Sunderland in 100 Dates E-Book

Robert Woodhouse

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Sachliteratur, Reportagen, Biografien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 118

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

Experience 100 key dates that shaped Sunderland's history, highlighted its people's genius (or silliness) and embraced the unexpected. Featuring an amazing mix of social, criminal and sporting events, this book reveals a past that will fascinate, delight and even shock both residents and visitors of the city.

Leseprobe

Acknowledgements

I am indebted to my wife, Sally, for her research and unstinting support and to Liz Taylorson for her administrative skills. My gratitude also goes to Bob Eastwood for information relating to railways in the Sunderland area and to the staff at Sunderland Library and Arts Centre and Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens.

References for extracts appear at the end of each entry, and a full bibliography appears at the end of the book. All Internet sources are correct at the time of writing.

N.B. The Julian calendar was in use until Wednesday, 2 September 1752. The following day the Gregorian calendar was adopted, making the date Thursday, 14 September 1752. The dates in this book before and after the shift correspond to the respective calendars.

Contents

Title

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Sunderland in 100 Dates

AD 690 12 January

1609 3 July

1644 4 March

1717 22 June

1719 5 September

1744 1 June

1745 26 August

1775 22 March

1796 9 August

1805 25 May

1813 29 November

1815 20 March

1816 18 September

1822 28 May

1824 7 October

1825 3 August

1826 15 June

1828 31 October

1829 28 April

1831 23 October

1832 27 August

1836 13 December

1838 25 November

1840 13 January

1840 22 May

1842 2 December

1848 19 June

1850 20 June

1852 31 July

1852 28 August

1856 24 April

1857 21 May

1861 17 October

1865 28 August

1868 9 December

1871 13 November

1873 22 December

1875 30 October

1877 25 September

1877 14 October

1879 28 April

1879 4 August

1880 13 November

1883 16 June

1885 14 September

1887 18 May

1887 30 May

1888 6 October

1891 7 March

1891 11 September

1894 17 December

1897 22 June

1898 18 July

1905 18 January

1907 1 July

1907 19 July

1908 22 February

1909 10 June

1909 16 July

1909 21 October

1912 3 August

1913 21 January

1916 1 April

1916 17 September

1917 22 February

1922 9 September

1923 13 July

1932 28 March

1934 8 December

1943 16 May

1945 19 September

1952 9 September

1959 9 September

1961 20 December

1964 4 March

1967 1 July

1969 1 January

1970 5 November

1971 7 May

1973 5 May

1974 26 December

1976 26 April

1986 8 July

1988 12 December

1990 24 January

1992 14 February

1993 10 December

1997 31 July

1999 2 July

2004 4 July

2007 3 March

2008 18 April

2011 24 March

2011 14 December

2012 6 May

2012 24 May

2012 11 December

2013 22 June

2013 29 June

2013 28 July

Bibliography

About the Author

Copyright

Introduction

The original settlement at Sunderland was established by Hugh le Puiset, Bishop of Durham who created a township covering about 220 acres on land close to the south bank of the River Wear. For several centuries it remained a small-scale fishing port until significant changes got underway during the late sixteenth century.

In 1589 Robert Bowes formed a partnership with a merchant of King’s Lynn, Norfolk, to invest £4,000 in building ten salt pans with employment for 300 workers. The early decades of the sixteenth century also saw an increase in coal exports, which had reached about 80,000 tons a year by the outbreak of the Civil War in 1642. This rise in industrial activity had prompted a growth in the population of Sunderland to about 1,500.

During March 1644 the township was occupied by Scottish forces and Sunderland remained in parliamentary hands for the rest of the Civil War. The later decades of the seventeenth century brought continued growth in coal exports and in 1717 parliamentary legislation established the River Wear Commissioners, with powers to manage operations on the river from its mouth to Fatfield.

Towards the end of the eighteenth century an increasing amount of Sunderland’s coal was transported in locally built ships and industrial growth spread across the river to the settlements of Monkwearmouth and Southwick. By 1801 Sunderland’s population was in excess of 12,000 and improvement commissions were established in 1810 and 1826, with powers to levy rates for improving streets and sanitary arrangements.

