Hornby appears in the Domesday Book of 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 Hornby 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 Hornby.

Listed Buildings Near Hornby

Historic England records 25 listed buildings within about a mile of Hornby. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.

Grade I

Hornby Castle - 0.23 km
Church of St Mary the Virgin - 0.45 km

Grade II

Bowling Green Bridge - 0.24 km
Museum - 0.34 km
Gate Piers Near Lawn Lodge - 0.38 km
Cross Shaft Approximately 3 Metres South of South-west Corner of South Porch of Church of St Mary - 0.44 km
Forster Chest Tomb Approximately 2 Metres South of East End of Church of St Mary - 0.44 km
Swale Chest Tomb Approximately 5 Metres East of East End of Church of St Mary - 0.44 km
Hole Chest Tomb Approximately 3 Metres East of East End of Church of St Mary - 0.44 km
Sarcophagus Approximately 5 Metres North-east of Chancel of Church of St Mary - 0.45 km
Hornby Lodge - 0.45 km
Gate Piers Near Hornby Lodge - 0.45 km
Weathered Effigy Approximately 5 Metres West of South Aisle of Church of St Mary - 0.46 km
Group of 4 Chest Tombs Immediately West of South Aisle of Church of St Mary - 0.46 km
Garden Walls - 0.55 km
Well-head - 0.55 km
Home Farmhouse With Screen Wall and Pavilion to South and 2 Outbuildings to North - 0.85 km
Granary Approximately 5 Metres to North West of Home Farmhouse - 0.87 km
Gashouse - 0.9 km
Woodfield House - 0.92 km
Ha-ha, Gate Piers and Gate to North of Arbour Hill House - 0.94 km
Arbour Hill House and Attached Screen Walls, Dovecote and Summer House - 0.96 km
Former Barn Approximately 5 Metres to South East of Arbour Hill House - 0.98 km
Barn Approximately 5 Metres to South West of Arbour Hill House - 0.98 km

…and 1 more listed structures in the area.

Scheduled Monuments Near Hornby

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

Round barrow 650m north west of Winterfield House - 1.44 km

Hornby Today

Today Hornby lies within the administrative area of Richmondshire, and the settlement recorded a population of 120 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 Hornby on Wikipedia .