In ancient times it is likely to have been densely wooded with an abundance of wild life, belonging to the Prior and convent of Durham. An appointment of a park keeper occurs in 1338. Robert Surtees records that six persons from Rainton joined the ‘Rising of the North’ rebellion of 1569, two of whom were afterwards executed.
In 1657 Richard Marshall assigned a tenement and farm holding in West Rainton to Marmaduke Allenson. It then passed into the hands of West Rainton’s more famous son – Sir John Duck, Baronet – a Dick Whittington of the North East of England. He owned and built Rainton Hall around the year 1688. (Pedigree of Duck, Heslop and Nicholson).
Along with many others in County Durham the villages of West Rainton and Leamside expanded and developed in the 19th century as a result of the development of the mining industry. The Londonderry Family, the major local landowners, expanded their coal mining interests with the opening and sinking of new shafts in and around the villages.
This meant there was an influx of new miners and their families and rows of colliery houses were erected and the villages expanded.
Ancient Rainton families (c1871)
John Richardson, Richard Marshall, Marmaduke Allenson, Sir John and Lady Anne Duck, James Nicholson, Thomas, Earl of Strathmore and his wife Jane, nee Nicholson; Anne and Mary Nicholson; Patrick and Anne Lyon Esq.; John, Lord Glamis; Philip Jackson, Mr. Benjamin Dunn, Edward Fenwick Body, Thomas Pyburn, John R. Sutherland, James Turnbull.
The mining influence of the community was to the fore in the 19th and 20th centuries. At one stage it was reported that there were in excess of 27 public houses and 13 churches and chapels to serve the increased population.
By the latter part of the 20th century (mid 1980’s) the coal mining industry in the UK had been virtually closed.
With appreciation to the West Rainton & Leamside History Group.
