Heighington - Conservation Area Appraisal Heighington Conservation Area Summary of special interest Gardens and yards add intense, essential greenness as well as revealing history. 1.1 Heighington Conservation Area takes in the Whilst mostly high quality, later backland old village, some later development, and parts development has little special interest. of the village’s open setting which contribute 1.5 Spaces including roads and front and rear to significance. It is strongly influenced by gardens strongly contribute to significance. its elevation, south-facing topography and Simplicity and restraint in design, materials underlying magnesian limestone geology. and detailing is key. Grass dominates the area 1.2 Possibly with late Saxon origins, its early adding well-established greenness, and many medieval layout is strongly evident today. It was trees add grace, shape and maturity. Backland an important local centre for centuries. 17th, development and modernisation has stripped 18th and 19th century renewal left the built some spaces of rural village character. legacy seen today, and the village became an 1.6 The familiar rural village scene is rich, simple extended but conserved dormitory village in and charming, with history very evident in the the 20th century, dominated by single family clear rooftop and tree-filled horizon, backed by dwellings and the communal village green. long green views. There is the strong sense of 1.3 Heighington is spatially significant. Its presence a historic, well-organised community settled in the landscape is clear. Its crisp, organised, quietly in the countryside for centuries, still village green layout, ringed by linear plots, and partly encircled by open fields and thriving as a with a largely unaltered set of routes, strongly desirable, well-cared for place to live. describes its history. Open fields ‘outside’ the village contrast with the relative intensity of Location development ‘inside’ it. Open spaces including • Heighington is in the south-east of historic fields make a strong contribution. Views of, Co Durham, now in Darlington borough. from and through the area are important. • It is strongly influenced by its elevation, 1.4 The area’s built character is significant including south-facing topography over the north distinctive plot layout and low density. Modest bank of Tees valley, and underlying architectural characteristics create remarkable magnesian limestone geology. unity and appealing informal harmony in 1.7 Since 1974, Heighington has been in the north strings of historic houses, despite some variety of Darlington borough but is traditionally in in detail. Historic outbuildings and boundary south-east Co Durham. It is 6 miles north-west walls add crucial integrity to building groups. Darlington Borough Council | October 2018 1 Conservation Area Appraisal - Heighington Fig 1: Heighington Tithe Commutation c.1838 Fig 2: c.1923 3rd edition OS map of Heighington 2 October 2018 | Darlington Borough Council Heighington - Conservation Area Appraisal of Darlington and 6 miles south-east of Bishop Auckland, the two largest historic towns in this part of the traditional county. Newton Aycliffe new town is 2 miles to the east. The village is off the A6072, a modern south-east to north- west road parallel to the A68, one of the main historic roads from the North East to Edinburgh. 1.8 Darlington borough is on the north slope of the River Tees valley. Heighington is on higher land to the north of this. It is at the southern tip of the Durham magnesian limestone plateau (National Character Area 15) which runs diagonally through the county from the Tees lowlands up to Wearmouth. The village is laid out on a prominent natural feature, a wide elevated watershed between Red House Beck to the north and Halliwell and Dene Becks to the south, all flowing east to the River Skerne, a tributary of the Tees. This elevated ridge is most prominent in the south-east quadrant The Norman St Michael’s Church was built on the of the village where it appears as a high scarp foundations of a 10th century church. It was altered accentuated by past quarrying. The ridge in the 12th, 13th, 15th and 19th centuries continues west as Highside Bank and south as Houghton Bank, where it carries the A68. medieval in origin, 1981 excavations suggest 1.9 The area and its setting are strongly influenced Heighington’s Norman church was built on the by this location, topography and geology. foundations of a 10th century church, The village is elevated and is a prominent suggesting late-Anglo Saxon origins. The village feature in the landscape. It slopes noticeably is first mentioned in the 1182 Boldon Buke (a to the south and east (the north-west corner survey of Durham’s parishes similar to the is 150m above sea level, the south-east corner Domesday book) which, with other sources, 125m), which creates long, wide, unimpeded indicates it had about 100 people living in small views