Ghigogesmersc in the Domesday Book (1086)

The 1086 Domesday survey records the settlement of Ghigogesmersc, entered under the hundred of Dic in Yorkshire. The survey assessed Ghigogesmersc at 1 carucate of taxable land.

At the time of the survey, Ghigogesmersc supported a recorded population of 2 villagers, working 2 ploughs between them.

By 1086 Ghigogesmersc was worth 13d, up from 4d before the Conquest – which sets it apart from the many nearby villages left waste or devalued.

Resources Recorded at Ghigogesmersc (1086)

• Woodland: 1 league * 1 acre mixed measures

Other Settlements in Dic

• Aislaby
• Allerston
• Appleton [le Moors]
• Aschelesmersc
• Aschilesmares
• Barton [le Street]
• Baschebi
• Baschesbi
• Brompton
• Burniston
• Burton [Dale]
• Cawthorn
• Cayton
• Chigogemers

The Meaning of the Name

The origin of the name Ghigogesmersc is not securely established from its modern form alone; like many settlement names in the North it likely combines an Old English or Old Norse personal name with a landscape term.

Remarkably, the name has changed little since 1086, when the Domesday scribes wrote it as Ghigogesmersc.

Listed Buildings Near Ghigogesmersc

Historic England records 74 listed buildings within about a mile of Ghigogesmersc. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.

Grade II*

• Church of All Saints - 0.41 km
• The Hall - 0.42 km

Grade II

• Millhouse - 0.07 km
• Wall, Gate and Railings Approximately 4 Metres to West of Brook House - 0.24 km
• Brook House - 0.25 km
• Cottage Attached to Left of the Little Cottage - 0.3 km
• Manor Farmhouse - 0.31 km
• Beck Hall - 0.31 km
• Beck Isle Cottage the Thatched Cottage - 0.33 km
• Whitbygate House - 0.36 km
• Brook Farmhouse - 0.38 km
• Grammar School - 0.38 km
• Thornton Bridge - 0.39 km
• Wall Approximately 1.25 Metres to North of the Riding Stables - 0.39 km
• Lady Lumley’s Almshouses - 0.4 km
• Gate Piers and Attached Walls Approximately 40 Metres to North of the Hall - 0.4 km
• Rockingham House - 0.41 km
• The Riding Stables - 0.41 km
• School House - 0.42 km
• Gateways - 0.42 km
• 6, Chestnut Avenue - 0.42 km
• Comber House - 0.44 km
• 3 and 5A , Whitbygate - 0.45 km
• The former Gift Box and Baldersons Welcome Café and Bakery - 0.46 km

…and 50 more listed structures in the area.

Scheduled Monuments Near Ghigogesmersc

Scheduled monuments are nationally important archaeological sites given legal protection. 5 lie within roughly a mile of Ghigogesmersc:

• Standing cross 180m north of Hall Farm - 0.49 km
• Roxby Hill manorial complex and associated ridge and furrow earthworks - 1.06 km
• Round barrow 520m north west of St Hilda’s Church, Ellerburn - 1.08 km
• Prehistoric linear boundary in Ellerburn Wood, 370m north west of St Hilda’s Church - 1.11 km
• Round barrow 650m north west of St Hilda’s Church, Ellerburn - 1.16 km

Ghigogesmersc Today

Today Ghigogesmersc records a population of 1,759 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 Thornton-le-Dale on Wikipedia .

Nearby Domesday Settlements

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

• Chigogemers - 0.0 km N
• Chigomersc - 0.0 km N
• Kettlethorpe - 0.0 km N
• Thornton Dale - 0.0 km N
• Ellerburn - 1.4 km NE
• Roxby Hill - 1.4 km SW