The earliest reference is a charter of 1296 published by Surtees, who wrote that 120 acres of waste created out of Whickham Wood had been the origin of the estate. In the late C14 the earl of Northumberland hald the manor of "Fuger-hous" and 100 acres by charter and foreign service. If one can assume that it is the Fugar House on the OS maps then, in the mid C19, it was a courtyard farm with gingang on the edge of Washingwell Wood just north of Fugar Bar on the Sunniside to Lobley Hill road. The farm had been much reduced in size by 1897, was demolished in or before the 1970s, and the site seems now to be a carpark for visitors to the wood. According to Sunniside Local History Society, Fugar probably got its name from William de Fugers, whose family was from Fougeres in Brittany. He paid homage to the Bishop of Durham in 1269 for 68 acres near Whickham. In 1352 the Lady of Ravenshelm held a messuage called Fuger House and 60 acres by fealty and two arrows. In Bishop Hatfield's survey the Earl of Northumberland is listed as holding Fugar House with 100 acres by charter, Knights service and 10/- rent. In 1429 Roger Thornton, Newcastle merchant, held Fugar Field and 30 acres at Rydding, by grant of John, Duke of Bedford. In 1451 Roger Thornton the elder died, seized of the waste called Fugar Field, containaing 80 acres held from the Bishop of Durham. In 1471 Roger Thornton the younger held the estate. His daughter Elizabeth inherited it and married into the Lumley family. In 1511 Richard, Lord Lumley died, seized of Fugar Field. At the beginning of the 17th century Richard Jackson, yeoman of Whickham, acted as a overman at pits near Fugar Houses for Lord Lumley's tenant farmers. About 20 pitmen lived at Fugar Houses during the first quarter of the 17th century. In 1697 John Hedworth, farmer, lived at Fugar House. George Baker, son of Albany Baker, surveyor of the Tanfield Waggonway, died here in 1757 aged 37. In 1727 the mines at Fugar Field came under the influence of the Grand Allies. In 1755 George Rawling took a boring 33 fathoms deep, 240 yards south-east of Fuger House for the Earl of Scarborough. In the 19th century Fugar comprised a farmhouse and six cottages. William Dunn farmed 70 acres at Fuger from 1834 to 1865. In 1841 four hinds lived with his family in the farmhouse. In the late 1860s Samuel Blenkinsop of Lobley Hill was the tenant. About 1875 some of the land was taken over by Tom Hall of Marshall Lands and James Swan of Streetgate. The byres and gingang were demolished. In 1871 Christopher Graham, mason, moved into the house. In 1880 Bill Rutledge, also a mason, was the tenant. In front of the farm was an acre of orchard and a small pond. William and Elizabeth Charlton ran a market garden at Fugar from the 1830s to 1865. Their daughter Ann continued until 1887. John Baxter ran it until his death in 1910. Dated C13th.

Sub-rectangular or D-shaped enclosure. MPP classification: Enclosure / Rectilinear / Symmetric / Rectangular / Not elongated / Straight sides 3, concave side 1 / Corners curved / Ditch 1 / Complete / Entrance (terminal defined, W aspect) / Internal features structural 1. Miket interprets the internal feature as a "single large hut". Lee plotted this site with a double ditch, not mentioned by the other sources.

Two similar cropmarks show on the APs of the Stephen's Hall area. The first grid reference applies to that listed by Miket and excavated by Speak. The APs revealed two concentric rings, the inner 7.5 m diam, the outer 18 m diam. The supposed rectangulat enclosure within which they lay was caused by modern field drains. In 1988 a trench was cut through the site in advance of opencasting, and the findings were interpreted as an infilled mine shaft perhaps abandoned in C17-18. The second site was probably a shaft first recorded in, but long abandoned before, 1888.

APs of 1972 show cropmarks in a field between Stella Lane and Old Hexham Road south of Stella. Although Miket describes them thus: "Part of rectilinear enclosure with widely spaced double ditches; rectangular enclosure; comer of double-ditched feature", the quality of the photos is not good enough to allow confirmation of this description. For the time being it seems best just to register that there appears to be a site of some sort in this field.

