Heathfield is named in the Domesday Book, compiled by Norman commissioners in 1086, entered under the hundred of Burghshire in Yorkshire. The survey assessed Heathfield at 0.4 carucates of taxable land.

At the time of the survey, Heathfield supported a recorded population of 10 villagers, 11 smallholders, 8 slaves, working 4 ploughs between them.

The survey records Heathfield’s value at 4 shillings in 1086. No pre-Conquest figure survives – not unusual in the North, where records were disrupted by the Harrying and by the patchy coverage of the survey.

Resources Recorded at Heathfield (1086)

Cattle: 31
Pigs: 4
Sheep: 200
Meadow: 50 acres
Woodland: 1 league * 1 furlong mixed measures

Other Settlements in Burghshire

The Meaning of the Name

The name Heathfield is of Anglo-Saxon origin. Its final element derives from the Old English word feld, open country. 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 open land’.

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

Listed Buildings Near Heathfield

Historic England records 9 listed buildings within about a mile of Heathfield. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.

Grade II