The earliest reference to the placename is in Boldon Buke (1183 survey of land belonging to the Bishop of Durham, Hugh du Puiset), where Eudo de Lucelles is recorded as holding one ploughland of 120 acres for the tenth part of one knight's fee. In Hatfield's Survey (1382), where it is listed under Kibblesworth, Robert Umfravill held the manor of Farnacres for foreign service at 2s p.a. In the early C17 it belonged to a junior branch of the Liddell family, and when they died out it was acquired by the Liddells of Ravensworth who are said to have used it as a dower house. The grid reference is to the site of the "Old Hall", Farnacres, as shown on the OS 1st ed. (surveyed 1857). Note however that Fordyce (1855) describes it as "neat and modern". Demolished in the 1930s for the Team Valley Trading Estate, and its site is now close to or under the Western Bypass.

The APs appear to show two straight sides, meeting at a fairly sharp right- angled corner, of a rectilinear enclosure. One can imagine an entrance in each side. There are, however, other cropmarks in this field, - two slightly curved linear features, one long and one short, and one quarter circle apparently inside the part enclosure. Challis and Harding decided the enclosure was IA.

East of the north corner of the fort of Washingwells (SMR 143) there appears to be the cropmark of a rectangular enclosure, possibly with a smaller one inside, with semi-circular projections off the north side and a circular feature at the south-east corner.

Two parallel lines, some 200 m long and roughly 10 m apart, showed on APs south of the Roman fort running NNW-SSE. Excavation proved them to be geological features.

Immediately east and south-east of the cropmark of Washingwells Roman fort (SMR 143) there are a number of circular cropmarks, perhaps nine at the present count, of varying sizes. Excavation in 1993 established that in the field SW of the fort (NZ 219 602) one of the circular cropmarks was a disused mine-shaft 7m in diam., funnel-shaped, 3m + deep, and surrounded by the remnant of a ring of spoil. The fill of the pit was dark in colour, and consisted of mixed clay, cobbles and tree branches. Artifacts suggest a date of C17/18th century, and included a wooden horse whim.

A cremation was found in a Food Vessel Urn, standing upright in a cist, during fencing on Washingwells Farm in 1951. The basic discovery was not recorded archaeologically and there is therefore no further information.

In Boldon Buke (1183 survey of land belonging to the Bishop of Durham, Hugh du Puiset) , under the heading of Whickham, there is mention of a mill. "The mill used (to render) 3 marcs". A mill at Whickham is mentioned in the Receiver's Roll of 1307. When the manor of Whickham was later at farm the mill was included with it. In Hatfield's Survey (1382) no mill is listed under Whickham, but there was definitely one in Swalwell, also listed under Whickham. The Swalwell mill is also mentioned in the Parliamentary Survey of 1647, and it is possible that the references of 1567 and 1576 quoted by Bourn refer to Swalwell too. Dated C12th.

Described as new in 1720. Once attached were a dwelling house, drying kiln, ? Stable, 1+ acre of land. Not mentioned after 1828, it had been long since dismantled by 1893. In a field which came to be a park called The Chase, bought by Whickham UDC in 1937 for public use. A stone tower mill, 6m diam., with walls 0.80 m thick, surviving to a height of 10.25 m. Stands on a low mound of colliery shale 15 m across. The lower three-quarters of the mill are of coursed sandstone rubble; above is of ashlar, so probably a later addition. 3 storeys: ground - 2 opposing doors and fireplace; first - 2 windows; second - as first. Between the upper storeys, externally, is a circle of c. 13 sockets for the beams which presumably supported a projecting platform. All external openings and sockets are blocked. There are also beam-holes and recesses inside, some perhaps for the wooden stair recorded in 1937. There are a number of early references to Whickham mill but its later history is not well known. A mill is mentioned in the receiver's roll of 1307. Similarly it is referred to in documentation in 1567. Local lore has it that when the Scots invaded Northumberland and Durham in 1640 at harvest time, crops were destroyed, the people fled and the upper millstones were broken or buried by order. The existing tower would seem to date from a later structure. The dates on the door lintels are not to be trusted {13}. Remains of a stone tower mill, built c.1720. Blocked entrance; lintel inscribed 1576 for no known reason {Pevsner}. Mill is believed to have been used for gas mask testing in the Second World War. The mill was subject to archaeological investigation in 1979. The mill was recorded during clearance work in preparation for consolidation and display of the stone windmill in February 2017. It was revealed that the tower had a chamfered plinth like the one in Heaton mill and that the walls were reduced in height after 1920. There are few traces of fixtures and fittings remaining.

"About seventy years ago the village stocks stood beside the yew tree in front of the tower (of the church). Probably, they had then fallen into disuse, as they had originally stood on the village green. They were last seen in the blacksmith's shop on the west side of the churchyard, and are now only remembered by the oldest inhabitants". Bourn published his History in 1893.

The notion that there was a Quaker burial ground in a field at the west end of Whickham stems from Surtees. He reported that there were 2 gravestones in Whickham churchyard, close to the church, commemorating George and Aibiah Hodgson, 1667 and 1669, and on one of them an inscription recording their removal from the above field in 1784. He then said they were Quaker memorials. Phillips could not prove the Hodgsons were Quakers, but he did say that the OS field 670 was known locally as the "Graveyard" or "Kirk Garth field", and he reported oral traditions that the 2 stones had come from this field, and that other stones had been seen there in the early C19.