Kilnwick Percy appears in the Domesday Book of 1086, entered under the hundred of Warter in Yorkshire. The survey assessed Kilnwick Percy at 3 carucates of taxable land.

At the time of the survey, Kilnwick Percy supported a recorded population of 19 villagers, 5 smallholders, 3 freemanmen, working 9 ploughs between them.

The numbers record a sharp fall. Before 1066, Kilnwick Percy was worth 2.5 shillings; by 1086 that had dropped to 2.4 shillings – a fall of 4%. 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 Kilnwick Percy 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 Kilnwick Percy (1086)

Mills: 2 mills (valued at 8d)
Churches: 1
Woodland: 2 * 2 furlongs

Other Settlements in Warter

The Meaning of the Name

The name Kilnwick Percy is of Anglo-Saxon origin. Its final element derives from the Old English word wīc, a dwelling, dairy farm or trading settlement. 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 specialised farm’.

Remarkably, the name has changed little since 1086, when the Domesday scribes wrote it as Kilnwick Percy.

Listed Buildings Near Kilnwick Percy

Historic England records 4 listed buildings within about a mile of Kilnwick Percy. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.

Grade II*