It has been generally agreed since the 18th century that a Roman road connected Chester-le-Street with a bridge across the Tyne. Two stretches are thought to lie under existing roads:
a) Durham Road through Birtley
b) Old Durham Road - High Street - Bottle Bank through Gateshead.
Between these stretches, in open country, Wright located it in 3 places in 1938-9:
NZ 2714 5695, beside Coach and Horses PH, he found a raised causeway suggesting there had been a bridge over Leyburnhold Gill. No traces today.
NZ 2707 5835 (garden of 15 Chambers Cres.) he obtained a cross-section of the E half, 8 feet, of the road, the remainder being under the back lane.
NZ 2704 5876, the road was 17 feet 6 inches wide, and built in 3 layers of 6 inch and 8 inch grade sandstone blocks. He could see nothing "further north across the golf course and Mossheap quarries".

As of the Emperor Trajan: NERVAE TRAIANO AUG...on obverse SPQR. VIA TRAIANA SC on reverse, around a reclining figure. Found in the garden of 23 Cotswold Gardens, Lobley Hill, Gateshead, by Mr. Maurice Carter, in January 1969. Identification by C.M. Daniels. Dated C2.

Bede refers to St. Hilda, and to a monastery/nunnery not far from the mouth of the Tyne. 1. In 648 Aidan gave St. Hilda "the land of one family on the north side of the river Wear; where for a year she also led a monastic life, with very few companions". 2. "...a monastery lying towards the south, not far from the mouth of the river Tyne, at that time consisting of monks, but now...inhabited by a noble company of virgins, dedicated to Christ...". 3. In 686 "...a nunnery...not far from the mouth of the river Tyne". Though various sites have been suggested it seems now to be agreed that the most probable is in the vicinity of St. Hilda's church, South Shields. It is not known how long this house survived, and it is thought that it was probably destroyed by the Danes. Dated C7th.

The evidence for a monastery at Gateshead is a single statement by Bede - "Utta...a renowned priest, and abbot of the monastery of Gateshead" in A.D. 653.(1) "Ad Caprae Caput" is translated by Ekwall as a headland or hill frequented by wild goats. Everything else is speculation. a. Date of foundation. 2 suggests the episcopate of either Aidan or Finan. b. Date of abandonment. 2 believes this was when Colman and his followers left Northumberland since if the monastery had existed when Bede was writing (C8) there would have been more information in his history. c. The site. 2 and 3 equate this with the church or chapel in Gateshead where Bishop Walcher was murdered in 1080, and 3 confusingly then gives 2 locations Gateshead House; and "the Field below where Brick-Kilns now are". 7 sees this as lower down the river, in Lawless Close, later called Miller's Field. 4 proposes the site of the later St. Edmund's Hospital. Note that 6 locates Gateshead House near St. Edmund's Chapel, i.e. NZ 2570 6315. Dated C7th.

