Willesley in the Domesday Book (1086)

The settlement of Willesley is recorded in William I’s Domesday survey of 1086, entered under the hundred of Goscote in LEC.

Other Settlements in Goscote

• Allexton
• Alton
• Anstey
• Appleby
• Appleby [Parva]
• Asfordby
• Ashby [-de-la-Zouch]
• Ashby [Folville]
• Barkby
• Barrow [-upon-Soar]
• Barsby
• Beeby
• Belgrave
• Birstall

The Meaning of the Name

The name Willesley 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 Willesley.

Listed Buildings Near Willesley

Historic England records 7 listed buildings within about a mile of Willesley. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.

Grade II*

• Church of the Holy Rood - 1.25 km

Grade II

• 4 and 5 Park Farm - 0.58 km
• Church of St Thomas - 0.61 km
• Rotherwood House - 1.19 km
• Chaume Cottage - 1.24 km
• Tomb at Church of Holy Rood - 1.27 km
• Packington Manor House - 1.27 km

Willesley Today

Today Willesley lies within the administrative area of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, and the settlement recorded a population of 2,147 at recent figures. Nine and a half centuries separate that figure from the small rural community the Domesday survey recorded here in 1086.

Read more about modern Willesley on Wikipedia .

Nearby Domesday Settlements

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

• Oakthorpe - 2.2 km SW
• Measham - 2.2 km SW
• Donisthorpe - 3.0 km W
• Stretton -en-le-Field - 5.0 km SW
• Smisby - 5.0 km N
• Appleby Magna - 5.8 km SW