Kirby Knowle in the Domesday Book (1086)
Kirby Knowle is named in the Domesday Book, compiled by Norman commissioners in 1086, entered under the hundred of Yarlestre in Yorkshire.
Other Settlements in Yarlestre
- Arden [Hall]
- Asenby
- Bagby
- Baxby
- Bergebi
- Berghebi
- Bernebi
- Boltby
- Breckenbrough
- Carlton [Husthwaite]
- Carlton [Miniott]
- Catton
- Coxwold
- Crakehill
The Meaning of the Name
The name Kirby Knowle 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 Kirby Knowle.
Listed Buildings Near Kirby Knowle
Historic England records 11 listed buildings within about a mile of Kirby Knowle. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.
Grade II
- Church of St Wilfrid - 0.3 km
- Group of Font and Two Cross Bases With Shafts Approximately 5 Metres to South West of Porch of Church of St Wilfrid - 0.31 km
- Knowle House - 0.36 km
- Holme House - 0.41 km
- Manor House - 0.47 km
- Kirby Knowle Castle - 0.7 km
- Statue Approximately 10 Metres to West of Kirby Knowle Castle - 0.72 km
- Garden Walls to South, to West and to North of Kirby Knowle Castle - 0.73 km
- Gatehouse to Upsall Castle, to West of Garden Cottage and Wall to Right - 1.14 km
- Garden Cottage and Walls - 1.16 km
- Remains of Castle Walls to South and West of Upsall Castle - 1.3 km
Scheduled Monuments Near Kirby Knowle
Scheduled monuments are nationally important archaeological sites given legal protection. 3 lie within roughly a mile of Kirby Knowle:
- Round barrow 180m NNE of St Wilfred’s Church - 0.14 km
- Kirby Knowle medieval settlement 220m west and 150m south west of Manor House Farm - 0.22 km
- Upsall Castle: a quadrangular castle - 1.3 km
Kirby Knowle Today
Today Kirby Knowle lies within the administrative area of North Yorkshire, and the settlement recorded a population of 66 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 Kirby Knowle on Wikipedia .
Nearby Domesday Settlements
Other places recorded in the 1086 survey within a few miles:
Heritage Around Kirby [Knowle]
Photographs of churches, listed buildings and monuments in the vicinity, contributed by volunteers to the Geograph project and reused here under a Creative Commons licence.
© Maigheach-gheal · Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
© Frank Glover · Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
© Maigheach-gheal · Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
Images © their respective photographers, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 and reused here with attribution. Photographs depict listed buildings, churches and monuments near this settlement and may show neighbouring villages.
Data derived from the Open Domesday project (opendomesday.org), based on the Domesday Book dataset compiled by Professor J.J.N. Palmer and team. The Domesday Book (1086) is in the public domain.
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