The 1086 Domesday survey records the settlement of Ilton, entered under the hundred of Land of Count Alan in Yorkshire. The survey assessed Ilton at 10 carucates of taxable land.

At the time of the survey, Ilton supported a recorded population of 7 villagers, 3 smallholders, 6 slaves, working 7 ploughs between them.

The drop in value is hard to miss. Before 1066, Ilton was worth 8.1 shillings; by 1086 that had dropped to 7.1 shillings – a fall of 12%. 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 Ilton 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 Ilton (1086)

Meadow: 1 ploughs

Other Settlements in Land of Count Alan

The Meaning of the Name

The name Ilton 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 Ilton.

Listed Buildings Near Ilton

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

Grade II