Boythorpe in the Domesday Book (1086)

Boythorpe is named in the Domesday Book, compiled by Norman commissioners in 1086, entered under the hundred of Burton in Yorkshire.

Other Settlements in Burton

• Binnington
• Burton [Agnes]
• Butterwick
• Carnaby
• Fornetorp
• Ganton
• Gransmoor
• Haisthorpe
• Harpham
• Kilham
• Langtoft
• Lowthorpe
• Octon
• Rudston

The Meaning of the Name

The name Boythorpe is of Scandinavian origin. Its final element derives from the Old Norse word þorp, an outlying or secondary farmstead. 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 outlying farm’.

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 Boythorpe.

Listed Buildings Near Boythorpe

Historic England records 2 listed buildings within about a mile of Boythorpe. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.

Grade II*

• Church of St Nicholas - 0.47 km

Grade II

• Glebe Farmhouse - 0.57 km

Scheduled Monuments Near Boythorpe

Scheduled monuments are nationally important archaeological sites given legal protection. 4 lie within roughly a mile of Boythorpe:

• Boythorpe settlement site - 0.64 km
• Settlement site at Butterwick - 0.95 km
• Romano-British settlement - 1.4 km
• Round barrow NW of Mount Spaniel - 1.58 km

Boythorpe Today

Today Boythorpe lies within the administrative area of Driffield Rural District.

Nearby Domesday Settlements

Other places recorded in the 1086 survey within a few miles:

• Foxholes - 2.8 km NE
• Weaverthorpe - 3.0 km W
• Helperthorpe - 4.1 km W
• Langtoft - 4.1 km S
• Octon - 4.5 km SE
• Swaythorpe - 4.5 km SE