Somerford Booths in the Domesday Book (1086)
The settlement of Somerford Booths is recorded in William I’s Domesday survey of 1086, entered under the hundred of Hamestan in Cheshire. The survey assessed Somerford Booths at 10 carucates of taxable land.
At the time of the survey, Somerford Booths supported a recorded population of 8 villagers, 6 slaves, working 8 ploughs between them.
The valuation dropped between 1066 and 1086. Before 1066, Somerford Booths was worth 8 shillings; by 1086 that had dropped to 5 shillings – a fall of 37%. 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.
Other Settlements in Hamestan
- Adlington
- Bosley
- Bramhall
- Bredbury
- Butley
- Capesthorne
- Cheadle
- Chelford
- Cranage
- Gawsworth
- Henbury
- Hollingworth
- Hungrewenitune
- Kermincham
The Meaning of the Name
The name Somerford Booths is of Anglo-Saxon origin. Its final element derives from the Old English word ford, a river crossing. 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 ford’.
Remarkably, the name has changed little since 1086, when the Domesday scribes wrote it as Somerford Booths.
Listed Buildings Near Somerford Booths
Historic England records 3 listed buildings within about a mile of Somerford Booths. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.
Grade II*
- Somerford Booths Hall - 0.52 km
Grade II
- Church of St Michael - 1.09 km
- Hulme Walfield Hall - 1.2 km
Somerford Booths Today
Today Somerford Booths lies within the administrative area of Cheshire East, and the settlement recorded a population of 194 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 Somerford Booths on Wikipedia .
Nearby Domesday Settlements
Other places recorded in the 1086 survey within a few miles:
- Somerford - 2.0 km W
- Davenport - 3.2 km W
- Marton - 3.2 km N
- Newbold Astbury - 4.1 km S
- Congleton - 4.2 km SE
- Kermincham - 4.5 km NW
Heritage Around Somerford [Booths]
Photographs of churches, listed buildings and monuments in the vicinity, contributed by volunteers to the Geograph project and reused here under a Creative Commons licence.
© Colin Park · Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
© Geoff Royle · Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
© Geoff Royle · Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
Images © their respective photographers, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 and reused here with attribution. Photographs depict listed buildings, churches and monuments near this settlement and may show neighbouring villages.
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.
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