The origin of the place-name is from the Old English words fram and wella together with the Old Norse gata and means street by the strongly gushing spring.

[2] The 'Borough of Framwelgate' grew up following the construction of Framwellgate Bridge over the River Wear by Bishop Flambard in 1121.

By the 19th century much of the area had developed into slum housing with coal mining occurring to the north of Framwelgate.

These houses were demolished during the 1930s and residents moved to the newly built Sherburn Road Estate in Gilesgate.

While name Dryburn is popularly claimed to derive from a stream that dried up following the execution of a Jesuit or a corruption of Tyburn (London's place of execution), Victor Watts has shown the name, deriving from the middle English for 'dry stream' was being used by at least the 14th century.