First recorded in 1379 as a small hamlet called ‘Spen’, the settlement grew in the latter half of the 19th and early 20th centuries with the growth of coal mining in the region.
High Spen saw slow growth until the start of the 19th century when the Marquis of Bute funded the opening of new mines to replace those on Barlow fell.
This meant on some streets the average number of residents per dwelling could reach as high as 8 people, often in the typical Tyneside flat which was common in the area.
Category D status meant ‘unfit for human habitation’ and that all funding to the village was cut and further development was outlawed, in addition, residents would be strongly encouraged to leave and once they did so, their houses would be demolished.
The policy was described as a ‘slow starvation’ for mining villages in the county with a Growth Minister in Durham saying, ‘It will not be lost when this unworthy environment is finally obliterated’.
In the village there are Bus Stops on most streets.poral Frederick William Dobson of the Coldstream Guards, and Private Thomas Young of the Durham Light Infantry.