Fence Houses, or Fencehouses, is a small village within the parish of Houghton-le-Spring, on the edge of the City of Sunderland, England for the South with the North under the control of Durham County Council as part of County Durham. This origin is highly debatable. A more likely origin was put forward by the late Houghton-le-Spring historian, C.A. Smith MA, in an article in the Official Houghton-le-Spring Urban District Handbook, 1962, as: Fence Houses derives its name from Biddick Fence which formed the southern boundary of South Biddick and included Burnmoor