The settlement of Melsonby is recorded in William I’s Domesday survey of 1086, entered under the hundred of Land of Count Alan in Yorkshire.

Other Settlements in Land of Count Alan

The Meaning of the Name

The name Melsonby 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 Melsonby.

Listed Buildings Near Melsonby

Historic England records 27 listed buildings within about a mile of Melsonby. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.

Grade II

Melsonsby Farmhouse - 0.04 km
School House - 0.05 km
43 and 45, West Road - 0.05 km
Spencer Cottage Spencer House - 0.08 km
Layton House Farmhouse - 0.09 km
46, High Row - 0.1 km
38, High Row - 0.13 km
Hill Crest - 0.23 km
Hill House - 0.24 km
4, High Row - 0.25 km
Whartons Farmhouse - 0.3 km
Fern House and Fern Cottage - 0.3 km
16, 18 and 20, East Road - 0.33 km
19, Church Row - 0.37 km
Hope Cottage - 0.38 km
31, Church Row - 0.41 km
Orchard House - 0.46 km
Former Tithe Barn Approximately Twenty Metres South West of the Old Rectory - 0.47 km
Outbuilding Approximately Ten Metres North West of Old Rectory - 0.47 km
Gates and Gate Piers Adjoining North East Rear Range of the Old Rectory - 0.48 km
The Old Rectory - 0.5 km
Chest Tomb Approximately Six Metres South of Tower of Church of St James - 0.5 km
Group of Three Memorials on West Side of South Path Approximately Four Metres From Porch of Church of St James - 0.5 km
Todd and Raine Memorials Approximately Two Metres East of Porch of Church of St James - 0.51 km

…and 3 more listed structures in the area.

Scheduled Monuments Near Melsonby

Scheduled monuments are nationally important archaeological sites given legal protection. 4 lie within roughly a mile of Melsonby:

Melsonby Today

Today Melsonby lies within the administrative area of North Yorkshire, and the settlement recorded a population of 705 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 Melsonby on Wikipedia .