Tharlesthorpe is named in the Domesday Book, compiled by Norman commissioners in 1086, entered under the hundred of Holderness [South Hundred] in Yorkshire. The survey assessed Tharlesthorpe at 10 carucates of taxable land.

At the time of the survey, Tharlesthorpe supported a recorded population of 16 villagers, 4 smallholders, 3 slaves, working 10 ploughs between them.

By 1086 Tharlesthorpe was worth 9.66 shillings, up from 7.66 shillings before the Conquest – in contrast to many Yorkshire neighbours whose valuations collapsed.

The survey lists 2 manors at Tharlesthorpe 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 Tharlesthorpe (1086)

Woodland: 60 None

Other Settlements in Holderness [South Hundred]

The Meaning of the Name

The name Tharlesthorpe is of Scandinavian origin. Its final element derives from the Old Norse word þorp, an outlying or secondary farmstead. 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 outlying farm’.

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 Tharlesthorpe.

Listed Buildings Near Tharlesthorpe

Historic England records 2 listed buildings within about a mile of Tharlesthorpe. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.

Grade II