Burdale in the Domesday Book (1086)

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

Other Settlements in Scard

• Birdsall
• Buckton [Holms]
• Duggleby
• Kennythorpe
• Langton
• Linton
• Norton
• Rillington
• Scagglethorpe
• Scampston
• Settrington
• Sutton [Grange]
• Thorpe [Bassett]
• Towthorpe

The Meaning of the Name

The name Burdale is of Scandinavian origin. Its final element derives from the Old Norse word dalr, a valley. 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 valley’.

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 Burdale.

Scheduled Monuments Near Burdale

Scheduled monuments are nationally important archaeological sites given legal protection. 3 lie within roughly a mile of Burdale:

• Bowl barrow, 150m south east of Towthorpe Reservoir - 1.32 km
• Round barrows on Wharram Percy Wold - 1.45 km
• Bowl barrow in Towthorpe Plantation, 800m NNE of Burdale North Wold - 1.57 km

Burdale Today

Today Burdale lies within the administrative area of Wharram.

Read more about modern Burdale on Wikipedia .

Nearby Domesday Settlements

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

• Raisthorpe - 2.2 km SW
• Wharram Percy - 2.8 km NW
• Towthorpe - 3.0 km E
• Fridaythorpe - 3.0 km S
• Thixendale - 3.2 km W
• Wharram le Street - 3.2 km N