The village is mentioned in the Domesday Book as "Asuluesbi" in the Hundred of Langbaurgh. It was listed as having 2 ploughlands with 6 acres of meadow and woodland. The Lord in 1066 was named as Uhtred, but had changed to Richard of Sourdeval under the tenancy of Count Robert of Mortain. Lordship descended to the Brus family by the reign of Henry I and then Lucy de Thweng via the Rosels family and Nicholas de Meynell. By the early fourteenth century it had passed as a mense lordship to Arnald de Percy. From then on it was held by the Darcy family and the Strangways until 1541 when it became part of the holdings of Lord Dacre until 1685.