The settlement of Shocklach is recorded in William I’s Domesday survey of 1086, entered under the hundred of Duddeston in Cheshire. The survey assessed Shocklach at 4.7 carucates of taxable land.

At the time of the survey, Shocklach supported a recorded population of 1 villager, 15 smallholders, 42 freemanmen, working 8 ploughs between them.

By 1086 Shocklach was worth 5.9 shillings, up from 3.75 shillings before the Conquest – a sign this community came through the Conquest without being ruined.

The survey lists 8 manors at Shocklach 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 Shocklach (1086)

Churches: 0
Pigs: 10
Sheep: 40
Horses (cobs): 1
Meadow: 2 None

Other Settlements in Duddeston

The Meaning of the Name

The origin of the name Shocklach 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 Shocklach.

Listed Buildings Near Shocklach

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

Grade II