Sunderland, South Shields and East Durham
The ancient church of St Peter at Monkwearmouth photographed by David Simpson
Read much more about Sunderland's history in the Timeline
The Crimdon Beck immediately north of Hartlepool forms the first of a series of small wooded valleys called `Denes' which are a regular feature of the County Durham coast. The best known of these is the attractive Castle Eden Dene, which joins the sea to the north of the cave infested Blackhall Rocks. The Castle Eden Dene, formed by the wooded ravine of the Castle Eden Burn, provides an ideal nature reserve for the town of Peterlee.
In prehistoric times, a large area of what is now County Durham formed part of a glacial lake which during a melting period cut its way through the limestone escarpment of the Durham coast to form the Denes at Crimdon, Castle Eden, Easington, Hawthorn, Dawdon, Seaham and Ryhope.The names of the streams and denes on the Durham coast are of interest, because to the north of Crimdon they tend to have the Anglo-Saxon name `Burn' while to the south they are called `Becks' in old Viking style. The reason may be that the land south of the River Tees was formerly a part of the Viking Kingdom of Jorvik (York) while the area to the north of Hartlepool remained in the old Anglo-Saxon province of Northumbria, where the older `Germanic' dialect has partly survived.
Peterlee is one of the North East's new towns, though few know it is also the site of a deserted medieval village called Yoden. The modern town was created in 1948, to rehouse growing populations from nearby mining villages. It is named after Mr Peter Lee, an important miner's leader who became the chairman of England's first all Labour council at Durham in 1909.Lee was born in 1864 at Trimdon Grange, a colliery village in eastern Durham and at the age of ten he started work as a pony driver at Littletown Colliery, just outside Durham City. By the age of sixteen he had achieved the status of a coal hewer. In 1886 Lee emigrated to the United States, where he worked in the mines of Ohio, Kentucky and Pensylvania, before returning to County Durham in 1887. He died in 1935 at the age of seventy.
THE LEGEND OF THE EASINGTON HARE
Easington, a village to the north of Peterlee, was once the home of Nicholas Brakespeare, who later became Adrian IV, the only English pope. The village is also associated with a curious piece of local folklore; `the Legend of the Easington Hare'. This strange little creature had been persistently hunted on numerous occasions, throughout the countryside near Easington but it was extremely elusive, always managing to escape.
Finally one day, a hound managed to bite the leg of the hare just before it escaped into a hole in the wall of a nearby ruined building. The huntsmen were determined to capture the mischevious little beast and entered the building to search for it. To their astonishment they could only find an old woman nervously bandaging her bleeding leg. The building was searched throughout and there seemed to be no way that the hare could have escaped. Only one conclusion could be made, the old lady was the hare, the hare was a witch !.
SEAHAM -BYRON'S UNHAPPY WEDDING
Three miles up the coast from Easington to the north of the Hawthorn Burn Dene we find the town of Seaham Harbour. The harbour was created in 1828 by the Marquess of Londonderry, whose family name of Vane Tempest is remembered in the name of a local colliery. Londonderry built the harbour for the shipping of coals from the collieries he owned at Rainton near Durham City.The poet Lord Byron (1770-1845), was married at Seaham in 1815. His bride was Lady Ann Isabella Milbanke, the daughter of a local squire.
The marriage was not a happy one and the unfortunate wife was later ridiculed in one of Byron's poems as `Lady Millpond'. Byron does not seem to have enjoyed his time at Seaham as in a letter to his friend Moore he complained; "Upon this dreary coast we have nothing but county meetings and shipwrecks; and I have this day dined upon fish, which probably dined upon the crews of several colliers lost in the late gales".
SUNDERLAND - THE SUNDERED LAND
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Although the greater part of Sunderland lies to the south of the Wear some of the oldest and most historic parts of the modern town are on the northern bank of this river. Undoubtedly the most historic part of Sunderland is that area on the north bank by the coast called Monkwearmouth. Sunderland was originally part of Monkwearmouth and in fact the name Sunderland derives from `Sundered Land', that is land that was sundered or seperated, from the monastic estates of Monkwearmouth in Anglo-Saxon times.For centuries Sunderland was only a part of Wearmouth and although the name Sunderland was commonly used for the whole area, it was not until 1719 that Sunderland itself achieved the status of a seperate parish. In 1897 roles were finally reversed and Monkwearmouth officially became part of the town of Sunderland.
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MONKWEARMOUTH- BISCOP AND ST BEDE
Monkwearmouth is where Sunderland's history really begins. In 674 A.D the land on the northern bank of the river overlooking the coast at Wearmouth was granted by Ecgfrith, King of Northumbria to a noble called Benedict Biscop who used the land to build a monastery. All that remains of the monastery today is the Anglo-Saxon church of St Peter which is one of the most historic churches in England.Biscop had great ambitions for his monastery at Wearmouth and brought in masons and glaziers from France and even employed an Archchanter, from St Peter's cathedral in Rome.
The Venerable Bede (675-735) who tells us that he was born in the vicinity of Sunderland, began his monastic life at Monkwearmouth before moving on to Biscop's other later monastery at Jarrow on Tyne. The ancient churches of St Pauls, Jarrow and St Peters Monkwearmouth, were described by Bede as "one monastery in two places", both still stand today in what are strikingly similar, riverside settings. Monkwearmouth and Jarrow, were two of the most important centres of Northumbrian culture and learning, in that period of history which today we call the `Dark Ages'.
Sir Timothy Eden in his History of Durham (1948) beautifully explains the former importance of these two venerable places;
"It was not long before, round these two last communities all the light and learning of England was to revolve, and not only England, but of the whole of Europe, during one of the darkest periods in the history of man."
