Boughton appears in the Domesday Book of 1086, entered under the hundred of Duddeston in Cheshire. The survey assessed Boughton at 5 carucates of taxable land.

At the time of the survey, Boughton supported a recorded population of 1 villager, 9 smallholders, working 3 ploughs between them.

The numbers record a sharp fall. Before 1066, Boughton was worth 8 shillings; by 1086 that had dropped to 6 shillings – a fall of 25%. 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.

Resources Recorded at Boughton (1086)

Churches: 1
Meadow: 60 acres

Other Settlements in Duddeston

The Meaning of the Name

The name Boughton is of Anglo-Saxon origin. Its final element derives from the Old English word tūn, 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’.

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

Listed Buildings Near Boughton

Historic England records 35 listed buildings within about a mile of Boughton. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.

Grade II*

Walmoor House - 0.7 km

Grade II

31 (Beauford Lodge) and 33 (Douglas House) and front garden walls and gate piers - 0.62 km
Woodbank - 0.66 km
Well in Garden 25 Metres South of Walmoor House - 0.69 km
Heath House, 179 Christleton Road, Chester - 0.75 km
The Old Glass House - 0.78 km
Parish Boundary Stone Against Front Wall of Number 60 (The Old Glass House) - 0.79 km
Boughton Hall - 0.79 km
Parish Boundary Stone in Front of Number 127 - 0.8 km
Boughton Lodge and Attached Cottage - 0.85 km
The Manor House - 0.86 km
Sewer Vent at Junction With Filkins Lane - 0.88 km
Greenfield Lock - 0.91 km
Riverside and Garden Walls - 0.98 km
Tarvin Road Lock - 1.0 km
Former Tollhouse at Tarvin Road Lock - 1.0 km
Tarvin Road Lock Cottage - 1.01 km
Boughton House - 1.07 km
Craigside and Garden Walls - 1.07 km
Canal Bridge Number 122 - 1.11 km
Milepost 50 Metres East of Boughton Gyratory - 1.11 km
Ye Gardeners Arms Public House - 1.12 km
Barrel Well House - 1.16 km
Cemetery wall of former Leprosy Hospital of St Giles - 1.17 km

…and 11 more listed structures in the area.

Boughton Today

Today Boughton lies within the administrative area of Cheshire West and Chester, and the settlement recorded a population of 5,444 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 Boughton on Wikipedia .