Cowesby in the Domesday Book (1086)
The settlement of Cowesby is recorded in William I’s Domesday survey of 1086, entered under the hundred of Allerton in Yorkshire.
Other Settlements in Allerton
- Ainderby [Steeple]
- Appleton [Wiske]
- Arncliffe [Hall]
- Birkby
- Borrowby
- Brompton
- Crosby [Grange]
- Dale [Town]
- Deighton
- Ellerbeck
- Foxton
- Girsby
- Hawnby
- Hornby
The Meaning of the Name
The name Cowesby is of Scandinavian origin. Its final element derives from the Old Norse word bý, 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’.
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 Cowesby.
Listed Buildings Near Cowesby
Historic England records 6 listed buildings within about a mile of Cowesby. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.
Grade II
- Outbuilding Approximately 1 Metre to South of West End of the Almshouses - 0.36 km
- The Almhouses - 0.36 km
- Middle Cottage Post Office Cottage - 0.36 km
- Barn to East of Grange Farmhouse With Attached Wheelhouse and Cowhouse - 0.44 km
- Church of St Michael and All Angels - 0.5 km
- Howe Hill Monument - 1.13 km
Scheduled Monuments Near Cowesby
Scheduled monuments are nationally important archaeological sites given legal protection. 5 lie within roughly a mile of Cowesby:
- Round barrow 40m west of Butcher’s Wood - 1.08 km
- Round barrow 250m north of Cowesby Wood - 1.15 km
- Two round barrows at Seta Pike - 1.32 km
- Round barrow at Ridge End - 1.47 km
- Round barrow 800m south of Gallow Hill - 1.52 km
Cowesby Today
Today Cowesby lies within the administrative area of Hambleton, and the settlement recorded a population of 57 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 Cowesby on Wikipedia .
Nearby Domesday Settlements
Other places recorded in the 1086 survey within a few miles:
- Kepwick - 1.4 km NE
- Kirby Knowle - 2.0 km S
- Upsall - 2.2 km SW
- Leake - 3.2 km W
- Nether Silton - 3.2 km N
- Knayton - 3.6 km SW
Heritage Around Cowesby
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.
© David Lally · Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
© Mick Garratt · Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
© Bill Henderson · 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.
Found an inaccuracy? [email protected]