The name Boldron has been said to mean “bull clearing” in old Norse. There is other evidence of a Viking presence in the area with the name Thorsgill Beck used for the stream in the parish.
Boldron lies less than half a mile from the road that leads to Stainmore Pass, an ancient route way across the North Pennines; the Romans and later the Normans built forts at Bowes (2 miles away from Boldron) to guard it.
Boldron Well is alternately called Athelstan’s well – did King Athelstan stop near here on his travels in the North?
There is no mention of Boldron or Bowes in the Domesday Book, (possibly due to the harrying of the North in the decade previously) but the villages were part of the Earl of Richmond’s holdings in later Norman times.