Danby in the Domesday Book (1086)

The settlement of Danby is recorded in William I’s Domesday survey of 1086, entered under the hundred of Land of Count Alan in Yorkshire.

Other Settlements in Land of Count Alan

• Achebi
• Agglethorpe
• Ainderby [Mires]
• Ainderby [Quernhow]
• Aiskew
• Aldbrough
• Allerthorpe [Hall]
• Ascam
• Ascham
• Asebi
• Aske [Hall]
• Askrigg
• Aysgarth
• Baldersby

The Meaning of the Name

The name Danby 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 Danby.

Listed Buildings Near Danby

Historic England records 15 listed buildings within about a mile of Danby. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.

Grade I

• Danby Hall - 0.44 km

Grade II

• Stable Block and Adjoining Gate-piers at Danby Hall - 0.41 km
• Gate-piers Approximately 12 Metres East of Stable Block at Danby Hall - 0.44 km
• Terrace Retaining Wall to South of Danby Hall - 0.46 km
• Gate-piers Approximately 100 Metres East From South Front of Danby Hall - 0.48 km
• Gates, Gate-piers, Wall and Terminal Piers at Eagle Lodge - 0.5 km
• Gate-piers Approximately 100 Metres to North-east of Danby Hall - 0.5 km
• Guide Stone Opposite Eagle Lodge Gates - 0.51 km
• Danby Mill and Mill House - 0.54 km
• Church of St Simon and St Jude - 1.01 km
• Presbytery and Attached Stable - 1.02 km
• Hallwith House - 1.03 km
• Ulshaw Bridge - 1.11 km
• Cover Bridge Inn - 1.24 km
• Cover Bridge - 1.24 km

Scheduled Monuments Near Danby

Scheduled monuments are nationally important archaeological sites given legal protection. 1 lies within roughly a mile of Danby:

• Ulshaw Bridge - 1.11 km

Danby Today

Today Danby lies within the administrative area of Thornton Steward.

Nearby Domesday Settlements

Other places recorded in the 1086 survey within a few miles:

• Hutton Hang - 1.4 km NE
• Ascam - 1.4 km SW
• Ascham - 1.4 km SW
• East Witton - 1.4 km SW
• Thornton Steward - 2.0 km E
• Spennithorne - 2.2 km NW