The 1086 Domesday survey records the settlement of Maxudesmares, entered under the hundred of Dic in Yorkshire. The survey assessed Maxudesmares at 6.9 carucates of taxable land.

At the time of the survey, Maxudesmares supported a recorded population of 10 villagers, 6 smallholders, 3 slaves, 33 freemanmen, working 16 ploughs between them.

By 1086 Maxudesmares was worth 14.14 shillings, up from 11 shillings before the Conquest – which sets it apart from the many nearby villages left waste or devalued.

The survey lists 5 manors at Maxudesmares under different lords. Splitting a single settlement between multiple tenants was common across the North – Saxon estates broken up and handed to William’s followers after 1066.

Resources Recorded at Maxudesmares (1086)

Mills: 4 mills
Churches: 2
Cattle: 24
Pigs: 17
Sheep: 139
Horses (cobs): 6
Fisheries: 3
Meadow: 4 None
Woodland: 8 None

Other Settlements in Dic

The Meaning of the Name

The origin of the name Maxudesmares is not securely established from its modern form alone; like many settlement names in the North it likely combines an Old English or Old Norse personal name with a landscape term.

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

Listed Buildings Near Maxudesmares

Historic England records 225 listed buildings within about a mile of Maxudesmares. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.

Grade II*