The settlement of South Stainley is recorded in William I’s Domesday survey of 1086, entered under the hundred of Hallikeld in Yorkshire. The survey assessed South Stainley at 10 carucates of taxable land.

At the time of the survey, South Stainley supported a recorded population of 19 villagers, 4 smallholders, working 7 ploughs between them.

The valuation dropped between 1066 and 1086. Before 1066, South Stainley was worth 12 shillings; by 1086 that had dropped to 8 shillings – a fall of 33%. 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.

Resources Recorded at South Stainley (1086)

Meadow: 8 ploughs

Other Settlements in Hallikeld

The Meaning of the Name

The name South Stainley is of Anglo-Saxon origin. Its final element derives from the Old English word lēah, a woodland clearing or glade, while the first element appears to represent stone (ON steinn). Taken together the name probably meant something close to ’the stone clearing’.

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

Listed Buildings Near South Stainley

Historic England records 10 listed buildings within about a mile of South Stainley. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.

Grade II

Manor Farmhouse - 0.27 km
Milepost at Se 3032 6339 - 0.28 km
Church of St Wilfrid - 0.31 km
Cayton Hall - 0.79 km
Sundial Shaft Approximately 10 Metres South of Cayton Hall - 0.79 km
Laundry and Game Larder Approximately 5 Metres West of Cayton Hall - 0.8 km
Stables and Barn Approximately 50 Metres South West of Cayton Hall - 0.86 km
Cart Shed and Pigeoncote Approximately 100 Metres South West of Cayton - 0.89 km
Stainley Hall Farmhouse - 0.92 km
Gate Piers Approximately 100 Metres South of Stainley Hall Farmhouse - 0.96 km

South Stainley Today

Today South Stainley lies within the administrative area of South Stainley with Cayton, and the settlement recorded a population of 172 at recent figures. Nine and a half centuries separate that figure from the small rural community the Domesday survey recorded here in 1086.

Read more about modern South Stainley on Wikipedia .