Formby in the Domesday Book (1086)
The 1086 Domesday survey records the settlement of Formby, entered under the hundred of [West] Derby in Cheshire.
Other Settlements in [West] Derby
- Ainsdale
- Allerton
- Argarmeles
- Aughton
- Barton
- Bootle
- Childwall
- Dalton
- Downholland
- Halsall
- Hurlston
- Huyton
- Ince [Blundell]
- Kirkby
The Meaning of the Name
The name Formby 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 Formby.
Listed Buildings Near Formby
Historic England records 11 listed buildings within about a mile of Formby. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.
Grade II
- Former Convent of Our Lady - 0.65 km
- 6, School Lane, Formby - 0.68 km
- Stone Cross in Centre of Roundabout - 0.78 km
- 1, Southport Road - 0.89 km
- May Cottage - 0.91 km
- 21, Green Lane - 1.0 km
- Church of St Peter - 1.03 km
- Sundial Approximately 5.5 Metres South of Church of St Peter - 1.03 km
- White Cottage - 1.05 km
- 62, Gore’s Lane - 1.05 km
- Old Spanker’s Cottage - 1.05 km
Formby Today
Today Formby lies within the administrative area of Sefton, and the settlement recorded a population of 22,119 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 Formby on Wikipedia .
Nearby Domesday Settlements
Other places recorded in the 1086 survey within a few miles:
- Great and Little Altcar - 1.0 km S
- Raven Meols - 1.4 km SW
- Ince Blundell - 4.5 km SE
- Ainsdale - 5.1 km N
- Barton - 5.4 km NE
- Downholland - 6.0 km E
Heritage Around Formby
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.
© David Hawgood · Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
© Gary Rogers · Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
© Gary Rogers · 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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