High Spen

Spen is noted in the map of County Durham in Volume V of Blaeu's Atlas Maior, published between 1662 and 1665, referring to a settlement on the banks of the Derwent within a wooded area (likely Spen Bank). High Spen is first shown on Armstrong's map of County Durham, published by Thomas Jeffreys in 1768, north-west of Low Spen within Spen Bank. Both settlements appear to be very small hamlets in the 18th century and this trend continues into the 19th century as shown in the Greenwood map of County Durham, surveyed between 1818 and 1819.

High Spen is shown as a small linear hamlet along the road of approximately three cottages in both the Greenwood and Hobson maps (the latter published in 1840). Although the Hobson map of County Durham does show the nearby Garesfield Colliery and its associated waggonway to Derwenthaugh. By the time of the Ordnance Survey First Edition of 1862, surveyed in 1857, High Spen is bounded by the colliery to the north but appears to comprise a cluster of farmsteads and associated buildings with a small public house. By 1894, High Spen expanded significantly north of the colliery with the addition of several rows of terraced houses, Methodist Chapel and Sunday School, as well as another public house. This expansion continued into the 20th century.