Stearsby in the Domesday Book (1086)
The settlement of Stearsby is recorded in William I’s Domesday survey of 1086, entered under the hundred of Bulford in Yorkshire.
Other Settlements in Bulford
- Aldwark
- Alne
- Barnby [House]
- Barton [le Willows]
- Beningbrough
- Bossall
- Brafferton
- Brandsby
- Bulmer
- Buttercrambe
- Carlton [Farm]
- Claxton
- Coneysthorpe
- Corburn
The Meaning of the Name
The name Stearsby 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 Stearsby.
Listed Buildings Near Stearsby
Historic England records 1 listed building within about a mile of Stearsby. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.
Grade II
- Stearsby Grange - 0.64 km
Scheduled Monuments Near Stearsby
Scheduled monuments are nationally important archaeological sites given legal protection. 1 lies within roughly a mile of Stearsby:
Stearsby Today
Today Stearsby lies within the administrative area of Brandsby-cum-Stearsby.
Nearby Domesday Settlements
Other places recorded in the 1086 survey within a few miles:
- Skewsby - 1.4 km SE
- Dalby - 2.0 km E
- Brandsby - 2.0 km W
- Whenby - 2.8 km SE
- Scackleton - 3.2 km E
- Marton in the Forest - 3.2 km S
Heritage Around Stearsby
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.
© Ian S · Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
© Ian S · Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
© Peter Wood · 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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