Goostrey first appears in recorded history with two entries in the Domesday Book of 1086, when most of the parish was held by William FitzNigel, Baron of Halton, and by Hugh de Mara, another follower of the Earl of Chester. Hugh FitzNorman gave much land in Goostrey to endow the new Abbey of Saint Werburgh in Chester in 1119, as did a later owner, Baron Hugh of Mold. Some land in the parish or nearby Twemlow was also given to help endow the Vale Royal Abbey, near Northwich.