Lower and Upper Denby in the Domesday Book (1086)
The settlement of Lower and Upper Denby is recorded in William I’s Domesday survey of 1086, entered under the hundred of Staincross in Yorkshire.
Other Settlements in Staincross
- Adlingfleet
- Barnby [Hall]
- Barnsley
- Barugh
- Brierley
- Carlton
- Cawthorne
- Chevet
- Clactone
- Clayton [West]
- Darton
- Dodworth
- Hemsworth
- Hoyland [Swaine]
The Meaning of the Name
The name Lower and Upper Denby 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 Lower and Upper Denby.
Listed Buildings Near Lower and Upper Denby
Historic England records 12 listed buildings within about a mile of Lower and Upper Denby. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.
Grade II
- Rock House - 0.09 km
- Manor Farm - 0.15 km
- 4-10, Coalpit Lane - 0.28 km
- Church of St John - 0.31 km
- Gunthwaite Gate Farmhouse - 0.69 km
- Milestone at Base of Viaduct - 0.7 km
- Barn Range Attached to Gunthwaite Gate Farmhouse - 0.72 km
- 3 Storey Mill Building at Hartcliffe Mills Immediately East Reservoir - 0.92 km
- Denby Dale Railway Viaduct - 0.94 km
- Milestone Approximately 300 Yards East of Junction With Barnsley - 0.97 km
- 18 20 and 22, Lower Denby Lane - 1.13 km
- Denby Dale Wesleyan Methodist Church - 1.17 km
Lower and Upper Denby Today
Today Lower and Upper Denby lies within the administrative area of Denby Dale, and the settlement recorded a population of 715 at recent figures. Nine and a half centuries separate that figure from the small rural community the Domesday survey recorded here in 1086.
Read more about modern Upper Denby on Wikipedia .
Nearby Domesday Settlements
Other places recorded in the 1086 survey within a few miles:
- Upper Cumberworth - 1.4 km NW
- Lower Cumberworth - 2.0 km N
- Ingbirchworth - 2.0 km S
- Skelmanthorpe - 3.2 km N
- Shepley - 3.6 km NW
- Thurlstone - 4.1 km S
Heritage Around [Lower and Upper] Denby
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.
© Wendy North · Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
© Wendy North · Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
© Humphrey Bolton · 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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