Middridge

Following the fall of the Roman Empire, the Angles arrived in the area around 500 AD and created several settlements, including Middridge. The name "Middridge" is derived from its location at that time on the "middle ridge" between Eldon and School Aycliffe (near the current Aycliffe golf course). Anglo-Saxon Middridge lasted for five hundred years before being destroyed by the Normans during William the Conqueror's Harrying of the North. Those who survived this massacre (and the resulting disease and starvation) were enslaved by the invaders. They were forced by the Bishop of Durham to toil in the surrounding fields as serfs, and forcibly relocated to gloomy huts centred on the village…

Middridge village fete is a yearly event for the local community, also attended by people in neighbouring regions. It is usually a combination of a jumble sale, children's entertainment, competitions and other events, usually ending in a barbecue that is eaten with copious amounts of alcohol.