Bishop Thornton appears in the Domesday Book of 1086, entered under the hundred of Burghshire in Yorkshire. The survey assessed Bishop Thornton at 87.4 carucates of taxable land.

At the time of the survey, Bishop Thornton supported a recorded population of 30 villagers, working 9 ploughs between them.

The numbers record a sharp fall. Before 1066, Bishop Thornton was worth 88 shillings; by 1086 that had dropped to 1.01 shillings – a fall of 98%. 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.

The survey lists 2 manors at Bishop Thornton 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 Bishop Thornton (1086)

Meadow: 0.5 * 0.5 leagues & 20 acres None
Woodland: 16 * 4 None

Other Settlements in Burghshire

The Meaning of the Name

The name Bishop Thornton is of Anglo-Saxon origin. Its final element derives from the Old English word tūn, a farmstead or village, while the first element appears to represent thorn-bushes. Taken together the name probably meant something close to ’the thorn-bushes farmstead’.

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

Listed Buildings Near Bishop Thornton

Historic England records 10 listed buildings within about a mile of Bishop Thornton. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.

Grade II

West Hill Cottages - 0.52 km
The Presbytery and Roman Catholic Church of Saint Joseph - 0.54 km
Tower of Thornton Church - 0.9 km
Well head approximately 25 metres west of Kettlespring Farmhouse - 1.01 km
Dole Bank Farmhouse - 1.14 km
Outbuilding Approximately 3 Metres North of Dole Bank Farmhouse - 1.14 km
Covered Water Tank Approximately 20 Metres West of Low Kettlespring Farmhouse - 1.15 km
Highfield House, With Garden Wall to Left - 1.17 km
Beckside Farmhouse - 1.18 km
Thornton Grange - 1.22 km

Bishop Thornton Today

Today Bishop Thornton lies within the administrative area of Bishop Thornton, Shaw Mills and Warsill, and the settlement recorded a population of 507 at recent figures. Nine and a half centuries separate that figure from the small rural community the Domesday survey recorded here in 1086.

Read more about modern Bishop Thornton on Wikipedia .