The Darlington and County Durham lost and abandoned villages

Across the countryside are fields, earthworks and ruined buildings marking places where communities once lived, worked and farmed before their settlements shrank or disappeared altogether.

Some were abandoned during the later Middle Ages, when England was affected by population decline, disease and changes in farming. Others gradually dwindled over several centuries.

The abandoned villages of County Durham and Darlington (Image: ARCHIVE)

Historic England says more than 2,000 deserted medieval villages have been recorded nationally, with abandonment particularly common during the 14th and 15th centuries. Causes could include changes in land use, enclosure, economic decline and population losses associated with epidemics such as the Black Death.

Here are some of the lost, deserted and dramatically shrunken settlements that can be found in and around Darlington and County Durham.

Barforth, sometimes known as “Old Richmond”

Near Gainford, beside the River Tees, lie the remains of the medieval settlement of Barforth.

The site has long appeared under the intriguing name Old Richmond, although Historic England’s research records say the name is probably misleading.

Barforth was recorded in the Domesday Book and again in medieval documents between 1301 and 1334. Depopulation may have been reported there in 1517.

Historic records describe the settlement as having included streets and crofts, while surviving remains in the area include St Lawrence’s Chapel and a medieval dovecote. Barforth Hall survives nearby.

The alternative name Old Richmond may have developed because a de Roaldo de Richmond was recorded as holding Berford or Berforth in 1287, rather than because the settlement was an earlier version of Richmond itself.

Ulnaby

One of the best-preserved deserted medieval villages around Darlington can be found at Ulnaby, near High Coniscliffe.

The site is now a Scheduled Monument and contains extensive earthworks surrounding Ulnaby Hall.

Archaeological investigation found the remains of a planned two-row village arranged around a green. Rectangular plots represent medieval tofts and crofts, house plots with their associated yards and gardens, while a manorial enclosure included a fishpond and dovecote.

The abandoned villages of County Durham and Darlington (Image: ARCHIVE)

The settlement expanded and contracted over the centuries before gradually becoming smaller.

Historic England’s research indicates that Ulnaby Hall was established by the early 17th century on land previously occupied by village plots. Three cottages were still documented in 1629, while the last surviving medieval building disappeared sometime between 1855 and 1896.

Today the earthworks make Ulnaby an unusually clear archaeological example of how a medieval County Durham village was laid out.

Whessoe

The medieval village of Whessoe once stood on what became the northern side of Darlington, close to Whessoe Grange.

Unlike Ulnaby, much of the physical evidence for Whessoe has disappeared.

Historic England’s research records state that the deserted medieval village survived as visible earthworks until the early 1950s.

The remains in a field historically known as Village Field were subsequently bulldozed and ploughed. Large stones were reportedly encountered during the work, while only limited earthwork evidence remained afterwards.

The name survived even after the settlement itself had vanished, providing another reminder that modern Darlington has expanded across what was once a much more rural medieval landscape.

West Hartburn

Another important lost village lies near Middleton St George.

West Hartburn is recorded as a deserted medieval settlement and was first documented around 1200.

Remarkably, two rows of cottages with a central well were reportedly still standing as late as 1823, showing that the disappearance of a medieval settlement did not always happen suddenly.

Archaeological excavations uncovered longhouses and other buildings, together with a paved causeway.

Finds ranged from medieval pottery and a 14th-century dagger to coins and later objects showing occupation continuing beyond the Middle Ages. Surviving earthworks include house plots, crofts and a hollow way marking the route through the settlement.

Some features north-west of the hollow way have since been levelled, but earthworks on the opposite side were still identifiable in 2018 lidar data.

Archdeacon Newton

Just outside Darlington lies Archdeacon Newton, described in Historic England’s records as a shrunken medieval village.

It was associated with a manor belonging to the Archdeacon of Durham and its surviving archaeological remains include banks and ditches forming former enclosures, along with evidence connected with a manorial complex.

Surveys have recorded medieval settlement earthworks, ridge-and-furrow cultivation and evidence of a moated manor-house complex.

Unlike a completely deserted settlement, Archdeacon Newton never vanished entirely. Instead, the settlement contracted dramatically, leaving surviving buildings and farms surrounded by archaeological evidence of the community that once existed there.

Garmondsway

Farther north in County Durham, near Kelloe, is one of the county’s most impressive deserted medieval village sites.

Garmondsway is a Scheduled Monument containing both the abandoned village and part of its medieval field system.

Historic England describes the settlement as extensive and exceptionally well preserved.

At least 13 rectangular enclosures survive as earthworks, with some containing gardens, yards and foundations belonging to medieval longhouses. Two hollow ways, sunken routes worn through repeated use, also help reveal the former shape of the settlement.

Part of the surrounding ridge-and-furrow field system survives alongside it, meaning the site preserves evidence not just of where villagers lived but also of the farmland on which their community depended.

Old Wingate

Near modern Wingate and Wheatley Hill are the remains of another largely abandoned medieval community.

Old Wingate is recorded as a deserted medieval village with its associated open-field system.

Earthworks show former house plots and crofts arranged around a central village green. In places, stone foundations belonging to buildings can still be identified.

The surviving archaeology also includes ridge-and-furrow cultivation and other earthworks associated with the medieval agricultural landscape.

Modern farms occupy part of the area, so Old Wingate is another example of a medieval settlement whose footprint is considerably larger than the community surviving there today.