Gayton in the Domesday Book (1086)
The 1086 Domesday survey records the settlement of Gayton, entered under the hundred of Willaston in Cheshire. The survey assessed Gayton at 75.2 carucates of taxable land.
At the time of the survey, Gayton supported a recorded population of 3 villagers, 1 freeman, working 1 plough between them.
The drop in value is hard to miss. Before 1066, Gayton was worth 32 shillings; by 1086 that had dropped to 8d – a fall of 98%. 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.
1 of 2 manors within Gayton are recorded as waste in 1086, with the remainder still productive. This partial devastation suggests the settlement was caught in the path of the Harrying of the North but not entirely destroyed — or that recovery had begun in some holdings by the time of the survey.
The survey lists 2 manors at Gayton 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 Gayton (1086)
- Churches: 1
- Meadow: 8 None
Other Settlements in Willaston
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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