Scargill is named in the Domesday Book, compiled by Norman commissioners in 1086, entered under the hundred of Land of Count Alan in Yorkshire.

Other Settlements in Land of Count Alan

The Meaning of the Name

The name Scargill is of Scandinavian origin. Its final element derives from the Old Norse word gil, a narrow ravine. 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 ravine’.

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 Scargill.

Listed Buildings Near Scargill

Historic England records 7 listed buildings within about a mile of Scargill. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.

Grade II*

Scargill Castle - 0.35 km

Grade II

Foundations and Fragment of A Chapel - 0.12 km
Garden Wall to South of Castle Farmhouse - 0.4 km
Castle Farmhouse and Byre With Loft to Left - 0.41 km
Cottage, Byre and Loose Boxes, 10 Metres North of Castle Farmhouse - 0.43 km
Cowclose House and Adjacent Byre - 1.19 km
Brignall Mill House - 1.22 km

Scheduled Monuments Near Scargill

Scheduled monuments are nationally important archaeological sites given legal protection. 10 lie within roughly a mile of Scargill:

Scargill Today

Today Scargill lies within the administrative area of County Durham, and the settlement recorded a population of 39 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 Scargill on Wikipedia .