West Tanfield in the Domesday Book (1086)

West Tanfield is named in the Domesday Book, compiled by Norman commissioners in 1086, entered under the hundred of Land of Count Alan in Yorkshire.

Other Settlements in Land of Count Alan

• Achebi
• Agglethorpe
• Ainderby [Mires]
• Ainderby [Quernhow]
• Aiskew
• Aldbrough
• Allerthorpe [Hall]
• Ascam
• Ascham
• Asebi
• Aske [Hall]
• Askrigg
• Aysgarth
• Baldersby

The Meaning of the Name

The name West Tanfield is of Anglo-Saxon origin. Its final element derives from the Old English word feld, open country. 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 open land’.

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

Listed Buildings Near West Tanfield

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

Grade I

• Church of St Nicholas - 0.76 km
• The Marmion Tower - 0.78 km

Grade II

• Old Wesleyan Chapel - 0.47 km
• Stables to the Bruce Arms Inn - 0.65 km
• The Bruce Arms Inn - 0.67 km
• Briar and Jasmine Cottages - 0.7 km
• Sunnyside and Orchard Cottage - 0.7 km
• The Estate House - 0.73 km
• 1-8, Long Row - 0.76 km
• Chantry House and Chantry House Cottage - 0.78 km
• 2, Church Street - 0.78 km
• Chantry Cottage - 0.78 km
• 3, 4 and 5, Church Street - 0.78 km
• The Bull Inn - 0.78 km
• The Chantry and The Little Chantry - 0.78 km
• Tanfield Bridge - 0.83 km
• Tanfield Bridge - 0.84 km
• Prospect House - 0.9 km
• Low Haw Leas - 1.19 km

Scheduled Monuments Near West Tanfield

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

• Marmion Tower (former gatehouse of Tanfield Castle fortified manor) - 0.78 km
• Tanfield Bridge - 0.83 km
• Round barrow known as Binsoe Hill, south of Binsoe Hill Farm - 1.58 km

West Tanfield Today

Today West Tanfield lies within the administrative area of Hambleton, and the settlement recorded a population of 576 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 West Tanfield on Wikipedia .

Nearby Domesday Settlements

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

• Sleningford - 2.2 km SE
• East Stainley - 2.8 km SE
• East Tanfield - 2.8 km SE
• North Stainley - 2.8 km SE
• Well - 3.0 km N
• Upsland - 4.0 km E