"Several human skeletons, with bones & deerhorns were found in sand hole at the Half-Way House, between Houghton and Newbottle to the E of the Colliery". The grid reference has been calculated from the position of Halfway House as shown on the O.S. 1st ed. 6 inch. Miket suggested a site farther south, nearer Houghton.

"Antler pick (cervus elephas) found 'a quarter of a mile W of Hasting Hill'".

Derives its name from the British "Pen" meaning hill, and Saxon "Shaw" meaning wood or thicket. The earliest reference is in Boldon Buke, 1183 (a survey of land belonging to the Bishop of Durham, Hugh du Puiset). There is no record of the size of the vill, only references to some of the families who had held it, - Escoland, Carlisle, Lambton, Roger Thornton. A mill, however, was noted in 1426. It is in the Roberts/Austin list as an irregular cluster or agglomeration without a green. It is not clear why they suggest it may be deserted. The plan even now is almost Z-shaped, and there are just enough buildings of variety and 19th century date to show it is not one of the nearby mining settlements. Whelan (1856) lists the township as having a population in 1801 of 1399; in 1811, 2275; in 1821, 2090; in 1831, 2539; in 1841, 1912 and in 1851, 2120 souls. The prinicpal landowners in 1856 were the Marchioness of Londonderry, John Eden, George Winter and the Earl of Durham (also lord of the manor). Pencher (Middle Ages), Paimshaw (1820), Penshaw (1921). Plans and history of the village in the Historic Village Atlas. Dated C12th.

The earliest known documentary reference is 1112. It is clear from Boldon Buke (1183 survey of land belonging to the Bishop of Durham, Hugh du Puiset) that Newbottle was a major centre, owed works by the Herringtons and Morton, with a new mill, and inhabited by bondmen, 19 cotmen, a bailiff, smith and pounder. It was thriving temp. Bishop Hatfield's Survey, with a minimum of 21 named tenants, 24 cottages, a common oven and a mill. Roberts and Austin class it as having a regular two-row plan with green. There are some handsome 18th century houses bordering the green, and at the east end a farm, a 19th century church and churchyard. Described by Ian Nairn in 1964: 'Like most of the villages in East Durham, this place hasn't had any love or understanding for half a century. It's about time somebody started: for the shape of the old green is as good as any, sloping down from the church to a great view west over pit heaps themselves dwarfed by tumbled hills. A hill village itself, though well east of the Great North Road, and in fact in a desperate site - south-east of Washington , south-west of Sunderland, just north of Houghton-le-Spring. The south side is a shambles; the north side is still intact and in its unselfconscious variety can still give a hundred lessons to modern attempts to copy the same thing. Of all Durham's addled villages, this is the most typical: enormous potentialities, enormous neglect, but still the superb shape crying out for sympathy'. Whelan (1856) lists the township as having a population in 1801 of 970; in 1811, 1224; in 1821, 2306; in 1831, 2198; in 1841, 1835 and in 1851, 2067 souls. 'Collieries and earthenware manufactories afford employment to the principal portion of inhabitants'. The landowner is the Bishop of Durham. Dated C12th.

There were eventually three Herringtons, and until they came to be described separately it is impossible to be sure which is being referred to. Two Herringtons were mentioned temp. Bishop Flambard (early C12), and two parts of Herrington in Boldon Buke (1183 survey of land belonging to the Bishop of Durham, Hugh du Puiset) which owed works at Newbottle. Were these East and West? West Herrington is explicitly mentioned in the early C14. Though the shape, described by Roberts and Austin as an irregular two-row plan with green, survives, many of the houses have been rebuilt fairly recently. West of the village there is modern development stretching to New Herrington, but to the east, on the end of the ridge, there are fine earthworks, principally ridge and furrow, but also a few possible house platforms suggesting shrinkage. Whelan (1856) lists the township of West Herrington as having a population in 1801 of 209; in 1811, 253; in 1821, 329; in 1831, 381; in 1841, 343 and in 1851, 344 souls. The principal landowners in 1856 were the Earl of Durham and the Marchioness of Londonderry. Dated C12th.

In 1907 the construction of a new road in Fatfield led to the removal of a possible barrow, composed of sand. Inhumations in 3 cists, one with a food vessel, were found at this spot. A plan in (1) shows the discovery to have been in the back lane between Castle Street and Victoria View, about five eighths of the way up from the south end. Trechmann describes the spot thus: "...on the north bank of the Wear...The land here is a gradual slope from the river to the NW culminating in a high ridge. The burials were situated 240 yards from the river and 150 yards from the ridge...At this spot the ground rises rather suddenly for a few feet". Young accepts the barrow, putting it in his Group B, but says "Excavation in 1977 failed to locate the precise spot of this site". He and the O.S. obviously did not know of ref.(1).

The earliest reference seems to be to John of Little Benton, c. 1161. Four taxpayers were listed in the Lay Subsidy Rolls of 1296 and 1312, 3 in 1336. Hollar's map of 1654 shows an E-W, 2 row village street; by 1745 only 2 houses are shown; and on Armstrong's map of 1769 only one. Location is uncertain. First grid ref. above is of the present Little Benton farm, where there are earthworks on the N side, but which was called South Benton on the Tithe Map. Second grid ref. is of the site of Little Benton House (Tithe and 1st ed. O.S. maps) on E side of Coach lane, now covered by housing. Dated C12th.

There is supposed to have been a cross on Ryton village green before the erection of one in 1795. This date appears on a plinth 1 m square set on a base of 3 shallow stone steps. The stone cross noted on the O.S. card seems to have been replaced by "a modern pillar and cross dated 1951". Was it originally a market cross? It was not noted by either Hutchinson or Surtees.

Cross socket, said by O.S. to consist of a stone 0.7 m square of sandstone, with a socket 0.2 x 0.15 m. It is assumed to be the base of a cross on the boundary of Billy Mill Moor, aka the boundary between Long Benton and the liberty of Tynemouth priory. A late C17 description went thus: "... and so north-west to a stand with a hole in it, wherein, as it should seem, hath stood a cross; and from thence directly to Backworth dicke...".
NB see site assessment field for a description of the position of the stone: it is marked on the OS first edition map in this position, and on the OS second edition map as part of an administrative boundary. A 'Stone' marked to the northwest is probably a remnant of Holystone Farm and spurious.

Hutchinson, writing in 1787, noted the cross - "...by the road side is a stone column, but of what event it is a memorial, history or tradition give no account". In 1820 Surtees described it as "a plain shaft and pedestal", and reported the common tradition "that when Newcastle in the reign of Elizabeth was infected with the plague, the country people left their provisions at this place". In late19th century the shaft was described as octagonal, the base as square, and it was "known as the 'butter cross'". In Pevsner's Durham (1953) 'butter' had been transmogrified into 'Butler', and so it remains, "a tall polygonal stone shaft with a Maltese cross head (date uncertain)". O.S. describes it as "a tall octagonal shaft with head and arms of apparently later date. The shaft is set into a square socket stone which rests on 3 octagonal layers of stones...", and reports that it stood at NZ 2323 5934 until it was moved to its present position in 1942. The earlier O.S. card gives dimensions.