Darfield in the Domesday Book (1086)

The 1086 Domesday survey records the settlement of Darfield, entered under the hundred of Strafforth in Yorkshire. The survey assessed Darfield at 5.5 carucates of taxable land.

At the time of the survey, Darfield supported a recorded population of 4 villagers, 4 smallholders, 2 slaves, working 2 ploughs between them.

The drop in value is hard to miss. Before 1066, Darfield was worth 5.5 shillings; by 1086 that had dropped to 3.5 shillings – a fall of 36%. 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 Darfield 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 Darfield (1086)

• Meadow: 13 acres

Other Settlements in Strafforth

• Adwick [le Street]
• Adwick [upon Dearne]
• Armthorpe
• Aston
• Attercliffe
• Auckley
• Aughton [Hall]
• Austerfield
• Balby
• Barnbrough
• Barnby [Dun]
• Bentley
• Bilham [House]
• Billingley

The Meaning of the Name

The name Darfield is of Anglo-Saxon origin. Its final element derives from the Old English word feld, open country. 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 open land’.

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

Listed Buildings Near Darfield

Historic England records 12 listed buildings within about a mile of Darfield. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.

Grade I

• Church of All Saints - 0.32 km

Grade II

• Garland House Surgery - 0.16 km
• Thornhill House - 0.18 km
• 2, Vicar Road - 0.23 km
• Gravestone to Robert Millthorp Approximately 3 Metres to West of Tower of Church of All Saints - 0.3 km
• Remains of Cross Approximately 7 Metres South of Porch of Church of All Saints - 0.32 km
• Milepost Opposite Junction With Little Houghton Lane - 0.33 km
• Grave of Ebenezer Elliot, Situated Approximately 40 Metres to South East of South Porch of Church of All Saints - 0.35 km
• Monument to Victims of Lundhill Colliery Explosion, Situated Approximately 55 Metres to South East of Church of All Saints - 0.37 km
• Middlewood Lodge - 0.43 km
• Middlewood Hall - 0.6 km
• Milepost on East Side of Short Link Road Approximately 150 Metres East of Junction With Barnsley Road - 1.26 km

Scheduled Monuments Near Darfield

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

• Cross in the churchyard of All Saints’ Church, Darfield - 0.33 km

Darfield Today

Today Darfield lies within the administrative area of Barnsley, and the settlement recorded a population of 10,685 at recent figures. Nine and a half centuries separate that figure from the small rural community the Domesday survey recorded here in 1086.

Read more about modern Darfield on Wikipedia .

Nearby Domesday Settlements

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

• Little Houghton - 1.4 km NE
• Billingley - 2.0 km E
• Toftes - 2.2 km SW
• Wombwell - 2.2 km SW
• Great Houghton - 2.8 km NE
• Brampton Bierlow - 3.0 km S