Helperthorpe in the Domesday Book (1086)

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

Other Settlements in Toreshou

• Cottam
• Cowlam
• Croom [House]
• Kirby [Grindalythe]
• Knapton
• Newton
• Sherburn
• Sledmere
• Thirkleby [Manor]
• Turodebi
• Ulchiltorp
• Weaverthorpe
• [East and West] Lutton
• [East] Heslerton

The Meaning of the Name

The name Helperthorpe is of Scandinavian origin. Its final element derives from the Old Norse word þorp, an outlying or secondary farmstead. 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 outlying farm’.

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 Helperthorpe.

Listed Buildings Near Helperthorpe

Historic England records 12 listed buildings within about a mile of Helperthorpe. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.

Grade I

• Church of St Andrew - 1.23 km

Grade II

• Vicarage and Attached Kitchen-yard Walls - 0.29 km
• Coach-house and Stables Approximately 10 Metres North-west of the Vicarage - 0.31 km
• Church of St Peter - 0.34 km
• Churchyard Wall and Gates to South and North-east of Church of St Peter - 0.35 km
• West Farmhouse and Attached Cottage and Farmbuildings - 0.68 km
• Dale Farm - 0.83 km
• Dotterel Cottage Farmhouse - 0.83 km
• Weaverthorpe War Memorial - 0.88 km
• Lychgate, Attached Churchyard Walls and Footgate to South, to Church of St Andrew - 1.15 km
• Rarey Farmhouse and Attached Walls - 1.2 km
• Effigy Approximately 3.5 Metres South of Porch of Church of St Andrew - 1.21 km

Scheduled Monuments Near Helperthorpe

Scheduled monuments are nationally important archaeological sites given legal protection. 2 lie within roughly a mile of Helperthorpe:

• Medieval manor site - 1.26 km
• Esh’s round barrow: a long barrow and later bowl barrow 400m north of Cross Thorns Barn - 1.58 km

Helperthorpe Today

Today Helperthorpe lies within the administrative area of Luttons.

Read more about modern Helperthorpe on Wikipedia .

Nearby Domesday Settlements

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

• Weaverthorpe - 1.4 km NE
• Ulchiltorp - 1.4 km SW
• East and West Lutton - 2.2 km SW
• Thirkleby Manor - 3.6 km SW
• Thirkleby Manor - 3.6 km SW
• Boythorpe - 4.1 km E