Ryton Woodside

Ryton Woodside is first depicted on Armstrong's map of County Durham, published by Thomas Jeffreys in 1768, as Woodside. In the Armstrong map, it is shown as a possible hamlet or small village off of the main road between Ryton and Greenside. By contrast, the Greenwood map of County Durham, surveyed between 1818 and 1819, marks Woodside as a township with a substantial common at its centre. The subsequent Hobson map of 1840 does not depict common land but identifies Woodside as a township of relatively few houses.

Similarly the Ordnance Survey First Edition of 1862, surveyed in 1857 shows the village as a relatively sparse dispersed settlement known as Ryton Woodside. The centre of the village features Woodside Common (HER 11622), containing a small body of water called 'Low Well'. The village itself comprised a number of farmsteads during this period, although there is evidence of abandoned coal workings by the time of the first Ordnance Survey.