Thirtleby is named in the Domesday Book, compiled by Norman commissioners in 1086, entered under the hundred of Holderness [Middle Hundred] in Yorkshire. The survey assessed Thirtleby at 87 carucates of taxable land.

At the time of the survey, Thirtleby supported a recorded population of 30 villagers, working 9 ploughs between them.

Something went badly wrong here between the two surveys. Before 1066, Thirtleby was worth 88 shillings; by 1086 that had dropped to 1.01 shillings – a fall of 98%. 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 Thirtleby (1086)

Meadow: 0.5 * 0.5 leagues & 20 acres mixed measures
Woodland: 16 * 4 leagues

Other Settlements in Holderness [Middle Hundred]

The Meaning of the Name

The name Thirtleby 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 Thirtleby.

Listed Buildings Near Thirtleby

Historic England records 7 listed buildings within about a mile of Thirtleby. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.

Grade II