The 1086 Domesday survey records the settlement of Claxton, entered under the hundred of Bulford in Yorkshire. The survey assessed Claxton at 9.8 carucates of taxable land.

At the time of the survey, Claxton supported a recorded population of 17 villagers, 14 smallholders, 2 slaves, working 10 ploughs between them.

The drop in value is hard to miss. Before 1066, Claxton was worth 8 shillings; by 1086 that had dropped to 7 shillings – a fall of 12%. 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 3 manors at Claxton 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 Claxton (1086)

Meadow: 1 ploughs
Woodland: 100 pigs

Other Settlements in Bulford

The Meaning of the Name

The name Claxton 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 Claxton.

Listed Buildings Near Claxton

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

Grade II

Vicarage Farmhouse - 0.14 km
Middle Cottage - 0.42 km
Griffin Gates and Lodges to Howsham Hall - 0.82 km
Milepost Approximately 440M North of Lobster House, Claxton - 1.04 km
Mount Pleasant Farmhouse - 1.11 km
Lobster Cottage Lobster House - 1.2 km

Claxton Today

Today Claxton lies within the administrative area of Ryedale, and the settlement recorded a population of 197 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 Claxton on Wikipedia .