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Sunderland is in the metropolitan area of Tyne and Wear on the north east coast of England, with County Durham to the southwest and Northumberland to the north. The City of Sunderland is bisected by the River Wear, once a hive of industry - shipbuilding, coal mining, pottery and glass-making. Proud of its heritage, Sunderland has started building a National Glass Centre to carry this aspect of our culture through to the twenty-first century. Lambton is a recurring name in the history and folklore of Sunderland. The Lambton Worm is a mythical beast which reputedly lived by the River Wear and wound himself nine times around Worm Hill. A famous local landmark, the Penshaw Monument, was built in honour of John George Lambton, first Earl of Durham. Sunderland stages a spectacular series of annual events, including the International Festival of Air, Roker Regatta, Sunderland Air Show and the Illuminations. From the end of August to the beginning of November, six miles of the seafront are festooned with spectacular lighting features, and the excitement is heightened by music, fireworks, and family shows.

Although there is evidence of inhabitation in the area from prehistoric times, Sunderland's recorded history begins in 674 when Benedict Biscop, a Northumbrian nobleman who devoted his life to the church was granted land on the banks of the river Wear to establish a monastery. The church of the monastery was built of stone and glass, masons and glaziers being brought from Europe to teach the local Anglo- Saxons the craft. The monastery went on to develop a reputation for scholarship, it’s most famous scholar being the Venerable Bede who became the first great historian.

Some twelve years after starting his monastery Benedict was granted more land on the south bank of the river, this ‘separate land beyond the river’ or ‘sundered’ was probably the origin of what is now the city of Sunderland. The area was attacked by the Vikings in the eighth and ninth centuries and the monastery was left in ruins. Although restored around 900, the monastery was again destroyed, this time by the Scots, in 1070. A small cell of groups was re-established at Wearmouth, the area north of the river becoming known as Monkwearmouth.

Two settlements grew on the south of the river on land belonging to the Bishop of Durham. One was the port of Wearmouth, or Sunderland, the other a farming community at Bishopwearmouth. From the end of the fourteenth century coal began to be brought down the river and a survey of circa 1380 reveals that ships were being built on the Wear. An Elizabethan Commission of 1565 described Sunderland as a fishing town of 30 households.

The approach of the seventeenth century saw Sunderland developing as salt pans established on the Wear used coal brought down the river from the County Durham coalfields, better quality coal being exported. A new quay was built to facilitate the shipment of both salt and coal. Local landowners reacted to the demand for coal by sinking pits near the Wear.

In the Civil War the merchants of Sunderland supported Parliament and the town acted as a naval base until the capture of Newcastle from the Royalists in October 1644. As a result of the war Newcastle lost a monopoly they had enjoyed in the North East of England, and Sunderland took advantage. Increased traffic saw improvements to the harbour throughout the eighteenth century, whilst related industries such as rope and sail making flourished. As the settlements on each side of the river grew, the numerous ferries were replaced in 1796 by the famous iron bridge.

1832 saw Sunderland becoming a parliamentary borough, bringing together the various communities as one. By the 1830’s Sunderland’s shipbuilding output almost equalled that of all other ports in the country put together and during the nineteenth century became the world’s largest shipbuilding town.

The town’s importance as a port also grew with the advent of a network of railway linking it to the collieries. By this time the town had its own colliery – Wearmouth and was also gaining fame for it’s pottery and glass. In 1888 Sunderland became a county borough. During WW1 the town was bombed by Zeppelins, but the war and its immediate aftermath saw the shipyards working at full capacity. The depression hit the town hard however and by 1930 shipbuilding had almost ceased, although the docks and the mines were not quite so hard hit. During the period between the wars a third of Sunderland’s working population was unemployed. In the mid 1930’s the government began to encourage new industries in the areas worst affected by unemployment and Sunderland’s first industrial estate was established at Pallion in 1938.

During the Second World War, Sunderland was one of the heaviest bombed towns in the country (the bomb damaged houses were replaced after the war) and shipbuilding was increased to meet the demands of an island race reliant on ships to bring supplies across the Atlantic in order to carry on the fight against the Axis forces.

Since the end of the war however, increased overseas competition has seen the shipbuilding industry flounder until it disappeared completely in the 1980’s. The areas local coal mines followed the national decline in the industry, by the 1990’s Sunderland’s coal mining had ceased

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