The settlement of Thornton le Moors is recorded in William I’s Domesday survey of 1086, entered under the hundred of Ruloe in Cheshire.

Other Settlements in Ruloe

The Meaning of the Name

The name Thornton le Moors is of Anglo-Saxon origin. Its final element derives from the Old English word tūn, a farmstead or village, while the first element appears to represent thorn-bushes. Taken together the name probably meant something close to ’the thorn-bushes farmstead’.

Remarkably, the name has changed little since 1086, when the Domesday scribes wrote it as Thornton le Moors.

Listed Buildings Near Thornton le Moors

Historic England records 10 listed buildings within about a mile of Thornton le Moors. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.

Grade I

Church of St Mary - 0.44 km

Grade II

Yew Tree House - 0.27 km
Church House Farmhouse Including Shippon Abutting on North - 0.3 km
Thornton Hall - 0.34 km
Barn to North East of Thornton Hall - 0.34 km
Glebe Farmhouse - 0.36 km
Table Tomb to John Davies of Dunham, South East of Church of St Mary - 0.42 km
Retaining Wall Bounding Churchyard of St Mary’s Church on West, South and Half on East Side Including Gate Piers at South West Corner - 0.43 km
Church Farmhouse Including Cottage Wing to West - 0.44 km
Building 50 at Thornton Aero Engine Research Laboratory - 1.25 km

Scheduled Monuments Near Thornton le Moors

Scheduled monuments are nationally important archaeological sites given legal protection. 1 lies within roughly a mile of Thornton le Moors:

Moated site, fishpond and connnecting channel, Elton - 1.01 km

Thornton le Moors Today

Today Thornton le Moors lies within the administrative area of Cheshire West and Chester, and the settlement recorded a population of 264 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 Thornton-le-Moors on Wikipedia .