Bispham in the Domesday Book (1086)
The 1086 Domesday survey records the settlement of Bispham, entered under the hundred of Amounderness in Yorkshire. The survey assessed Bispham at 10 carucates of taxable land.
At the time of the survey, Bispham supported a recorded population of 32 villagers, 10 smallholders, 1 slave, working 15 ploughs between them.
By 1086 Bispham was worth 16 shillings, up from 12 shillings before the Conquest – which sets it apart from the many nearby villages left waste or devalued.
Resources Recorded at Bispham (1086)
- Mills: 2 mills (valued at 10d)
- Meadow: 10 acres
Other Settlements in Amounderness
- Aighton
- Aldcliffe
- Aldingham
- Arkholme
- Aschebi
- Ashton [Hall]
- Ashton [on Ribble]
- Austwick
- Barbon
- Bardsea
- Bare
- Barnoldswick
- Barton
- Beetham
The Meaning of the Name
The name Bispham 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 Bispham.
Listed Buildings Near Bispham
Historic England records 9 listed buildings within about a mile of Bispham. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.
Grade II
- Shelter on Queen’s Promenade, Blackpool - 0.38 km
- Shelter on Queen’s Promenade, Blackpool - 0.4 km
- Shelter on Queen’s Promenade, Blackpool - 0.54 km
- Shelter on Queen’s Promenade, Blackpool - 0.62 km
- Shelter on Queen’s Promenade, Blackpool - 0.83 km
- Shelter on Queen’s Promenade, Blackpool - 1.04 km
- Shelter on Queen’s Promenade, Blackpool - 1.1 km
- Miners’ Convalescent Home - 1.2 km
- Shelter on Queen’s Promenade, Blackpool - 1.26 km
Bispham Today
Today Bispham lies within the administrative area of Blackpool, and the settlement recorded a population of 20,001 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 Bispham on Wikipedia .
Nearby Domesday Settlements
Other places recorded in the 1086 survey within a few miles:
- Carleton and Little Carleton - 3.6 km SE
- Thornton - 3.6 km NE
- Layton and Little Layton - 3.6 km SE
- Rossall - 4.1 km N
- Staining - 5.6 km SE
- Burn Hall - 5.8 km NE
Heritage Around Bispham
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.
© Steve Fareham · Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
© Bob Jenkins · Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
© Betty Longbottom · 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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