southwards, and corresponding heather thatched cottages laid out around a views north towards the area. The scarp has green; the better houses were possibly cruck- influenced the area’s layout and circulation. framed. Planned villages were commonplace The limestone geology has influenced built within the Palatinate of Durham, and survive character, like other Co Durham villages on the best to the south of the county. plateau (eg. Sedgefield); at Heighington there is 1.11 The c.1838 tithe plan (Fig 1) still largely reflects also sandstone close by to the west. the 12th century village layout. It shows the green and churchyard, with houses, farms and Historical development cottages facing inwards. Narrow strips of land • Possibly with late Saxon origins, it was and larger fields stretch back to an enclosing the early medieval period which set the wall, which would have been gated to provide development pattern still evident today. access to these plots. An encircling back lane • The village was a significant administrative surrounds the wall, and the narrow entrances to centre for many centuries. the village would also probably have been • 17th, 18th and 19th century renewal gated to ensure safe common enclosure for created most of the buildings seen today. animals. The street name The Courtine – a • The rural village was eclipsed by industrial French term for a curtain wall – is most likely a centres nearby (eg. Darlington), but it still reference to these walls. The village’s water doubled in size in the late 20th century. source, a well, was to the west on Batt Lane. 1.10 There are Iron Age finds nearby, but the name 1.12 The village was enlarged by the Hansard family Heighington is probably Saxon, meaning of Walworth in the 12th century. They also ‘township of Hecca’s people’ or ‘township on the rebuilt St Michael’s church (William Hansard high ground’. Although thought to be early was the first known rector), one of the few Darlington Borough Council | October 2018 3 Conservation Area Appraisal - Appraisal Conservation Area 4 Fig 3: Significance of open spaces in the village’s setting (inside and outside the existing conservation area boundary) Heighington October 2018 | Darlington Borough Council Borough Darlington Heighington Conservation Area Heighington - Conservation Area Appraisal substantial buildings in medieval Heighington. only public water supply until the 1930s. The south aisle was added in the 13th century, • The Methodists built a chapel at Highside and the tower raised in the 15th century, with Road in c.1815, and later in 1872 a Wesleyan a parapet and gargoyles added at each corner. chapel at Church View, with its own house. 1.13 A manor house, first mentioned in the mid- • St Michael’s church saw major restoration in 14th century, was at Middridge Grange, some c.1870-1875, adding the north aisle, south 2 miles north of the village (where buildings of porch, and a new roof. In the late 19th century, c.1600 survive). References in historical texts to the church tower and bells were renewed, and the Bishop of Durham as lord of the manor 3 new bells (‘faith, hope and charity’) added. being in frequent residence highlight the • By the late 1800s, roadside development had village’s importance as a medieval settlement. begun to appear outside the village core. 1.14 Whilst the village’s layout is not likely to have 1.18 The 19th century also saw great change nearby, changed much beyond the late medieval with construction in 1825 of the Stockton & period, Heighington became more important Darlington Railway (S&DR), 1.5 miles to the east. with the addition of notable buildings from the Heighington Station (named this after 1874), early 17th century. In 1601, a grammar school was built in 1826 as one of three railway taverns was founded by Elizabeth Jenison next to the on the line. It was in essence one of the world’s church. The Manor House (East Green) and the first prototype passenger railway stations. Here, Bay Horse pub (West Green) also date from the Stephenson’s Locomotion was first placed on late 17th century. Other village buildings may the rails. The village did not expand east well also have building fabric from this period. towards the station. The railway age saw the agricultural village eclipsed as industrial centres 1.15 The 18th century saw increased prosperity such as Darlington and Bishop Auckland from better communication and agricultural overtook rural ones in status and growth. improvement. This was reflected in the construction and reconstruction of more 1.19 The 20th century saw the most rapid change, substantial houses; many of today’s buildings both within and beyond its historic core. dating from this period. The village’s improved Heighington was transformed from a self- status was also reflected in a 1730 record citing contained rural community to a conserved Heighington as one of only six places in Co dormitory village for nearby industrial growth.