Originated as a village of ironstone miners, it was built in 1854-1855 and named after the victorious Battle of Inkerman of the Crimean War, similarly to Balaclava, another County Durham village.
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Many streets in the suburb were named in the late 1850s after Crimea War locations and people, for example, Cardigan, Canrobert, Inkerman, Alma, Raglan, and Balaclava.
Thomas Vesey Dawson (1819–1854), second son of the second Baron, was a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Coldstream Guards and fought in the Crimean War, where he was killed in action at the Battle of Inkerman in 1854.
As adjutant-general he performed his duties efficiently during the weary months of waiting and sickness at Gallipoli and at Varna, and also at the battles of Alma and Inkerman.