The settlement of Risby is recorded in William I’s Domesday survey of 1086, entered under the hundred of Welton in Yorkshire. The survey assessed Risby at 36 carucates of taxable land.

At the time of the survey, Risby supported a recorded population of 41 villagers, 14 smallholders, 1 slave, 16 freemanmen, working 23 ploughs between them.

By 1086 Risby was worth 42 shillings, up from 40 shillings before the Conquest – a sign this community came through the Conquest without being ruined.

The survey lists 2 manors at Risby 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 Risby (1086)

Mills: 2 mills (valued at 5d)
Meadow: 20 acres
Woodland: 1.5 * 1 furlongs

Other Settlements in Welton

The Meaning of the Name

The name Risby 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 Risby.

Listed Buildings Near Risby

Historic England records 2 listed buildings within about a mile of Risby. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.

Grade II*