"Tickhill" is an Old English place-name, meaning either "Hill where young goats are kept" or "Hill of man called Tica". It is composed of one of either ticce or the name Tica, and the wordhyll. The village was not recorded in the Domesday Book but was recorded as Tikehill sometime in the 12th century.
History
William I
Shortly after the Norman Invasion, William I of England gave the lands around Tickhill to Roger de Busli, who built a castle on a small hill. Richard de Busli, grandson of Roger's brother Arnold, co-founded nearby Roche Abbey with Richard FitzTurgis in 1147.
During the Middle Ages, Tickhill was the second most important town, after Doncaster, in what is now South Yorkshire. The Domesday Book lists the settlement under the former estate centre at Dadsley, now lying on the northern edge of the town. Dadsley was served by a church atop All Hallows Hill, which by 1361 had been downgraded to a chapel. Evidence suggests that the chapel was unused after the English Reformation, and was razed in the mid-17th century. Tickhill's eponymous hill was probably the base of what is now the motte of Tickhill Castle. The town grew up around the castle, and St Mary's was built soon after to replace All Hallows as the settlement's main church. Initially, Tickhill was one of England's most successful new towns. It gained a friary and St Leonard's Hospital. The Guild of St Cross was established in the town, and it is believed to have acted as the settlement's main governing body. In 1295, Tickhill sent two members to Parliament, but did not do so subsequently.
Sixteenth century
As castles declined in importance during the mediaeval period, so did Tickhill. By the 16th century, only a hall was occupied on the castle site, but the market and an annual fair on St Lawrence's Day survived. A little trade was gained from its position on the main road to Bawtry. In 1777, a butter cross was erected in the marketplace in an attempt to revive the weekly market, but this ceased in the 1790s. Strafforth and Tickhill was one of the wapentakes of the West Riding of Yorkshire. The Tickhill Psalter, an outstanding medieval illuminated manuscript was made in the Worksop Priory Nottinghamshire, is currently on display in New York City. It is named after John de Tickhill, born locally and who was made Prior of Worksop in the 14th century. The following records from Church, Tickhill are available at the Doncaster Archives:
Tickhill Castle was built by Roger de Busli, one of the most powerful of the first wave of Norman magnates who had come to England with William the Conqueror. The castle had an eventful history in national life. It was held for the usurping prince John against his brother King Richard I, when the latter returned from abroad in 1194, after his absence on crusade, was the site of a three-week siege during baronial conflicts in 1322. In the civil war of the 1640s, its importance as a local centre of resistance led to its ‘slighting’ by Parliament after the defeat of the royalist forces there in 1648. Today, Tickhill castle remains an impressive ruin, retaining its Norman gatehouse, built in 1129–1130, the foundations of the 11-sided keep on a mound high, built in 1178-9 on the model of the keep at Conisbrough, substantial defensive ditches, some parts of which remain as a moat, and walls enclosing an inner courtyard covering.
Amenities
There are the and C of Eprimary schools. There are many traditional shops in Tickhill including 2 butchers, a fishmongers, and optician and a delicatessen. There is also the millpond, now popular as a duckpond. In 2002 a new public access wood was planted as a Queen's Jubilee project. 'Jubilee Wood' consists of 2002 native trees in 4 acres of land next to the River Torne, South of Tickhill.
