The 1086 Domesday survey records the settlement of Hoveton, entered under the hundred of Maneshou in Yorkshire. The survey assessed Hoveton at 11 carucates of taxable land.

At the time of the survey, Hoveton supported a recorded population of 18 villagers, 5 smallholders, 4 slaves, working 7 ploughs between them.

The drop in value is hard to miss. Before 1066, Hoveton was worth 9 shillings; by 1086 that had dropped to 8.75 shillings – a fall of 2%. Most Yorkshire villages that lost value on this scale were swept up in the Harrying of the North – William’s scorched-earth campaign of 1069–70.

The survey lists 2 manors at Hoveton under different lords. Splitting a single settlement between multiple tenants was common across the North – Saxon estates broken up and handed to William’s followers after 1066.

Resources Recorded at Hoveton (1086)

Churches: 1

Other Settlements in Maneshou

The Meaning of the Name

The name Hoveton 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 Hoveton.

Listed Buildings Near Hoveton

Historic England records 2 listed buildings within about a mile of Hoveton. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.

Grade I