The settlement of Butterwick is recorded in William I’s Domesday survey of 1086, entered under the hundred of Burton in Yorkshire. The survey assessed Butterwick at 4.8 carucates of taxable land.

At the time of the survey, Butterwick supported a recorded population of 13 villagers, 16 smallholders, working 9 ploughs between them.

The valuation dropped between 1066 and 1086. Before 1066, Butterwick was worth 80.83 shillings; by 1086 that had dropped to 70.12 shillings – a fall of 13%. 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.

The survey lists 2 manors at Butterwick under different lords. Splitting a single settlement between multiple tenants was common across the North – Saxon estates broken up and handed to William’s followers after 1066.

Resources Recorded at Butterwick (1086)

Mills: 3 mills (valued at 1.37 shillings)
Churches: 7
Meadow: 50 acres
Woodland: 3 swine render

Other Settlements in Burton

The Meaning of the Name

The name Butterwick is of Anglo-Saxon origin. Its final element derives from the Old English word wīc, a dwelling, dairy farm or trading settlement. 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 specialised farm’.

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

Listed Buildings Near Butterwick

Historic England records 6 listed buildings within about a mile of Butterwick. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.

Grade II