The 1086 Domesday survey records the settlement of Thornton, entered under the hundred of [West] Derby in Cheshire. The survey assessed Thornton at 0.1 carucates of taxable land.

At the time of the survey, Thornton supported a recorded population of 2 freemanmen.

The survey records Thornton’s value at 7d in 1086. No pre-Conquest figure survives – not unusual in the North, where records were disrupted by the Harrying and by the patchy coverage of the survey.

Other Settlements in [West] Derby

The Meaning of the Name

The name Thornton 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.

Listed Buildings Near Thornton

Historic England records 19 listed buildings within about a mile of Thornton. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.

Grade I

Church of St Helen - 1.1 km

Grade II

The Chestnuts - 0.31 km
Lunt House Farmhouse - 0.55 km
The Tythe Barn - 0.58 km
Broom’s Cross Approximately 67 Metres From Junction With Back Lane - 0.65 km
Well Cottage - 0.81 km
Homer Green Farmhouse - 0.93 km
Cross Base and Sundial at Corner of Water Street - 1.03 km
Stocks at Corner of Water Street - 1.03 km
Former Grange Farmhouse and Outbuilding - 1.04 km
Punch Bowl Hotel - 1.05 km
Cross Base to North of Lych Gate to South West of St Helen’s - 1.07 km
War Memorial Opposite St Helen’s Church - 1.08 km
Sundial Approximately 11 Metres South of Church of St Helen - 1.11 km
Former Old Hall Farmhouse and Barn - 1.15 km
Wall to Churchyard of St Helen’s - 1.15 km
5 and 6, Sefton Mill Court - 1.17 km
1 to 4, Sefton Mill Court - 1.17 km
Tan House Farmhouse - 1.3 km

Scheduled Monuments Near Thornton

Scheduled monuments are nationally important archaeological sites given legal protection. 3 lie within roughly a mile of Thornton:

Broom’s Cross wayside cross, 150m north east of Orchard House - 0.66 km
Standing cross at the junction of Green Lane and Water Street - 1.03 km
Sefton Old Hall moated site and fishponds, Sefton. - 1.15 km

Thornton Today

Today Thornton lies within the administrative area of Sefton, and the settlement recorded a population of 2,209 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 on Wikipedia .