Fearby in the Domesday Book (1086)
The settlement of Fearby 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 Fearby 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 Fearby.
Listed Buildings Near Fearby
Historic England records 9 listed buildings within about a mile of Fearby. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.
Grade II
- Manor Farmhouse - 0.23 km
- Barn Approximately 2 Metres to East of Manor House Farm - 0.23 km
- Barn Approximately 10 Metres to West of Grange Farmhouse - 0.23 km
- Manor House Farmhouse - 0.25 km
- Cross at Road Junction - 0.31 km
- Elm Tree Farmhouse - 0.32 km
- K6 Telephone Kiosk - 0.46 km
- Holly Tree Farmhouse - 0.47 km
- Chapel Farmhouse - 0.5 km
Fearby Today
Today Fearby lies within the administrative area of Harrogate, and the settlement recorded a population of 137 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 Fearby on Wikipedia .
Nearby Domesday Settlements
Other places recorded in the 1086 survey within a few miles:
- High Sutton - 1.4 km NE
- High and Low Ellington - 2.2 km NE
- Swarthorpe - 2.2 km NE
- Swinton - 2.8 km SE
- Twislebrook - 2.8 km SE
- Ilton - 3.0 km S
Heritage Around Fearby
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.
© Phil Catterall · Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
© Betty Longbottom · Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
© Peter Barr · 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.
Location
54.2287°N, -1.7008°W · Land of Count Alan hundred, Yorkshire
View larger map on OpenStreetMap →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.
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