Norbury is named in the Domesday Book, compiled by Norman commissioners in 1086, entered under the hundred of Warmundestrou in Cheshire. The survey assessed Norbury at 5 carucates of taxable land.

At the time of the survey, Norbury supported a recorded population of 8 villagers, 5 smallholders, 2 slaves, working 4 ploughs between them.

Something went badly wrong here between the two surveys. Before 1066, Norbury was worth 5.25 shillings; by 1086 that had dropped to 4.5 shillings – a fall of 14%. Most Yorkshire villages that lost value on this scale were swept up in the Harrying of the North – William’s scorched-earth campaign of 1069–70.

The survey lists 5 manors at Norbury 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 Norbury (1086)

Meadow: 1 ploughs

Other Settlements in Warmundestrou

The Meaning of the Name

The name Norbury is of Anglo-Saxon origin. Its final element derives from the Old English word burh, a fortified place, while the first element appears to represent the northern. Taken together the name probably meant something close to ’the northern stronghold’.

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

Listed Buildings Near Norbury

Historic England records 5 listed buildings within about a mile of Norbury. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.

Grade II

Brook Farmhouse - 0.8 km
Olive Cottage - 0.89 km
Stokes Cottage - 0.94 km
The Holtridge - 1.16 km
Church Bridge - 1.2 km

Norbury Today

Today Norbury lies within the administrative area of Marbury and District, and the settlement recorded a population of 199 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 Norbury on Wikipedia .