Records show these villages were in existence over 800 years ago.  The land on which they stand and the surrounding area goes back millions of years.  Over 350 million years ago the coal seams under these villages were created.  Durham then was covered by great forests which, over the years, were submerged beneath the seas and buried beneath layers of mud and sand hundreds of feet thick.  This action over and the was repeated over again, decayed forests becoming coal.  Fossils of plants have been found in Thrislington Colliery.  Then, million of years later, there came a severe drought and the land turned into a vast desert, which has been exposed at Thrislington Quarry.  About 270 million years ago a shallow sea covered the North of England until about 45 million years ago, this sea retreated leaving behind a thick deposit of magnesium limestone which is composed of sea animals' bodies.  Several fossils of fish have been found at Thrislington Quarry.  The villages of Cornforth and Thrislington were built on top of this limestone.

About 2 million years ago a period known as the Ice Age existed.  The ice sweeping down from the north removed the limestone, leveling the land between Quarrington Hill and Ferryhill, both these places being 600 feet above sea level.  This left behind deposits of clay, sand and gravel.  This sand was uncovered during the war when an air-raid shelter was constructed at Coronation Terrace.  At the same time the ice cut through the limestone between Thrislington and Ferryhill creating what is known as the Ferryhill Gap.  This gap years later was to be used by the railways for the main Edinburgh to King's Cross line, also for a line to Bishop Auckland and to Coxhoe and West Hartlepool.  All this may seem irrelevant today, but it is due to these deposits of coal, limestone and clay that Cornforth changed from a small rural village to an Industrial one, which gave us quarries, collieries and an ironworks.  The valleys which the Ice Age created became the line of streams or "becks" A tributary of the Skerne has its beginnings in the valley below Thrislington Wood.  Also a tributary of the Wear starts a little beyond Kelloe and winds its way past Coxhoe and Cornforth joining the Wear at Croxdale.  The word "beck" is of Danish origin and is found only in the north of England.  At Cornforth the "beck" now seems unimportant but it once drove the machinery of the mill which ground the corn which helped feed the villages of Cornforth, Thrislington and Bishop Middleham.  This same ''beck'' used to be the home of trout and the haunt of kingfishers and herons.  In years gone by the ''beck'' provided the driving force for five mills: Coxhoe, Cornforth, Thinford, Hett and Croxdale.  It is possible that early man occupied the area where Thrislington Hall stood.  This location would be favoured by the people of the Bronze and Iron Ages.  Bronze and Roman Age pottery have been found here.  Also a burial site nearby could have been iron age but some historians favour Saxon.

The first evidence we have of man in the area was in 1822 when a pagan cemetery was found in a field near to Stob Cross.  An account reads "Several human skeletons were discovered at Thrislington beneath some broad limestone flags, about 18 inches below the surface, and each protected by rows of round stones at the sides.  Near two of them were iron lance heads, each about an inch in diameter and seven and eight inches long respectively.  As the grates were not dug east and west, it appears from the above descriptions that the parties had not fallen in battle.  Therefore it must be conjectured that this had been the family burial-place of some early owner of the land, before conversion of his tribe to Christianity."   In 1973-74 the Archaeology Dept.  of Durham excavated the area around Thrislington Hall uncovering the early buildings of the village, also the old manor house and vast quantities of pottery dating from the l2th-l5th centuries, a few pieces of Bronze Age pottery and one piece of Roman.  From the above it appears Thrislington was in existence many years before Cornforth.  We do know that both villages were in existence in the latter part of the l2th Century.  In 1183 Bishop Pudsey had a survey made for the county of Durham.  This was called Boldon Book as Domesday Book was not applicable to Durham, for William the Conqueror ravaged all the land from York to the Tyne.  An entry in this book is: "In Middleham and Cornforth there are 26 villains and each one renders and works as the villains of Boldon."

