Gatenby in the Domesday Book (1086)

The settlement of Gatenby 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 Gatenby 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 Gatenby.

Listed Buildings Near Gatenby

Historic England records 3 listed buildings within about a mile of Gatenby. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.

Grade I

• Allerthorpe Hall - 0.82 km
• Gatepiers to Allerthorpe Hall - 0.84 km

Grade II

• Ivy Garth (Marked on the Ordnance Survey Map As Berry Garth) - 0.41 km

Gatenby Today

Today Gatenby lies within the administrative area of Hambleton, and the settlement recorded a population of 48 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 Gatenby on Wikipedia .

Nearby Domesday Settlements

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

• Ounesbi - 0.0 km N
• Allerthorpe Hall - 1.0 km S
• Maunby - 2.2 km SE
• Newton Picot - 2.2 km NW
• Low Swainby - 2.2 km SE
• Seuenetorp - 2.2 km SE