Prestby in the Domesday Book (1086)

The settlement of Prestby is recorded in William I’s Domesday survey of 1086, entered under the hundred of Langbaurgh in Yorkshire.

Other Settlements in Langbaurgh

• Acklam
• Airy [Holme]
• Aislaby
• Arnodestorp
• Baldebi
• Barnaby
• Barwick
• Battersby
• Bergolbi
• Berguluesbi
• Blaten [Carr]
• Borrowby
• Breck
• Brotton

The Meaning of the Name

The name Prestby 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 Prestby.

Listed Buildings Near Prestby

Historic England records 405 listed buildings within about a mile of Prestby. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.

Grade I

• Whitby Abbey (Ruins) - 0.38 km
• Whitby Abbey Cross - 0.41 km
• Garden Walls and Gatepiers to the Abbey House - 0.45 km
• Parish Church of St Mary - 0.5 km
• Youth Hostel - 0.51 km
• The Abbey House - 0.52 km
• Donkey Road - 0.59 km
• The Church Stairs - 0.59 km

Grade II

• 28 and 30, Henrietta Street - 0.5 km
• 26, Henrietta Street - 0.51 km
• Fortunes Whitby Kippers - 0.52 km
• 20, Henrietta Street - 0.53 km
• 37, Henrietta Street - 0.53 km
• 35, Henrietta Street - 0.54 km
• Morland Cottage - 0.55 km
• 12 and 14, Henrietta Street - 0.55 km
• 16 and 18, Henrietta Street - 0.55 km
• 6-10, Henrietta Street - 0.56 km
• 23-29, Henrietta Street - 0.57 km
• 4, Henrietta Street - 0.58 km
• Workshop Owned by Number 14 Blackburn’s Yard - 0.59 km
• No 14 Blackburn’s Yard - 0.59 km
• 1, Church Lane - 0.6 km
• East Pier - 0.6 km

…and 381 more listed structures in the area.

Scheduled Monuments Near Prestby

Scheduled monuments are nationally important archaeological sites given legal protection. 2 lie within roughly a mile of Prestby:

• Whitby Abbey: Saxon double-house, post-Conquest Benedictine monastery, C17 manor house and C14 cross. - 0.42 km
• Saltwick Nab alum quarries - 0.87 km

Nearby Domesday Settlements

Other places recorded in the 1086 survey within a few miles:

• Baldebi - 0.0 km N
• Breck - 0.0 km N
• Sowerby - 0.0 km N
• Whitby - 0.0 km N
• Flowergate - 1.0 km W
• High Stakesby - 2.2 km SW