Nearly all the people of Thrislington and Cornforth would be employed on the land as servants of the Lords of the Manors.  The Bishop of Durham was Lord of the Manors of Thrislington, Cornforth and Middleham.  The majority of the arable land was in Cornforth and his bailiff lived there.  "William the bailiff holds in Cornforth 2 oxgangs for his service, and when he shall give up his office he renders 4s.  of farm rent, and for a certain other oxgang which he holds there he renders 2s".  The mill at Cornforth belonged to the Bishop and for this he received 10 marcs, for the mill ground the corn for Cornforth, Thrislington and Middleham.  In some villages there were the dwellings of one or more free tenants, perhaps not much superior in convenience and accommodation to the cottages of the villains.  Attached to the village, with its enclosed parcels of ground, was the common field, where each tenant had his own acres of arable land under the name of oxgangs; and beyond that was the pasture, where the cattle fed is common, under the charge of the village herd.  In some cases there was also the lord's waste or forest, in which his tenants had various rights of pasture, swine feeding, and cutting turf and firewood.

Each village had its herdsman for looking after the stock of whatever kind, its pounder for taking care of stray cattle, and its smith and carpenter and in some instances a miller (as at Cornforth).  All the people were the servants of the lord and in return for their work, each had his little holding which provided for the few, simple daily wants of the people.  The villains lived in small steep roofed thatch cottages with limestone wails and were called tofts.  These stood in a plot of land known as crofts.  The cottage would consist of one room partitioned across to allow pigs and hens to share the same shelter.  In the croft the peasant would grow cabbages, peas and beans.  All worked on the land from dawn to dusk and life was hard.  The few holidays were ''Holy Days' hence the modern name ''Holidays.'' The longest of these was the fortnight at Christmas when they were freed from working for the Bishop.  The villains formed that large class, under this general name cotmen, vassals, bondtenants, and farmers, the members of which though not slaves, and holding under the lord some small portion of land, had neither a permanent interest in the land, nor could be called freemen.  A serf was a mere personal slave, and had no interest, even of a temporary nature, in the land The villain could not leave his lord's estate nor indeed, give up the land he held under him, he was a servant for life.  If he left his lord, he could be recovered as a stray, unless he had lived meanwhile for a year and a day in a privileged town or borough, in which case he obtained his freedom.

Oxen were used for ploughing, horses for transport and military purposes.  For a long time the surrounding area consisted of bare moorland.  Cornforth moors would support a few sheep for very Garmondsway and little land would be cultivated.

During the 1939-45 war Cornforth moors came under the plough but before this, heather could be found there.  At Bishop Middleham there is a church which was built in the early part of the 13th Century.  Here the people of Thrislington and Cornforth were baptized, married and burled.  For hundreds of years very little change took place until the early part of the 19th Century when goods were brought from London by seas to Stockton, then taken by road to various places, Cornforth being one of these.  Then by 1834 the railways made their appearance at Cornforth and at the same time coal began to be extensively worked.  In the middle of the 19th Century West Cornforth was created.  This was first known as New Thrislington and was soon to be known as West Cornforth which is self explanatory, West of Cornforth.  By 1868 Thrislington, and the Cornforths had become a separate parish having previously been in the parish of Bishop Mlddleham, but now these villages had their own church and burial ground.  A few years previous to this an Ironworks was built and it seemed that West Cornforth was to become a boom town as Spennymoor had.  All the larger buildings were built in a period from 1868-1880 but these will be mentioned later This industrial revolution created a population explosion 1040 in 1851 to 3416 in 1871 and brought new people into the area; Irish, Welsh and Cornish.  This vast invasion of people meant houses were urgently needed and these were hurriedly erected.   A spate of public houses and beer shops soon followed which provided the miners' and ironworkers' only form or relaxation.

The Methodists soon founded meeting houses to be followed by Chapels to combat drunkard ness, the great social evil of that time.  As people needed food and provisions, soon shops sprung up, and by 1893 a Co-operative store.  Between villages at this time there were still only rough roads.  Before the advent of motor transport all transport was by horse.  In 1873 Joseph Potts, a carrier, left Cornforth for Stockton on Wednesday and Durham on Thursday and Saturday returning with various articles for the inhabitants.

In 1920 one could ride by horse and trap from Thrislington Hotel where there were stables for horses to Spennymoor for 6d.  This service was operated by a Joe Shields of Metal Bridge.  As people lived near their work place there was little need to travel from their village so some never left where they were born.  At that time the Colliery Managers and Agents, Doctors, School Teachers and Vicars were the most educated men in the village, few others being able to read or write.