The 1086 Domesday survey records the settlement of Foston on the Wolds, entered under the hundred of Torbar in Yorkshire. The survey assessed Foston on the Wolds at 6 carucates of taxable land.

At the time of the survey, Foston on the Wolds supported a recorded population of 3 villagers, working 2 ploughs between them.

The drop in value is hard to miss. Before 1066, Foston on the Wolds was worth 2 shillings; by 1086 that had dropped to 10d – a fall of 75%. 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.

Resources Recorded at Foston on the Wolds (1086)

Churches: 1
Fisheries: 2
Meadow: 10 acres
Woodland: 1 * 0.5 leagues

Other Settlements in Torbar

The Meaning of the Name

The name Foston on the Wolds 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 Foston on the Wolds.

Listed Buildings Near Foston on the Wolds

Historic England records 2 listed buildings within about a mile of Foston on the Wolds. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.

Grade II*

Church of St Andrew - 0.65 km

Grade II

Cross Base Approximately 3 Metres East of East Wall of Church of St Andrew - 0.63 km

Foston on the Wolds Today

Today Foston on the Wolds lies within the administrative area of Foston, and the settlement recorded a population of 263 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 Foston on the Wolds on Wikipedia .