Chatsworth is named in the Domesday Book, compiled by Norman commissioners in 1086, entered under the hundred of Blackwell in Derbyshire. The survey assessed Chatsworth at 0.2 carucates of taxable land.

The survey records Chatsworth’s value at 0d 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.

The Domesday survey records Chatsworth as waste - uninhabited and unproductive. In Yorkshire, this designation most often reflects the Harrying of the North of 1069–70, when William I’s forces destroyed crops, livestock, and communities across the county to crush rebellion. Whether Chatsworth recovered in subsequent decades is not recorded.

Other Settlements in Blackwell

The Meaning of the Name

The name Chatsworth is of Anglo-Saxon origin. Its final element derives from the Old English word worð, an enclosure or homestead. 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 enclosure’.

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

Listed Buildings Near Chatsworth

Historic England records 34 listed buildings within about a mile of Chatsworth. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.

Grade I

Former Stables at Chatsworth House - 0.45 km
Conduit House Cascade and Adjoining Statues - 0.51 km
Egyptian Statue behind the Dukes Greenhouse 9 metres from the corner - 0.54 km
Egyptian Statue Behind the Dukes Greenhouse 3 Metres From the Corner - 0.55 km
Temple of Flora - 0.58 km
Chatsworth House - 0.68 km
Series of Herms and Altars laid out in a Y to the east of the Ring Pond - 0.71 km

Grade II*

The Hunting Tower - 0.19 km
The First Dukes Greenhouse - 0.54 km

Grade II

Summerhouse - 0.35 km
Aqueduct - 0.41 km
Giallo Sarcophagus Circa 60 Metres North of the Dukes Greenhouse - 0.49 km
The Conservative Wall - 0.52 km
Former Game Larder - 0.53 km
Group of 18 Columns Enclosing Rose Garden - 0.56 km
Flight of Steps With Urns and Statues East of Orangery - 0.57 km
The Willow Tree Fountain - 0.62 km
Row of Eleven Statues Along the Broadwalk - 0.65 km
Statue Terminating the Vista to the East of the Ring Pond - 0.69 km
Group of Statues and Vases on Lawn South of Chatsworth House - 0.74 km
Terrace With Statues to West Front of Chatsworth House - 0.74 km
Ice House - 0.75 km
Retaining Walls and Steps Surrounding the Site of the Great Conservatory - 0.76 km
The Seahorse Fountain - 0.76 km

…and 10 more listed structures in the area.

Scheduled Monuments Near Chatsworth

Scheduled monuments are nationally important archaeological sites given legal protection. 2 lie within roughly a mile of Chatsworth:

Chatsworth Today

Today Chatsworth lies within the administrative area of Derbyshire Dales, and the settlement recorded a population of 16 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 Chatsworth on Wikipedia .