See Durham > Chester le Street > History of Chester Le Street
There is evidence of Iron Age use of the River Wear near the town, but the history of Chester-le-Steet starts with the Roman fort of Concangis. The fort was built alongside the Roman road Cade’s Road (now Front Street) and close to the River Wear, around 100, and was occupied until the Romans left Britain. At the time the Wear was navigable to at least Concangis, and may also have provided food to the garrisons stationed there.
After the Romans left there is no record of who was living here, until 883 when a group of monks, driven out of Lindisfarne seven years before, stopped here to build a wooden shrine and church to St Cuthbert, whose body they had borne with them. While they were here the town was the centre of Christianity for much of the northeast, as the seat of the Bishop of Lindisfarne was here making the church a cathedral. Also while here the Lindisfarne Gospels, which they had brought with them, were translated into English. They stayed for 112 years, leaving in 995 to the safer and more permanent home at Durham.
The church was rebuilt in stone in 1054, and despite the loss of its bishopric seemed to retain a degree of wealth and influence. In 1080 most of the huts in the town were burned and many people killed in retaliation for the death of William Walcher, the first Prince-Bishop, at the hands of a Saxon mob. After this devastation wrought by the Normans the region was left out of the Domesday Book; there was little left to record, and the region was by then being run from Durham by the Prince-Bishops so held little interest for London.
Cade’s Road did not fall out of use but was hidden beneath later roads which became the Great North Road, the main route from London and the south to Newcastle and Edinburgh. The town’s location on the road played a significant role in its development, as well as its name, as inns sprung up to cater to the travelling trade, as both riders and horses needed to rest on journeys usually taking days to complete. This reached a peak in the early 19th century as more and more people and new mail services travelled by stagecoach, before falling off with the coming of the railways. The town was bypassed when the A167 was routed around the town, and this was later supplanted by faster A1(M).
The coal industry also left its mark on the town. From the late 17th century onwards coal was dug in increasing quantities in the region. It was centred around the rivers, for transportation by sea to other parts of the country, and Chester-le-Street was at the centre of the coal being dug and shipped away down the Wear, so a centre of coal related communication and commerce. At the same time the growth of the mines and the influx of miners supported local businesses, not just the many inns but new shops and services, themselves bringing in more people to work in them. These people would later work in new industries established in the town to take advantage of its good communications and access to raw materials.