Richmond in the Domesday Book (1086)
The 1086 Domesday survey records the settlement of Richmond, entered under the hundred of Land of Count Alan in Yorkshire. The survey assessed Richmond at 6 carucates of taxable land.
At the time of the survey, Richmond supported a recorded population of 4 villagers, 1 smallholder, working 2 ploughs between them.
The drop in value is hard to miss. Before 1066, Richmond was worth 10d; by 1086 that had dropped to 0d – a fall of 100%. 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.
1 of 3 manors within Richmond are recorded as waste in 1086, with the remainder still productive. This partial devastation suggests the settlement was caught in the path of the Harrying of the North but not entirely destroyed — or that recovery had begun in some holdings by the time of the survey.
The survey lists 3 manors at Richmond 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 Richmond (1086)
- Woodland: 1 * 1 None
Other Settlements in Land of Count Alan
Location
54.4085°N, -1.7304°W · Land of Count Alan hundred, Yorkshire
View larger map on OpenStreetMap →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.
Found an inaccuracy? [email protected]