Sudcniton in the Domesday Book (1086)
Sudcniton appears in the Domesday Book of 1086, entered under the hundred of Acklam in Yorkshire. The survey assessed Sudcniton at 15.2 carucates of taxable land.
At the time of the survey, Sudcniton supported a recorded population of 6 villagers, 5 smallholders, 2 freemanmen, working 8 ploughs between them.
The numbers record a sharp fall. Before 1066, Sudcniton was worth 8 shillings; by 1086 that had dropped to 1.5 shillings – a fall of 81%. 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.
The survey lists 2 manors at Sudcniton 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 Sudcniton (1086)
- Churches: 1
- Woodland: 1 * 1 None
Other Settlements in Acklam
- Acklam
- Barthorpe [Grange]
- Bugthorpe
- Burythorpe
- Eddlethorpe
- Firby
- Fridaythorpe
- Garrowby [Hall]
- Howsham
- Kirby [Underdale]
- Kirkham
- Leavening
- Leppington
- Menethorpe
The Meaning of the Name
The name Sudcniton is of Anglo-Saxon origin. Its final element derives from the Old English word tūn, 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’.
Remarkably, the name has changed little since 1086, when the Domesday scribes wrote it as Sudcniton.
Listed Buildings Near Sudcniton
Historic England records 14 listed buildings within about a mile of Sudcniton. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.
Grade II*
- Westow Hall - 0.36 km
- Church of Saint Mary - 0.66 km
Grade II
- High Farmhouse and Byre - 0.24 km
- Tarrs Cottages - 0.25 km
- Fox and Hounds House - 0.29 km
- Yew Tree Cottage - 0.31 km
- Barn Approximately 20 Metres North-east of Westow Hall - 0.31 km
- Chantry Cottage - 0.31 km
- Corner House - 0.31 km
- K6 Telephone Kiosk Opposite the Post Office - 0.31 km
- Blacksmiths Arms - 0.31 km
- Manor Farmhouse - 0.32 km
- Herbert Cottage - 0.32 km
- Grange House - 0.87 km
Scheduled Monuments Near Sudcniton
Scheduled monuments are nationally important archaeological sites given legal protection. 1 lies within roughly a mile of Sudcniton:
Sudcniton Today
Today Sudcniton lies within the administrative area of Ryedale, and the settlement recorded a population of 329 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 Westow on Wikipedia .
Nearby Domesday Settlements
Other places recorded in the 1086 survey within a few miles:
- Sudnicton - 0.0 km N
- Firby - 1.4 km NW
- Eddlethorpe - 2.2 km NE
- Crambe - 2.2 km SW
- Kirkham - 2.2 km NW
- Low Hutton - 2.2 km NE
Heritage Around Sudcniton
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.
© Matthew Hatton · Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
© Matthew Hatton · Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
© Peter Church · 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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