Sowerby Hall in the Domesday Book (1086)
Sowerby Hall is named in the Domesday Book, compiled by Norman commissioners in 1086, entered under the hundred of Amounderness in Yorkshire.
Other Settlements in Amounderness
- Aighton
- Aldcliffe
- Aldingham
- Arkholme
- Aschebi
- Ashton [Hall]
- Ashton [on Ribble]
- Austwick
- Barbon
- Bardsea
- Bare
- Barnoldswick
- Barton
- Beetham
The Meaning of the Name
The name Sowerby Hall is of Scandinavian origin. Its final element derives from the Old Norse word bý, a farmstead or village. 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 farmstead’.
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 Sowerby Hall.
Listed Buildings Near Sowerby Hall
Historic England records 11 listed buildings within about a mile of Sowerby Hall. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.
Grade II*
- Barn Immediately to Rear of Sowerby Hall Farmhouse - 0.27 km
- Ormsgill Farmhouse - 1.18 km
Grade II
- Sowerby Hall Farmhouse - 0.29 km
- Barn Immediately to North East of Sowerby Lodge Farmhouse - 0.43 km
- Sowerby Lodge Farmhouse - 0.45 km
- Number 17 and Attached Outbuilding - 0.84 km
- Romney Cottage - 0.86 km
- 12, Cross Lane - 0.86 km
- Chase End - 0.88 km
- Roman Catholic Cemetery Chapel at Borough Cemetery - 1.14 km
- Barn and Outbuilding Adjoining Ormsgill Farmhouse - 1.2 km
Nearby Domesday Settlements
Other places recorded in the 1086 survey within a few miles:
- Suntun - 3.0 km S
- Crivelton - 3.2 km E
- Fordbottle - 3.6 km SE
- Killerwick - 3.6 km NE
- Roose - 4.2 km SE
- Dalton in Furness - 4.5 km NE
Heritage Around Sowerby [Hall]
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.
© David Jackson · Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
© Ian Taylor · Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
© David Gearing · 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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