The settlement of Breighton is recorded in William I’s Domesday survey of 1086, entered under the hundred of Hessle in Yorkshire. The survey assessed Breighton at 4 carucates of taxable land.

At the time of the survey, Breighton supported a recorded population of 9 villagers, 3 smallholders, working 8 ploughs between them.

The survey records Breighton’s value at 2.5 shillings in 1086. No pre-Conquest figure survives – not unusual in the North, where records were disrupted by the Harrying and by the patchy coverage of the survey.

Other Settlements in Hessle

The Meaning of the Name

The name Breighton 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 Breighton.

Listed Buildings Near Breighton

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

Grade II*