HAVERTON Hill, in Billingham, on the edge of the Tees, has had a remarkable history – an 18th-century hamlet that grew into a 19thcentury village that then turned into a 20th-century industrial town.

What should have been a blessing for the area, however, became a curse for, by the 1960s and 1970s, the chemicals produced there had begun to pollute the locality and the population was moved out, leaving Haverton to become a resident-less industrial estate.

The contrast with medieval Haverdon could hardly be greater.

Back in the seventh and eighth century, Haverton was pronounced Hofer-don.

Now hofer was an antique word meaning hump. And don was another antique word meaning hill, giving us the Hump Hill.

And this was a fair enough name for a prominent, uninhabited rise on the Tees. But, interestingly, Haverdon also had a second name that is worth recording.

In the 18th century, we learn that it was known as the Penny Pot.

This could be a reference to its shape again, a hill shaped like a pot that pennies were kept in.

But it is more likely to be, on the basis of similar names from up and down the country, a place where a pot full of coins was found.

Probably some 16th- or 17th-century farmer had stumbled, while ploughing or digging, on a Roman hoard and the Hump Hill had become famous in the area as a treasure trove.

Of course, if there are, today, any other of these pots under the hump, they will be beneath the tarmac of Haverton’s industrial estate.

Simon Young is a historian and author of AD500.