With more than sixty shipyards by the mid-nineteenth century, Sunderland had become Britain’s leading producer of wooden ships. Although the replacement of timber by iron (and then steel) vessels brought a reduction in the number of companies, more than 20,000 men were employed in Sunderland shipyards in 1900.

Other industries to prosper during the late nineteenth century included rope-making, pottery and glass-making, while the company founded by Cuthbert Vaux (1813–78) rapidly expanded to become the second-largest brewery in Britain. By 1901 the population of the Borough of Sunderland had reached 145,500 and its growing importance as an urban industrial centre had been acknowledged by the grant of county borough status in 1888, but the twentieth century soon brought a period of economic decline.

By the early 1930s, 29,000 male workers were unemployed, with a high percentage being shipyard workers. A number of factors, including foreign competition, hastened the decline of the shipbuilding industry and in 1988 the last Wear-based yard, North East Shipbuilding Ltd, ceased trading. Rope-making had already ended in 1968 and the closure of Wearmouth Colliery in 1993 saw coal exports cease, while the closure of Vaux brewery during 2002 marked the end of Sunderland’s dependence on traditional industries.

The re-emergence of Sunderland was heralded by the granting of city status in 1992. Just a few years earlier, in 1985, Nissan had begun car production at Washington and a range of smaller companies became established on trading estates around the area, while a developing university complex gave increasing impetus to Wearside. This transition is perhaps reflected in construction of the National Glass Centre and (on the site of the Wearmouth Colliery) the Stadium of Light, home of Sunderland AFC.

Robert Woodhouse, 2015

SUNDERLAND IN 100 DATES

AD 690

12 January

St Benedict Biscop, originally known as Biscop Baducing, died at St Peter’s, Wearmouth on this day.

Born into a noble family, he became an official at the court of Oswi, King of Northumbria, before leaving in AD 653 to pursue an interest in church matters at Rome. After a second visit to Rome he became a monk at Lérins in France, where he adopted the name of Benedict.

During a fourth journey to Rome in 671, he received instructions in monastic practices and three years later Benedict oversaw construction of the monastery of St Peter of Wearmouth.

Accompanied by St Ceolfrith, his successor at Wearmouth, Benedict visited Rome again in 678 and during 682 he supervised the foundation of St Paul’s monastery at Jarrow. A further journey to Rome in 687 saw him add to an impressive collection of manuscripts, relics and pictures, which he endowed to his monasteries. The Venerable Bede was one of the scholars able to make use of the fine library that Benedict had assembled.

The feast day of St Benedict Biscop is held on 12 January.

(www.britannia.com/bios/saints/benedictbiscop.html)

1609

3 July

An inquest on this day concluded that the death of stable boy Roger Skelton at Hylton Castle was ‘accidental’. The castle’s owner, Robert Hylton, was wielding a scythe during grass-cutting operations when Skelton was struck by the point of the tool. It is recorded in Durham Episcopal rolls, dated 6 September 1609, that Hylton was granted a free pardon.

Since those days, some four centuries ago, legends have arisen around the episode. Most versions suggest that Roger Skelton fell asleep in the warmth of the stables whilst preparing a horse for an important journey by Sir Robert. Annoyed by the delay, the knight is said to have smashed his sword into the stable lad’s head, causing a fatal wound.

Before long, staff at Hylton Castle reported sightings of ‘The Cauld Lad o’Hylton’ and other strange incidents were attributed to his ghostly antics. Plates and dishes would be thrown around the kitchen or tools were found piled in a messy heap.

Acting on the advice of a local wise woman, staff at the castle were able to placate the ghost sufficiently to end the unnerving episodes, although reports of a ghostly presence persisted into the twentieth century.

(www.sunderlandecho.com/what-s-on/was-the-cauld-lad-murdered-after-all-1-1141690)

1644

4 March

On this day Scottish forces occupied Sunderland as the English Civil War reached a critical phase. Parliament and the Scots had signed the Solemn League and Covenant during September 1643 and the Army of the Covenant had gathered on the border during the closing months of that year.

