Fostun in the Domesday Book (1086)

Fostun is named in the Domesday Book, compiled by Norman commissioners in 1086, entered under the hundred of Holderness [Middle Hundred] in Yorkshire. The survey assessed Fostun at 12 carucates of taxable land.

At the time of the survey, Fostun supported a recorded population of 3 villagers, 5 smallholders, 13 freemanmen, working 6 ploughs between them.

By 1086 Fostun was worth 1.5 shillings, up from 1 shilling before the Conquest – in contrast to many Yorkshire neighbours whose valuations collapsed.

The survey lists 2 manors at Fostun under different lords. Splitting a single settlement between multiple tenants was common across the North – Saxon estates broken up and handed to William’s followers after 1066.

Resources Recorded at Fostun (1086)

• Churches: 1
• Meadow: 4.5 None
• Woodland: 14 None

Other Settlements in Holderness [Middle Hundred]

• Aldbrough
• Benningholme [Hall]
• Bewick [Hall]
• Bilton
• Burton [Constable]
• Burton [Pidsea]
• Conis[ton]
• Danthorpe
• Dowthorpe [Hall]
• Drypool
• Ellerby
• Elstronwick
• Eske
• Etherdwick

The Meaning of the Name

The name Fostun 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 Fostun.

Listed Buildings Near Fostun

Historic England records 4 listed buildings within about a mile of Fostun. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.

Grade I

• Church of Saint Peter - 0.38 km

Grade II

• The Vicarage - 0.25 km
• Ivy Cottage - 0.34 km
• Humbleton Hall and Quadrant Walls - 0.82 km

Scheduled Monuments Near Fostun

Scheduled monuments are nationally important archaeological sites given legal protection. 1 lies within roughly a mile of Fostun:

• Shaw Fosse moated site - 0.71 km

Fostun Today

Today Fostun lies within the administrative area of East Riding of Yorkshire, and the settlement recorded a population of 213 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 Humbleton on Wikipedia .

Nearby Domesday Settlements

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

• Fostune - 0.0 km N
• Humbleton - 0.0 km N
• Lelley Dyke - 1.4 km SW
• Flinton - 2.0 km N
• Elstronwick - 2.2 km SE
• Danthorpe - 2.8 km SE