Wheatley appears in the Domesday Book of 1086, entered under the hundred of Amounderness in Yorkshire. The survey assessed Wheatley at 4 carucates of taxable land.

At the time of the survey, Wheatley supported a recorded population of 7 smallholders, 1 slave, working 2 ploughs between them.

The numbers record a sharp fall. Before 1066, Wheatley was worth 3.5 shillings; by 1086 that had dropped to 2 shillings – a fall of 42%. 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 Wheatley 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 Wheatley (1086)

Meadow: 4 ploughs
Woodland: 200 pigs

Other Settlements in Amounderness

The Meaning of the Name

The name Wheatley is of Anglo-Saxon origin. Its final element derives from the Old English word lēah, a woodland clearing or glade. 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 clearing’.

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

Listed Buildings Near Wheatley

Historic England records 8 listed buildings within about a mile of Wheatley. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.

Grade II

White Fold Farmhouse and Barn Adjoining to North-east - 0.49 km
Wheatley Farmhouse and Former Stable Adjoining to the South - 0.71 km
The Hills Farmhouse - 0.85 km
Mounting Block on Roadside, North East of Higher Birks Farmhouse - 1.0 km
Higher Birks Farmhouse - 1.02 km
Oaks Barn - 1.14 km
Dilworth Brows Farmhouse - 1.17 km
Lee House. Church of St William of York and Adjoining Presbytery - 1.27 km

Wheatley Today

Today Wheatley lies within the administrative area of Ribble Valley, and the settlement recorded a population of 317 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 Thornley-with-Wheatley on Wikipedia .