Wawne in the Domesday Book (1086)

Wawne appears in the Domesday Book of 1086, entered under the hundred of Holderness [Middle Hundred] in Yorkshire. The survey assessed Wawne at 10 carucates of taxable land.

At the time of the survey, Wawne supported a recorded population of 10 villagers, 8 smallholders, 3 slaves, working 8 ploughs between them.

The numbers record a sharp fall. Before 1066, Wawne was worth 10 shillings; by 1086 that had dropped to 6.5 shillings – a fall of 35%. 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 Wawne 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 Wawne (1086)

• Fisheries: 4
• Meadow: 20 acres
• Woodland: 70 swine render

Other Settlements in Holderness [Middle Hundred]

• Aldbrough
• Benningholme [Hall]
• Bewick [Hall]
• Bilton
• Burton [Constable]
• Burton [Pidsea]
• Conis[ton]
• Danthorpe
• Dowthorpe [Hall]
• Drypool
• Ellerby
• Elstronwick
• Eske
• Etherdwick

The Meaning of the Name

The origin of the name Wawne is not securely established from its modern form alone; like many settlement names in the North it likely combines an Old English or Old Norse personal name with a landscape term.

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

Listed Buildings Near Wawne

Historic England records 5 listed buildings within about a mile of Wawne. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.

Grade I

• Church of St Peter - 0.6 km

Grade II

• Grange Croft Farmhouse and Outbuilding to Right - 0.4 km
• K8 Telephone Kiosk, Main Street, Wawne - 0.52 km
• 4, Main Street - 0.58 km
• Bamforth Farm - 1.3 km

Scheduled Monuments Near Wawne

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

• Moated monastic grange site and fishponds in Paradise Wood, 630m north west of Carlam Hill Farm - 0.65 km

Wawne Today

Today Wawne lies within the administrative area of East Riding of Yorkshire, and the settlement recorded a population of 1,023 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 Wawne on Wikipedia .

Nearby Domesday Settlements

Other places recorded in the 1086 survey within a few miles:

• Meaux - 4.0 km N
• Swine - 4.1 km E
• Benningholme Hall - 4.2 km NE
• Weel - 4.2 km NW
• Sutton on Hull - 4.5 km SE
• Pillwoods Farm - 5.4 km W