Date of earliest reference uncertain. Source 1 suggests the 2 Raintons were originally one township, and cites Symeon as suggesting that this had appeared by the end of the C9, and belonged to the church of Durham before the introduction of the monks. Perhaps better to accept a C12 date, based on the reference to "Reynton et aliam Reinton" in John's confirmation of Henry II's charter. Though the mill of Rainton is mentioned in (1), the village in fact belonged to the priory of Durham. Feodarium: 7 free tenants with 1 messuage, 60 acres land and 5 acres meadow each; 1345 - 13 tenants with 18 tofts, 2 cottages etc; 1539, 1580 - 9 tenants. A 1411 survey lists the tenements in the north row, a south row and a west row. Back lanes ran along the rest of the south and east rows of tofts. 19th century plans show a substantial, clearly defined settlement. Though described as "an irregular cluster or agglomeration without a green", there is still a distinctively triangular/wide oblong space in the centre of the village with back lanes on all sides. In April 1747 John Wesley came to preach at Rainton. A Wesleyan chapel was erected in 1823. St Cuthbert's Anglican Church was built in 1866. In the post medieval period several shafts were sunk around East Rainton - Hazard, Dunwell, Pontop and Meadows. In 1824 there were said to be around 600 miners and their families living in East Rainton. There is a local story that an Irish miner gave his name to a row of four houses (Paddy's Row). Paddy lived in No. 1. There were four public houses in the village - the Fox and Hounds, Village Tavern, Rose and Crown and the Blacksmith's Arms. Mr J. Bailey brewed beer in East Rainton and Tom Sutheran bottled mineral water, beer and stout. The communal oven in East Rainton was in what is now the boiler-house of Mr Bailey's Rainton Bridge Farm. Almost every family had their own allotment. The village had one butcher's shop, run by Mr Robson (who ran the shop for over 60 years). He slaughtered three beasts each week. The first school was built in 1822 on the site of the colliery yard of Pontop Pit. The school could accommodate 136 children. The schoolmaster was Robert Lawson, later Mr T Sager. After 1866 the school was taken over by the church. The present school was built in 1933.Six streets of council houses were built in 1928 (Lloyd Avenue, School Road, Handley Crescent, Cowley Crescent) and were modernised in 1956. There were five farms around the village - Rainton Bridge Farm, Dairy Farm, High Farm, Low Farm and Summer House Farm. The church hall was built in 1882. The miner's welfare hall was opened in 1926. The Women's Institute started in 1948. Dated C12th.

"1790 (Feb.) The workmen employed in clearing away the rubbish at the top of the new street, then forming in Gateshead, found a great number of Roman coins, inclosed in an urn. Many of the coins having got into the hands of the workmen, could not be recovered; but several of them, in good preservation, of the Emperor Hadrian, were in the possession of the late David Stephenson, esq., architect. Local Rec.". The new street was Church Street, on its original alignment. If "top" means the uphill end then this was approximately NZ 2540 6360; if the bridge end then NZ 2535 6365. Dated C2.

Though marked on 1st ed. O.S. map as "Holy Well (chalybeate)"(1), no earlier reference from which they could have got this information has yet come to light. "The particularly fine springs of Houghton, in the county of Durham, from which the town receives its distinctive appellation of le-Spring, are all chalybeate. One of them, situated in Newbottle Lane, is still called the Holy Well. This name is said to have been imposed upon it in the year 700, when the Venerable Bede and his attendants passed through Houghton, and regaled themselves with 'the pure beverage of nature' at this particular fountain".(2) Source 3 refers to it as 'Bede's Well', and also cites the Sunderland Times of 15.ii.1878. By 1958 it had disappeared, the OS saying, 'No evidence of well on the ground. The site is a derelict property with much rubble about though the area of the well is clear".(4) Chalybeate: of mineral water or spring. Impregnated with iron salts.

Longstaffe reported the find of a Roman coin, Middleton said "coins", Petch - quoting Middleton - altered it to "Roman objects (?coins)". There is no further information.

"On a spot of ground within Houghton, called Kirkland (parcel of the glebe of the Rectory), are some very irregular traces of works and intrenchments, of which no account has been preserved. A part of the ground has been ploughed, and the principal earthen mound, which encloses an oblong square, has been cut through in several directions, without discovering anything of consequence".(1) The site has subsequently been claimed for almost every period - prehistoric(5), Roman(2), and medieval(3), the last source saying "Site of a supposed Church or Religious House". In 1952 the OS reported that "The field in which this earthwork is situated is now used as a rubbish heap and the whole of the earthwork, except for a small portion at N side, has been covered over. The small portion remaining is at NZ 3476 4987, and is so disfigured as to make an accurate description impossible. Length approx. 21 m, height 0.4 m". An evaluation in 1993 produced no evidence for occupation, but just for dumping. Two test pits were dug in 2011-12 as part of a community archaeology project. The test pits were only 0.27m and 0.40m deep. Only modern finds were recorded. Natural subsoil was not reached.

"Roman coins are reported from excavations at the works of Mr. Henry Bell, contractor, near Ryehope (sic) Bridge".