As with most of the land in the area, the Helmington Hall estate was owned by the church. But it appears to have been tenanted by the Nevilles, who in turn leased it first to the Burdons then the Trotters. Sir Roger Bernard de Helmington was included in a list of the knights of the Bishopric of Durham in 1264 and a reference in a 1285 lease confirms he held Helmington Hall estate.

Alice, the daughter of Roger de Burdon, (believed to be the son of Sir Roger Bernard), married a man named John, who took his wife’s surname and was named in a survey as the only free tenant in Hunwick. When John died in 1398 he was “in possession of five houses, three tofts and 124 acres in Hunwyk, held of Ralph, Earl of Westmoreland.”

The earl was Ralph de Neville, whose family occupied Brancepeth Castle and much of the nearby land, although it was stipulated that John Burdon’s other tenancies were held by the Bishop of Durham. These included 70 acres of land, ten acres of wood and the site of a water mill at “Helmedon.”

John’s daughter, Johanna, inherited the estate, followed by her own daughter, Jane, who married Christopher Trotter. The Trotters were in residence until 1688, when Thomas Blackett bought the estate, followed in 1792 by Ralph Spencer, a merchant who had spent 20 years in India. His first wife Maria’s aunt, Lady Maxwell, lived at the hall and died there in 1807. Robert died in 1836, only seven years after marrying his second wife, Margaret, who survived him as the lady of the manor for more than 30 years. A sale notice in 1830 offering the tenancy of the farm confirmed that the hall and farm were being run as separate businesses.

By 1870 colliery owners Straker and Love had taken over the estate and by 1922 it was National Coal Board property. The 1890 Kelly’s Directory described the hall as “unoccupied and in ruins” and the south wing had to be demolished following a fire in 1895.