Alexander Leslie, Earl of Leven, was in overall command, with David Leslie as Lieutenant-General of Horse and Alexander Hamilton in charge of the artillery train, while each regiment of the Covenanter army was accompanied by a Presbyterian minister. A strict code of discipline was also issued to the Scottish forces.

Although the size of the assembled Covenanter army totalled only about 14,000 men (which was much smaller than anticipated), the Earl of Leven ordered them to cross the border into England on 19 January 1644. Their immediate objective was the City of Newcastle, which had considerable importance as a coal depot and as a supply base for weapons and supplies.

Adverse weather during the later part of January slowed the Scottish advance and the Marquis of Newcastle was able to march northwards with Royalist troops from York. It soon became clear that the City of Newcastle could now withstand a prolonged siege, so the earl led his forces southwards to complete the occupation of Sunderland.

(bcw-project.org/military/english-civil-war/northern-england/the-north-1644)

1717

22 June

An Act of Parliament on this day established a body to be known as ‘The Commissioners of the River Wear and the Port and Haven of Sunderland’ and granted it powers for twenty-one years. Members of the inaugural body included Anglican clergy, local gentry, coal owners, professional men and coal fitters (who liaised between coal owners and colliers).

Coal shipments formed a major proportion of increased trade from the port of Sunderland during the seventeenth century and, although attempts were made to improve the harbour area, the situation prompted coal merchants and coal owners to seek legislation for setting up an organisation to carry out essential work. Opposition from Tyne-based industrialists saw this move end in failure.

During 1716, Thomas Conyers and John Hedworth promoted a bill that was intended to develop Sunderland harbour and create a navigable channel of the River Wear, almost to Chester-le-Street. On this occasion opposition was overcome at the committee stage and again when the bill was considered by the House of Lords.

The first significant project carried out by the River Wear Commissioners was construction of a south pier, which began in 1723 and was completed in 1730.

(Glenn Lyndon Dodds, A History of Sunderland, 2nd edition, Albion Press, 2001)

1719

5 September

On this day, Holy Trinity church was consecrated at a time when the port of Sunderland was growing rapidly. Design work by William Etty of York made extensive use of small bricks to give a sombre appearance to the exterior, but the interior was very light and spacious with seven pairs of large windows.

Sets of tall Corinthian-style columns supported the gallery and roof and the rector, Daniel Newcombe, funded the addition of the present apse in 1735. The west gallery was incorporated into the building in 1803 and it has three coats of arms on display. In the centre are the royal arms of George I, while on one side are those of Lord Crewe, Bishop of Durham and on the other the Bishop of London who consecrated the church.

During the early years Holy Trinity was at the heart of local government, with twenty-four gentlemen elected annually to regulate the parish’s civil affairs under the chairmanship of the rector, but in more recent years congregations dwindled and the final service was held on 26 June 1988. Soon afterwards it was taken over by the Redundant Churches Commission and has been given Grade 1 listed building status.

(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Trinity_Church,_Sunderland)

1744

1 June

On this day the merchant vessel Isabella of Sunderland did battle with a French privateer off the coast of Holland. Under the command of Robert Hornby of Stokesley, she had a crew of only five men and three boys, and armaments that amounted to just four carriage guns and two light swivel guns, along with a few blunderbusses.

Isabella was at the head of a convoy that included three smaller vessels and about to enter port when a French privateer, Marquis de Brancas, appeared from among Dutch fishing boats. With a crew of seventy-five fighting men under Captain André and weaponry including ten carriage guns, eight swivels and 300 small arms, it had all the makings of a highly uneven contest.

After Isabella had run up her ensign the Marquis de Brancas ordered her to surrender with shots across her bow. The English merchantman replied with fire from swivel guns before her deck was raked with small arms fire.

Isabella’s crew had already taken cover and the next hour saw Captain Hornby skilfully avoiding attempts to board his vessel. Eventually a group of twenty Frenchmen clambered aboard, only to retreat in the face of sustained fire from blunderbusses.

Isabella lost most of her rigging as fighting continued but it was the Marquis de Brancas that broke off the momentous naval engagement.

(North Magazine)

1745

26 August

Nicholas Haddock, Keelman of Sunderland, was hanged at Durham for the murder of Thomas Alder, farmer, at Hilton Park House.