Holtby Hall in the Domesday Book (1086)

The settlement of Holtby Hall is recorded in William I’s Domesday survey of 1086, entered under the hundred of Land of Count Alan in Yorkshire.

Other Settlements in Land of Count Alan

• Achebi
• Agglethorpe
• Ainderby [Mires]
• Ainderby [Quernhow]
• Aiskew
• Aldbrough
• Allerthorpe [Hall]
• Ascam
• Ascham
• Asebi
• Aske [Hall]
• Askrigg
• Aysgarth
• Baldersby

The Meaning of the Name

The name Holtby Hall is of Scandinavian origin. Its final element derives from the Old Norse word bý, 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’.

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 Holtby Hall.

Listed Buildings Near Holtby Hall

Historic England records 6 listed buildings within about a mile of Holtby Hall. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.

Grade II

• Holtby Hall - 0.3 km
• Ainderby Myers Manor - 1.05 km
• Barn and Granary to South of Street House Farmhouse - 1.23 km
• Pavilion to South of Street House Farmhouse - 1.23 km
• Street House Farmhouse - 1.25 km
• Threshing Barn and Attached Outbuilding to North of Street House Farmhouse - 1.27 km

Nearby Domesday Settlements

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

• Ainderby Mires - 1.0 km W
• Langthorne - 1.4 km SW
• Great Fencote - 2.2 km NE
• Little Fencote - 2.2 km NE
• Kirkby Fleetham - 2.8 km NE
• Hackforth - 2.8 km NW