Firby in the Domesday Book (1086)
Firby is named in the Domesday Book, compiled by Norman commissioners in 1086, entered under the hundred of Acklam in Yorkshire.
Other Settlements in Acklam
- Acklam
- Barthorpe [Grange]
- Bugthorpe
- Burythorpe
- Eddlethorpe
- Fridaythorpe
- Garrowby [Hall]
- Howsham
- Kirby [Underdale]
- Kirkham
- Leavening
- Leppington
- Menethorpe
- Raisthorpe
The Meaning of the Name
The name Firby 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 Firby.
Listed Buildings Near Firby
Historic England records 5 listed buildings within about a mile of Firby. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.
Grade I
- Kirkham Priory - 1.23 km
Grade II
- Firby Hall - 0.18 km
- Station House and Platform Cottage - 0.95 km
- Kirkham Hall - 1.1 km
- Kirkham Manor Farmhouse - 1.29 km
Scheduled Monuments Near Firby
Scheduled monuments are nationally important archaeological sites given legal protection. 3 lie within roughly a mile of Firby:
- Roman pottery kilns and associated features at Crambeck - 1.2 km
- Kirkham Priory Augustinian monastery: monastic precinct, three fishponds, and precinct boundary - 1.22 km
- Kirkham Bridge - 1.41 km
Firby Today
Today Firby lies within the administrative area of Westow.
Read more about modern Firby on Wikipedia .
Nearby Domesday Settlements
Other places recorded in the 1086 survey within a few miles:
- Kirkham - 1.0 km W
- Sudcniton - 1.4 km SE
- Sudnicton - 1.4 km SE
- Low Hutton - 2.2 km NE
- Menethorpe - 2.2 km NE
- Whitwell on the Hill - 2.2 km SW
Heritage Around Firby
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.
© Matthew Hatton · Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
© Matthew Hatton · Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
© Peter Church · 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.
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