Mitton itself stands at the juncture of the two streams and gets its name from this circumstance, "the farm at the mythe". Professor Allan Mawer notes that "the only other places simularly named stand in every case at such a juncture, viz., Mitton, Staffs. Of Severn and Stour; Warw., of Avon and Carrant; Mytton, Salop. Of Severn and Perry; Myton, Yorks., of Swale and Ure". At Tewkesbury there is a meadow between the Severn and the Avon the bears the name of "the Mythe".

The Parish was surveyed in Doomsday Book for the purpose of taxation in 1086, under the manor of Grindleton, which was held by Earl Tosti under Roger of Poitou. Tosti held four carucates in Mitton, four carucates in Bashall, two each in Waddington and West Bradford. The only land assessable was that under cultivation by the plough, and this was reckoned roughly in round numbers, with some consideration of the quality of the land for growing crops. Hence we cannot take the figures as anything but approximate. The carucate measured on the average about 120 acres, being the amount of land which could be ploughed with a team of eight oxen. In the heavy clay soil of Bolland this might be something less than the average number of acres. The carucate was divided into quarter-hides called virgates or yard-lands, and into eights called bovates or oxgangs. The bovate would average some 15 acres, or in this district rather less. Thus at the time of the Doomsday survey ther ewere some 480 acres under the plough in Mitton with Crook, the same amount in Bashall, which probably did not include the greater part of Bashall Eaves, and the same amount in Waddington with West Bradford. At that date, and long afterwards, Bashall Eaves was forest land with a few scattered vaccaries or small dairy farms. Forest land was not necessarily covered with trees: it merely means that the land was uncultivated.

At some later date the headship of the manor was transferred to Slaidburn.

In the year 1101, Roger of Poitou’s estates were forfeited and they passed by royal grant to Robert de Lascy. By a charter dated 23rd November, 1102, Robert granted Great Mitton and Aighton to a certain Radulphus le Rus, that is, Ralph the Red. Robert’s son Ilbert de Lascy confirmed this grant, calling Ralph his brother. Can Ralph the Red have been a younger son of Robert de Lascy, or was the term "brother a mere complement? It was in this way that Mitton became, by process of sub-infeudation, a separate manor, or "reputed manor". There seems to have been something unusual in the territorial structure in the north of England that did not fit in neatly with the Norman system of feudal tenure.

Ralph, as Lord of the Manor of Mitton became the founder of the family de Mitton. Surnames in those days were taken frequently from the name of the Manor upon which a family resided, and of which they were feudal lords. Ralph de Mitton had a son Jordon, who married Wymarka, daughter of Hugh de Elond. They had two sons, Hugh and Otto. Hugh, who married Beatrice daughter of Robert de Goosenargh, held Mitton, and Bailey went to Otto, who sometimes is described as Otto de Mitton and sometimes as Otto de Bailey.

Otto’s grandson, Jordan de Bailey, had a son Walter who was living in 1292 to 1323. His son John, who died in 1271, left a son Richard. This Richard de Bailey married Margaret Sherburne and assumed the surname of his wife. From this pair descended the Sherburnes of Stonyhurst, who played a prominent part in the subsequent history of Mitton until the male line became extinct in the year 1717. Thus the later Sherburnes were directly descended from the original grantee of the Manor, Ralph the Red. That red hair may have persisted in the family is suggested by a portrait now at Stonyhurst of the Sherburne of Queen Elizabeth’s time which depicts him with a reddish beard.

To return to Otto’s brother Hugh de Mitton. He left a son Robert to secceed him; then came a Ralph, then a Jordan, then a John. This last had three children, Roger, who died without offspring, Cecily and Emma. The two heiresses made a final grant of Aighton, Bailey, and Chaigeley to their cousin John the father of Richard Sherburne, in 1362.

Previous to this Ralph de Mitton had granted, in 1312, the manor of Mitton to Thomas le Surreys or Sotheron, who had property in the south of England and appears never to have resided in Mitton. From this date no lord of the manor resided here. Thomas Sotheron settled the manor by fine upon himself with remainder to his sons Thomas and Adam and their heirs in tail.