Kirby Wiske in the Domesday Book (1086)

Kirby Wiske is named in the Domesday Book, compiled by Norman commissioners in 1086, entered under the hundred of Land of Count Alan in Yorkshire.

The survey records Kirby Wiske’s value at 3 shillings in 1086. No pre-Conquest figure survives – not unusual in the North, where records were disrupted by the Harrying and by the patchy coverage of the survey.

Other Settlements in Land of Count Alan

• Achebi
• Agglethorpe
• Ainderby [Mires]
• Ainderby [Quernhow]
• Aiskew
• Aldbrough
• Allerthorpe [Hall]
• Ascam
• Ascham
• Asebi
• Aske [Hall]
• Askrigg
• Aysgarth
• Baldersby

The Meaning of the Name

The name Kirby Wiske 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 Wiske.

Listed Buildings Near Kirby Wiske

Historic England records 9 listed buildings within about a mile of Kirby Wiske. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.

Grade II*

• Sion Hill Hall and Attached Courtyard Wall - 0.27 km
• Church of St John the Baptist - 0.35 km

Grade II

• Daffodil Cottage - 0.31 km
• Kirby Bridge - 0.33 km
• Kirby Bridge - 0.33 km
• Medieval Cross Approximately 10 Metres to South of Nave of Church of St John the Baptist - 0.34 km
• Lodge to Sion Hill Hall - 0.39 km
• Newsham Grange Farmhouse - 0.39 km
• The Mount - 0.4 km

Kirby Wiske Today

Today Kirby Wiske lies within the administrative area of Hambleton, and the settlement recorded a population of 114 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 Wiske on Wikipedia .

Nearby Domesday Settlements

Other places recorded in the 1086 survey within a few miles:

• Newsham - 0.0 km N
• Breckenbrough - 1.4 km SE
• Sand Hutton - 2.2 km SE
• Holme - 2.8 km SW
• South Otterington - 3.0 km N
• Pickhill - 3.2 km W