Bishop Thornton in the Domesday Book (1086)
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
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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