Historic Settlement Patterns in Weardale

Eastgate Village

In later prehistoric times, the main settlement type in the Eastgate area was the dispersed farmstead with small areas of clearance, gradually leading to large-scale clearance of woodlands. This pattern of settlement is unlikely to have changed during the Roman period, although there are hints that already this part of Weardale was becoming the playground of the Roman rich. The Norman Conquest and the subsequent harrying of the north may have left a blank canvas upon which a new settlement pattern might be planned. The grand design for medieval settlement here became the Bishops hunting ground. This forbade any settlement within the Park, but the bishops had to provide shelter for their servants who cared for their park and further services for their tenants who joined them for the annual hunt. Unlike Westgate, Eastgate had no formal administrative centre in the form of a castle or hunting lodge and this means, in medieval times at least, that the settlement pattern would have been quite different. After 1250, the parkland was enclosed and settlement permitted outside its boundaries and eventually, the desire to exploit the Dale’s mineral and agricultural wealth led to further settlement within the Park by 1419. Of the three gateways into the Park, all started as beef rearing farms, but Westgate had the greater chance of developing into a settlement, with the presence of the castle/hunting lodge and the infrastructure that must have accompanied it. Eastgate presumably had less of an infrastructure, originating solely as a beef rearing farm and gateway to the park, but subsequent industrial activity and an improving communications network, would lead to the growth of a permanent settlement there too.

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