Oswaldkirk in the Domesday Book (1086)
Oswaldkirk is named in the Domesday Book, compiled by Norman commissioners in 1086, entered under the hundred of Maneshou in Yorkshire.
Other Settlements in Maneshou
- Amotherby
- Ampleforth
- Appleton [le Street]
- Beadlam
- Brawby
- Broughton
- Cawton
- Coulton
- Fadmoor
- Fryton
- Gillamoor
- Gilling [East]
- Griff [Farm]
- Grimston
The Meaning of the Name
The name Oswaldkirk is of Scandinavian origin. Its final element derives from the Old Norse word kirkja, a church. 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 church’.
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 Oswaldkirk.
Listed Buildings Near Oswaldkirk
Historic England records 7 listed buildings within about a mile of Oswaldkirk. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.
Grade II*
- Church of Saint Oswald - 0.68 km
- Oswaldkirk Hall - 0.87 km
Grade II
- The Malt Shovel - 0.64 km
- The Old Rectory - 0.71 km
- Pigeon Cote Approximately 100 Metres South-east of Oswaldkirk Hall - 0.78 km
- Stable Block Approximately 50 Metres East of Oswaldkirk Hall - 0.8 km
- Milepost Approximately 350 Metres North of Birch House - 0.88 km
Oswaldkirk Today
Today Oswaldkirk lies within the administrative area of Ryedale, and the settlement recorded a population of 233 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 Oswaldkirk on Wikipedia .
Nearby Domesday Settlements
Other places recorded in the 1086 survey within a few miles:
- Laysthorpe Lodge - 1.0 km E
- East Newton - 2.2 km NE
- West Newton Grange - 2.2 km NE
- Gilling East - 2.2 km SW
- Cawton - 2.8 km SE
- Stonegrave - 3.2 km E
Heritage Around Oswaldkirk
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.
© Betty Longbottom · Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
© Colin Grice · Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
© Ken Crosby · 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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