Burwardsley and Higher Burwardsley in the Domesday Book (1086)
The settlement of Burwardsley and Higher Burwardsley is recorded in William I’s Domesday survey of 1086, entered under the hundred of Duddeston in Cheshire.
Other Settlements in Duddeston
- Bettisfield
- Bickerton
- Bickley
- Boughton
- Broxton
- Burwardestone
- Caldecott
- Calvintone
- Cheaveley
- Cholmondeley
- Chowley
- Christleton
- Clutton
- Coddington
The Meaning of the Name
The name Burwardsley and Higher Burwardsley is of Anglo-Saxon origin. Its final element derives from the Old English word lēah, a woodland clearing or glade. 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 clearing’.
Remarkably, the name has changed little since 1086, when the Domesday scribes wrote it as Burwardsley and Higher Burwardsley.
Listed Buildings Near Burwardsley and Higher Burwardsley
Historic England records 15 listed buildings within about a mile of Burwardsley and Higher Burwardsley. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.
Grade II*
- Black and White Cottage - 1.24 km
Grade II
- The Pheasant Inn - 0.29 km
- Attached Farm Building to Grig Hill Farmhouse - 0.85 km
- Hillside Cottage - 1.03 km
- Church of St John - 1.04 km
- The Gap - 1.04 km
- Cherry Cottage - 1.11 km
- Hillside Farm House - 1.11 km
- Farm Building North of Hillside Farmhouse - 1.13 km
- Stone Elephant and Castle in Garden of Elephant and Castle Cottage - 1.21 km
- Hill Lane Cottage - 1.23 km
- Rock Cottage - 1.24 km
- Smithy Cottage - 1.26 km
- Manor Farm Cottage Yew Tree Cottage - 1.27 km
- Green Cottage Mill Beck Cottage - 1.28 km
Burwardsley and Higher Burwardsley Today
Today Burwardsley and Higher Burwardsley lies within the administrative area of Cheshire West and Chester, and the settlement recorded a population of 193 at the 2021 census. Nine and a half centuries separate that figure from the small rural community the Domesday survey recorded here in 1086.
Read more about modern Burwardsley on Wikipedia .
Nearby Domesday Settlements
Other places recorded in the 1086 survey within a few miles:
- Peckforton - 1.0 km E
- Beeston - 2.2 km NE
- Spurstow - 3.0 km E
- Bunbury and Lower Bunbury - 4.1 km E
- Tattenhall - 4.5 km NW
- Bickerton - 4.5 km SW
Heritage Around Burwardsley and [Higher] Burwardsley
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.
© Bryan Pready · Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
© Espresso Addict · Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
© Stephen Charles · 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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