Barnaby appears in the Domesday Book of 1086, entered under the hundred of Langbaurgh in Yorkshire. The survey assessed Barnaby at 4.0 carucates of taxable land.

At the time of the survey, Barnaby supported a recorded population of 5 villagers, 2 smallholders, 4 freemanmen, working 4 ploughs between them.

By 1086 Barnaby was worth 2.5 shillings, up from 2 shillings before the Conquest – one of the few settlements in the area to hold its value through the upheaval.

The survey lists 2 manors at Barnaby under different lords. Splitting a single settlement between multiple tenants was common across the North – Saxon estates broken up and handed to William’s followers after 1066.

Resources Recorded at Barnaby (1086)

Meadow: 9 acres

Other Settlements in Langbaurgh

The Meaning of the Name

The name Barnaby 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 Barnaby.

Listed Buildings Near Barnaby

Historic England records 5 listed buildings within about a mile of Barnaby. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.

Grade II