It is associated with an abandoned village site under pasture and farm buildings,[1] and situated a short distance to the north-west of Darlington.

At the north end of the site was the chapel, and in the middle were tofts and enclosures, with a ridge and furrow field and a trackway leading to the south-east.

The underlying composition here is of glacial clay with pockets of gravel, sand, peat and alluvium, and patches of dolomite and carboniferous limestone.

The hamlet's name derives from the fact that in the Middle Ages the Archdeacon of Durham founded and built what is now the abandoned village.

[4] In 1894 the land was owned by the Church Commissioners and the population was 52;[9] down from its highest level of 72 in 1801, when pews were reserved for Archdeacon Newton people at St Cuthbert's in the centre of Darlington, and Methodist prayers were said in a farmhouse kitchen.

[8] Cobbled banks and ditches running east to west and situated towards the north end of the site identify the original enclosures of these tofts.

[8] An undated trench for electricity supply was dug at Hall Farm at the southern end of the hamlet's approach road, surveyed by an archaeological watching brief, but nothing of historical interest was found.

[5] It is thought that the chapel was on the 6.5 feet (2.0 m) high triangular platform at the north end of the site and on the south side of Newton Lane.

[7] Another enclosure has been identified by aerial photography 0.31 miles (0.50 km) north-west of the hamlet, and on the south side of Newton Lane.