Kirby Underdale in the Domesday Book (1086)
The settlement of Kirby Underdale is recorded in William I’s Domesday survey of 1086, entered under the hundred of Acklam in Yorkshire.
Other Settlements in Acklam
- Acklam
- Barthorpe [Grange]
- Bugthorpe
- Burythorpe
- Eddlethorpe
- Firby
- Fridaythorpe
- Garrowby [Hall]
- Howsham
- Kirkham
- Leavening
- Leppington
- Menethorpe
- Raisthorpe
The Meaning of the Name
The name Kirby Underdale 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 Underdale.
Listed Buildings Near Kirby Underdale
Historic England records 10 listed buildings within about a mile of Kirby Underdale. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.
Grade I
- Church of All Saints - 0.26 km
Grade II
- K6 Telephone Kiosk Outside Kirby Undale Post Office - 0.09 km
- School Farm House - 0.12 km
- The Manor House - 0.16 km
- The Old Rectory - 0.19 km
- Cross-base to South of Church of All Saints - 0.25 km
- Painsthorpe Hall - 0.65 km
- Beech Farmhouse - 0.71 km
- Manor House - 0.76 km
- Cheesecake House - 1.28 km
Scheduled Monuments Near Kirby Underdale
Scheduled monuments are nationally important archaeological sites given legal protection. 2 lie within roughly a mile of Kirby Underdale:
- Wood Leys round barrow - 0.97 km
- Round barrow 300m north-east of farm on Garrowby Hill Top - 1.52 km
Kirby Underdale Today
Today Kirby Underdale lies within the administrative area of East Riding of Yorkshire, and the settlement recorded a population of 106 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 Underdale on Wikipedia .
Nearby Domesday Settlements
Other places recorded in the 1086 survey within a few miles:
- Painsthorpe - 1.0 km E
- Uncleby - 1.4 km NE
- Garrowby Hall - 1.4 km SW
- Hanging Grimston - 2.0 km N
- Thoralby Hall - 3.0 km W
- Bugthorpe - 3.2 km W
Heritage Around Kirby [Underdale]
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.
© Roger Gilbertson · Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
© Roger Gilbertson · Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
© Dr Patty McAlpin · 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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