Woodhouse - Sunderland in 100 Dates

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.

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 Kings 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 Sunderlands coal was transported in locally built ships and industrial growth spread across the river to the settlements of Monkwearmouth and Southwick. By 1801 Sunderlands 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 Britains 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 (181378) 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 Sunderlands 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

St Benedict Biscop, originally known as Biscop Baducing, died at St Peters, 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 Lrins 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 Pauls 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)

An inquest on this day concluded that the death of stable boy Roger Skelton at Hylton Castle was accidental. The castles 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 lads head, causing a fatal wound.

Before long, staff at Hylton Castle reported sightings of The Cauld Lad oHylton 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)

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.