Bielby in the Domesday Book (1086)
Bielby appears in the Domesday Book of 1086, entered under the hundred of Pocklington in Yorkshire.
Other Settlements in Pocklington
- Allerthorpe
- Barmby [Moor]
- Belthorpe
- Bolton
- Burnby
- Chetelstorp
- Deighton
- Elvington
- Escrick
- Everingham
- Fangfoss
- Gowthorpe
- Greenwick
- Hayton
The Meaning of the Name
The name Bielby 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 Bielby.
Listed Buildings Near Bielby
Historic England records 3 listed buildings within about a mile of Bielby. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.
Grade II*
- Church of St Giles - 0.36 km
Grade II
- Wesleyan Chapel - 0.38 km
- Bielby Mill and House - 0.5 km
Bielby Today
Today Bielby lies within the administrative area of East Riding of Yorkshire, and the settlement recorded a population of 258 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 Bielby on Wikipedia .
Nearby Domesday Settlements
Other places recorded in the 1086 survey within a few miles:
- Allerthorpe - 1.0 km N
- Seaton Ross - 2.0 km S
- Everingham - 2.2 km SE
- Melbourne - 3.2 km W
- Waplington Hall - 3.2 km N
- Thornton - 3.6 km NW
Heritage Around Bielby
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.
© Andy Beecroft · Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
© Peter Church · Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
© Roger Gilbertson · 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.
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