Golcar in the Domesday Book (1086)

The settlement of Golcar is recorded in William I’s Domesday survey of 1086, entered under the hundred of Agbrigg in Yorkshire.

Other Settlements in Agbrigg

• Ackton
• Almondbury
• Austonley
• Bradley
• Cartworth
• Crigglestone
• Crofton
• Dalton
• Emley
• Farnley [Tyas]
• Flockton
• Fulstone
• Hepworth
• Holme

The Meaning of the Name

The name Golcar is of Scandinavian origin. Its final element derives from the Old Norse word kjarr, brushwood marsh. 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 marsh’.

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 Golcar.

Listed Buildings Near Golcar

Historic England records 153 listed buildings within about a mile of Golcar. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.

Grade II

• 71-73, Brook Lane - 0.09 km
• 9, Sharehill Road - 0.11 km
• 15, Sharehill Road - 0.11 km
• 11, Sharehill Road - 0.12 km
• 1 and 3, Share Hill Road - 0.12 km
• 54,54A,56,58, Brook Lane - 0.14 km
• 2, COPLEY BANK ROAD (See details for further address information) - 0.14 km
• 76 and 78, Lower Wellhouse Road - 0.23 km
• 17-25, Clay Well - 0.23 km
• 62-68, Upper Wellhouse Road - 0.24 km
• 70 and 72, Well House Green - 0.25 km
• Numbers 27 and 29 and Adjoining Factory Building - 0.25 km
• 3, Victoria Lane - 0.29 km
• Sharehill - 0.29 km
• 94 and 96, James Street - 0.3 km
• 65, Lowestwood Lane - 0.31 km
• 4 and 6, West End Road - 0.31 km
• 90, Handel Street - 0.31 km
• 88, Handel Street - 0.32 km
• 84 and 86, Handel Street - 0.32 km
• 50 and 52, Upper Wellhouse - 0.32 km
• 56, Upper Wellhouse - 0.33 km
• 1, Cliffe Ash - 0.33 km
• 80 and 82, Handel Street - 0.33 km

…and 129 more listed structures in the area.

Golcar Today

Today Golcar lies within the administrative area of Kirklees, and the settlement recorded a population of 6,900 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 Golcar on Wikipedia .

Nearby Domesday Settlements

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

• Quarmby - 2.8 km NE
• Lindley - 3.6 km NE
• South Crosland - 3.6 km SE
• Lockwood - 4.0 km E
• Old Lindley - 4.0 km N
• Stainland - 4.5 km NW