East Cowton in the Domesday Book (1086)

The 1086 Domesday survey records the settlement of East Cowton, 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 East Cowton 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 East Cowton.

Listed Buildings Near East Cowton

Historic England records 5 listed buildings within about a mile of East Cowton. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.

Grade II

• The Vicarage - 0.14 km
• East Cowton War Memorial - 0.19 km
• Parish Church of All Saints - 0.2 km
• Grave-slab in St Mary’s Churchyard, to North of Centre - 0.62 km
• Former Cowton Railway Station - 1.29 km

East Cowton Today

Today East Cowton lies within the administrative area of Hambleton, and the settlement recorded a population of 566 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 East Cowton on Wikipedia .

Nearby Domesday Settlements

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

• South Cowton - 1.4 km SW
• North Cowton - 2.0 km W
• Birkby - 3.2 km E
• Little Smeaton - 4.0 km E
• Great Smeaton - 4.1 km E
• Hutton Bonville - 4.2 km SE