Surtees records that in 1361 Agnes widow of John de Menevyll of Horden held from Ralph Nevill the hamlet of Huntlaysheugh in Winlaton. Bourn, who called it Huntlayshaugh, understood this to be the original settlement of Winlaton Mill, before Crowley founded his ironworks, and cites as evidence Huntlay's Hall, Well and Burn. Dated C14th.

All the information about this site is from Surtees who gives no sources. In 1361 Agnes widow of John de Menevyll of Horden held the manor of Thorneley in Winlaton from Ralph Nevill. It is mentioned in Sir Ralph Nevill's i.p.m. of 1368, and probably stayed in that family until the sale of Winlaton in 1569. From 1565-1709 Thornley was a seat of a branch of the Tempest family, and in 1636 William Tempest gent. acquired from Sir William Selby half a messuage, a toft and garden, 200 acres of meadow, 200 of pasture, 100 of arable and 100 of moor and whin in Thornley. The OS assumes this is Low Thornley, the site of the above grid reference. The present house contains traces of C17 mullioned windows, and there is a thick west wall which is continuous, house to N outshot. The roof of the house, however, is not early. There is no visible evidence for a medieval building. Dated C14th.

A mill, rendering 5.5 marcs, is listed in Boldon Buke (1183 survey of land belonging to the Bishop of Durham, Hugh du Puiset) under Winlaton and Barlow, but there is no mention of it in Hatfield's Survey. If Bourn is right this can have no connection with the modern Winlaton Mill, and its site and later history is unknown. Dated C12th.

There was a colliery at Winlaton in 1366/7 when it was held from the bishop by Lord Nevill, and provided Edward III with 576 chaldrons of coal for works at Windsor Castle. In the mid C16 "Westmorland Colliery", i.e. all the coal mines in the manor of Winlaton, were leased for 30 years to Cuthbert Blunt who sublet to Christopher Cooke. In 1587 the latter's operations were interfered with by the merchants who had recently acquired the manor. The location of the - probably numerous - pits of this period are unknown. Dated C14th.

The earliest reference to Winlaton is in Boldon Buke (1183 survey of land belonging to the Bishop of Durham, Hugh du Puiset) where it was coupled with Barlow. At the time of Hatfield's Survey in the late C14 it was held by Lord Nevill. Earlier, in 1368, Sir Ralph Nevill had died seised of the manor of Winlaton - it is not at the moment clear whether this is a separate entity. The Nevills continued to hold Winlaton until 1569 when it was sold to a group of Newcastle merchants, - the interest then, as earlier, being the coal-mining possibilities. The plan in the mid 19th century consisted of Front Street running between a triangle, colonised, at the SW end, and a fork in the road at the NE end. S of Front St there was a rough burgage layout, the N side had a narrow row of houses in front of Back St (more infilling?), and further buildings behind. Roberts and Austin type 1 - "complex cluster, often of urban status". In 1964 in his gazetteer of County Durham, Ian Nairn described Winlaton as 'a big untidy village just beyond the edges of Tyneside, with as much needless demolition as anywhere in Durham. However, the original plan was not a green but an intricate narrow winding street. So what is left sticks out at all sorts of crazy angles and heights, making its own jagged rhythm. It could be made into something great, but it's a very long shot'. Dated C12th.

The earliest reference to Barlow is in Boldon Buke (1183 survey of land belonging to the Bishop of Durham, Hugh du Puiset) when it was listed with Winlaton, and it seems to have remained just a hamlet in the township of Winlaton. In plan it is very long and straggly, lying between the above grid references on rising ground (137 to 167 m), originally on a road going nowhere much SW from Winlaton. Was it founded to exploit marginal land ? By the 19th century it seems to have been a colliery village, Bourn mentioning particularly the Lily Drift and the Spen Colliery. Roberts and Austin describe it rather grandly as having an irregular two-row plan with green. It still retains farms, and other stone houses, of - largely - the C19, on the main street as well as modern infill. There remain gap sites on the north side of the village, and some of these must have had buildings on them. Dated C12th.