Great Smeaton is named in the Domesday Book, compiled by Norman commissioners in 1086, entered under the hundred of Land of Count Alan in Yorkshire.

Other Settlements in Land of Count Alan

The Meaning of the Name

The name Great Smeaton 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 Great Smeaton.

Listed Buildings Near Great Smeaton

Historic England records 11 listed buildings within about a mile of Great Smeaton. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.

Grade II

Phoenix House - 0.16 km
The Old Rectory - 0.21 km
Tombstone of Richard Scott 1760 5 Metres to South of South Porch of Church of St Eloy - 0.22 km
Church of St Eloy - 0.22 km
Table Tomb 5 Metres to South West of South Porch of Church of St Eloy - 0.22 km
Table Tomb 3 Metres South of Chancel of Church of St Eloy - 0.22 km
Milepost Approximately 30 Metres to South East of Church of St Eloy - 0.25 km
East House - 0.28 km
Smeaton Manor - 0.7 km
Stables to Smeaton Manor - 0.78 km
The Old Bridge - 0.95 km

Scheduled Monuments Near Great Smeaton

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

Little Smeaton medieval village and rabbit warrens, immediately south east of Westhorpe Hall - 1.18 km

Great Smeaton Today

Today Great Smeaton lies within the administrative area of Hambleton, and the settlement recorded a population of 194 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 Great Smeaton on Wikipedia .