In the Domesday Survey, only an estate of one carucate is mentioned. It was held by Ilbert de Lacy and the sub-tenant was Gamel, not a Norman. There was no record of a church in 1086.
According to Hunter (1828) II, 263, the Birkin family had their main centre here, but also held lands at the important site of Stainborough (later Wentworth) from the de Lacys. Dodsworth gives the first known individual of this line as Asolf, 'in the time of the grandson of the Conqueror'. Peter de Birkin is known from several charters, and may be his son. Pontefract Priory and later Rievaulx Abbey benefitted from donations by this family.