The 1086 Domesday survey records the settlement of Wirswall, entered under the hundred of Warmundestrou in Cheshire. The survey assessed Wirswall at 6 carucates of taxable land.

At the time of the survey, Wirswall supported a recorded population of 7 villagers, 5 smallholders, working 6 ploughs between them.

The drop in value is hard to miss. Before 1066, Wirswall was worth 2 shillings; by 1086 that had dropped to 1 shilling – a fall of 50%. 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.

Resources Recorded at Wirswall (1086)

Woodland: 1.5 leagues

Other Settlements in Warmundestrou

The Meaning of the Name

The origin of the name Wirswall 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 Wirswall.

Listed Buildings Near Wirswall

Historic England records 4 listed buildings within about a mile of Wirswall. Listing protects structures of special architectural or historic interest, graded I (exceptional), II* (particularly important) and II.

Grade II

Wirswall Today

Today Wirswall lies within the administrative area of Marbury and District, and the settlement recorded a population of 91 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 Wirswall on Wikipedia .