An 1857 map shows that Helmington Square had developed close to Lane Ends Farm, but the farmhouse disappeared when Cooperative Terrace was built in the 1880s. Some of the farm buildings became part of Tom Watson’s cobbler’s shop. There was another cobbler’s (Fryers) next to the Helmington Inn at the top of Front Street. Directly opposite, at the top of Cooperative Terrace, was a grocery and drapery operated for more than 50 years by William Raine from around 1860 until it was taken over by the Willington Cooperative store. The Raines continued to operate the drapery and had the Post Office until it transferred to Helmington House. This was in the street which was renamed Wear View in 1961.The Post Office later moved further along the same street and remained there until its closure.

The Willington Co-op used a covered, horse-drawn cart, with a barrel of vinegar attached, to deliver groceries. The last delivery was at the station after which the horse apparently bolted back to the stables, knowing he would be let out to graze.

From 1897 Bishop Auckland Co-op also had a store in the village, which included one of three butcheries. The other two, Thompson’s and Heslop Simpson’s, both had abattoirs at the back. At various times there were five or six other general dealers, two blacksmiths, two sweet shops, a coffin-maker’s, a hardware shop, a fruiterer and greengrocer, a chemist’s, a hairdresser’s and a barber. It is said that gents’ hairstyles depended on the size of the pudding bowl used by the barber, Tommy Wardle.

Up a passage between the Wheatsheaf and the first house in Wear View was Patterson’s fish and chip shop, which was said to have fed Hunwick during the second world war.

The first hastily built terraces, Oxford Street and Thompson Terrace, were also the first to be demolished. They were colliery houses, with the tenants being tied to the job. Rough Lea Terrace was built in the 1870s and the Methodist Chapel opened in 1881.

Among the other terraces was Norman’s Buildings, No. 1 being the Rough Lea pipework’s shop, where the workers spent the tokens with which they were paid. From 1956- 2 it was Mason’s Cafe, Hunwick’s answer to the American Diner.

The works doctor lived at No. 2 and the foreman at No. 4. Norman’s Buildings also housed a Temperance Hall, known as the Pink Tin Shed. It was described as a “grim structure, mainly of galvanised iron” and was used for concerts and political meetings.

Better quality three-bedroomed houses had appeared by 1911, among them Coronation Terrace, built to mark the coronation of George V.

When the mines closed there was little employment and slum clearances followed. A council estate was built in the 1950s. Norman Swan bought the Bishop Auckland Co-op butchery in the early 1970s and ran it as a grocery and general dealers. But since he closed in the 1980s “Jean’s” has been the last shop standing. Jean and Maurice Little bought it as a newsagents in 1961.