Remains found on Cockfield Fell suggest there was a settlement in the area during the Iron Age.

When the South West Durham coalfield was opened in the 19th and 20th centuries the population of the village grew significantly.

[3][circular reference] It is now served by bus services from Arriva North East and Scarlet Band with links to Darlington, Bishop Auckland, Barnard Castle, Durham (number 6) and the retail park at Tindale crescent.

In addition to four Iron Age (or Romano-British) settlement enclosures, there is evidence within the landscape of early coal mines (the Bishop of Durham licensed mining here at least as early as 1303), medieval agricultural field patterns, centuries of quarrying activity, a railway line established in the 1830s and several earlier tramways.

One reason for its preservation - unusual for a lowland fell - is that it was not subject to enclosure in the 18th or 19th century, perhaps due to its highly industrialised past.