Seamer is named in the Domesday Book, compiled by Norman commissioners in 1086, entered under the hundred of Langbaurgh in Yorkshire. The survey assessed Seamer at 12 carucates of taxable land.

At the time of the survey, Seamer supported a recorded population of 11 villagers, 5 smallholders, 7 slaves, working 5 ploughs between them.

The survey records Seamer’s value at 5 shillings in 1086. No pre-Conquest figure survives – not unusual in the North, where records were disrupted by the Harrying and by the patchy coverage of the survey.

Resources Recorded at Seamer (1086)

Mills: 1 mill (valued at 7d)
Cattle: 2
Pigs: 8
Sheep: 12
Meadow: 40 acres
Woodland: 30 acres

Other Settlements in Langbaurgh

The Meaning of the Name

The origin of the name Seamer is not securely established from its modern form alone; like many settlement names in the North it likely combines an Old English or Old Norse personal name with a landscape term.

Remarkably, the name has changed little since 1086, when the Domesday scribes wrote it as Seamer.

Listed Buildings Near Seamer

Historic England records 3 listed buildings within about a mile of Seamer. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.

Grade II

Church of St Martin - 0.3 km
Retaining Wall and Mounting Block to South of Church - 0.33 km
Low House Farmhouse - 0.8 km

Seamer Today

Today Seamer lies within the administrative area of Hambleton, and the settlement recorded a population of 589 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 Seamer on Wikipedia .