 11, East Witton - 0.54 km
• 14, East Witton - 0.55 km
• Grange Farmhouse - 0.56 km
• Cover Bridge - 0.56 km
• Pump on Green - 0.57 km
• Hutchinson’s Shop (Post Office) - 0.6 km
• 42, East Witton - 0.6 km
• Cover Bridge Inn - 0.6 km
• 22, East Witton - 0.61 km
• Low Thorpe House - 0.69 km
• 37, East Witton - 0.7 km
• Town End Farmhouse - 0.7 km
• 38, East Witton - 0.71 km

…and 8 more listed structures in the area.

Scheduled Monuments Near Ascham

Scheduled monuments are nationally important archaeological sites given legal protection. 1 lies within roughly a mile of Ascham:

• Ulshaw Bridge - 0.75 km

Ascham Today

Today Ascham lies within the administrative area of Richmondshire, and the settlement recorded a population of 225 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 East Witton on Wikipedia .

Nearby Domesday Settlements

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

• Ascam - 0.0 km N
• East Witton - 0.0 km N
• Danby - 1.4 km NE
• Middleham - 2.2 km NW
• Spennithorne - 2.2 km NW
• Hutton Hang - 2.8 km NE