Little Ayton is named in the Domesday Book, compiled by Norman commissioners in 1086, entered under the hundred of Langbaurgh in Yorkshire.

Other Settlements in Langbaurgh

The Meaning of the Name

The name Little Ayton is of Anglo-Saxon origin. Its final element derives from the Old English word tūn, 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’.

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

Listed Buildings Near Little Ayton

Historic England records 10 listed buildings within about a mile of Little Ayton. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.

Grade II

The White House and Attached Walls - 0.49 km
Wall and Stable Buildings to North East of Cleveland Lodge - 1.05 km
Cleveland Lodge - 1.07 km
Seaton House - 1.1 km
Farmbuildings and Walls to South West of Airyholme Farmhouse - 1.14 km
Airyholme Farmhouse and Attached Outbuilding to South East - 1.16 km
Numbers 6 and 8 (Lodge to Friends’ School) and Wall Attached - 1.22 km
Number 13 (Stonelea) and Number 15 - 1.22 km
Great Ayton Quaker Meeting House - 1.29 km
Ivy Cottage Nutshell - 1.3 km

Scheduled Monuments Near Little Ayton

Scheduled monuments are nationally important archaeological sites given legal protection. 1 lies within roughly a mile of Little Ayton:

Ayton Banks alum works - 1.31 km

Little Ayton Today

Today Little Ayton lies within the administrative area of Hambleton, and the settlement recorded a population of 112 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 Little Ayton on Wikipedia .