The settlement of Kirk Lancaster is recorded in William I’s Domesday survey of 1086, entered under the hundred of Amounderness in Yorkshire. The survey assessed Kirk Lancaster at 1 carucate of taxable land.

At the time of the survey, Kirk Lancaster supported a recorded population of 14 villagers, 1 smallholder, 6 slaves, working 6 ploughs between them.

By 1086 Kirk Lancaster was worth 10 shillings, up from 6 shillings before the Conquest – a sign this community came through the Conquest without being ruined.

Resources Recorded at Kirk Lancaster (1086)

Meadow: 10 acres
Woodland: 10 swine render

Other Settlements in Amounderness

The Meaning of the Name

The name Kirk Lancaster is of Anglo-Saxon origin. Its final element derives from the Old English word ceaster (from Latin castra), a Roman fort or walled town. 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 Roman fort’.

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

Listed Buildings Near Kirk Lancaster

Historic England records 296 listed buildings within about a mile of Kirk Lancaster. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.

Grade II*