Sadly the Anglo-Saxon life of St Peters Monkwearmouth was brought to an end in the ninth century by Viking raids when it was sacked by the Danish pirates Hubba and Hingmar. Fortunately the Monkwearmouth and Jarrow churches were re-established in Norman times when they became monastic cells of the great cathedral of Durham.
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THE CIVIL WAR- SUNDERLAND VERSUS NEWCASTLE
Sunderland, the largest town on the eastern coast of England, grew primarily as a result of its development as a coal exporting harbour at the mouth of the River Wear. The growth of the town took place despite centuries of fierce resistance from the wealthy and powerful town of Newcastle upon Tyne, which posessed a Royal Charter, restricting the shipment of coal from nearby ports like Sunderland.During the Civil War the rivalry between the ports of Sunderland and Newcastle was intensified, when Newcastle became a staunchly Royalist City.
Sunderland, partly influenced by its large contingent of Scottish traders supported the Parliamentarians under Oliver Cromwell. In 1642 Sunderland received a garrison of Parliamentarians from Cromwell composed mainly of Scots or `Blew Caps' as they were nicknamed. Sunderland therefore became a centre for Parliamentarian offensives against Royalist strongholds of North Eastern England like Durham City and Newcastle upon Tyne.The most significant of the Parliamentarian attacks upon a North Eastern town was the siege of Newcastle in 1644, where for a time the walled Tyneside town held out against parliamentarian forces comprised mainly of Scots.
Sunderland's stance in the Civil War aroused much bitterness from the Newcastle Royalists. The role of Sunderland and Newcastle in the Civil War was of extreme importance, as Newcastle was the major supplier of coal to London. If Sunderland had followed Newcastle and supported the Royalist cause, the essential supply of coal to Cromwell's London would have been virtually cut off and perhaps the outcome of the Civil War may even have been different. In fairness to Sunderland, it was perhaps not surprising that its symapathies lay with the Parliamentarians rather than the Royalists, as after all it was a Royal Charter that restricted Sunderland's trade and gave Newcastle a somewhat unfair advantage in any competition between the two ports.One result of the Civil War, was that Sunderland and its coal trade began to rapidly expand while Newcastle, though remaining the major coal port of Britain, had permanently lost its monopolistic hold on the export of local coal.
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Sunderland was long an important coal port, but the industry for which the town was until recently better known was shipbuilding. Since 1346 when a certain Thomas Menville was recorded as building vessels here, Sunderland has had a shipbuilding industry and indeed it is claimed that shipbuilding had taken place in even earlier times In 1885 a primitive 2000 year old dug out canoe, was found in the River Wear at Sunderland near Hylton, in the north west of the town. This is claimed to be the first example of Sunderland boat building workmanship.
Whatever the origins of shipbuilding on Wearside, by 1814 Sunderland had 24 shipyards, a figure which had risen to 65 in 1840. By the mid twentieth century, when the town produced more than a quarter of the nation's total tonnage of merchant and naval ships for World War Two Sunderland was widely regarded as the largest shipbuilding town in the world. Sadly, despite strong opposition from workers and community leaders, Sunderland's last shipyards were closed down in 1988.
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Today the two sides of the River Wear at Sunderland are linked by the steel arched Wearmouth Bridge of 1929 and the Queen Alexandra Bridge of 1909, though until the eighteenth century Sunderland was only linked to Hylton and Monkwearmouth on the north side of the Wear by means of a ferry.Hylton Castle, one of Sunderland's most historic buildings stood guard over an important ferry crossing of the Wear. It was built by one William De Hylton around 1400 and is most famous for its ghost called the `Cauld Lad o' Hylton'. This ghost is said to be the spirit, of a stable boy who was slain by a baron of Hylton in the sixteenth century. The unfortunate young man had been caught napping by the temperamental lord, who in a fit of rage brutally struck the boy with a pitch fork killing him instantly.
The ghost who may or may not carry his head under his arm, was occasionally seen and often heard by the domestic servants of Hylton Castle. Like all good poltergeists the Cauld Lad's favourite passtime was throwing dishes, plates and pewter, but this only happened if the Hylton kitchen had been left in a tidy state. Curiously if the servants left the kitchen untidy, the Cauld Lad would tidy it up. Naturally the servants took advantage and always left the kitchen untidy.The castle building was not the only place to be haunted by this mischevious ghost, for on occasions the Cauld Lad is known to have impersonated the boatman on the Hylton ferry, where after accepting fares he would leave his passengers stranded in the centre of the river.
The pranks of the `Cauld Lad' were finally ended by presenting him with a green cloak and hood which were laid before the kitchen fire. The Hylton servants sat up watching until midnight when the ghost appeared took the garments and then suddenly disappeared with the last words:
Though Hylton was occupied until the early twentieth century, all that remains of the Castle today, is largely a ruined shell hidden in the north western subburbs of Sunderland.One of the notable features of the castle are the stone carved coats of arms of various local families, which can be seen on its walls. They include the shields of the Hyltons, Lumleys, Percys, Greys Eures and of the Washingtons who lived nearby. The Washington coat of arms consists of two bars and three stars and is believed to have been adapted by George Washington for the `stars and stripes' flag of the United States
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On the coast to the north of Sunderland towards South Shields is the village of Whitburn and the nearby Whitburn Sands, where Lewis Carroll is said to have written the eighteen verse poem called the `Walrus and the Carpenter'.
The Sunderland and Shields area does seem a likely setting for the poem as in Carroll's time Sunderland was a great shipbuilding port employing many carpenters. Boiling hot sea could be a reference to the steam-boat colliers in the area and a stuffed walrus in a Sunderland museum may have provided further inspiration. It is known that during his regular visits to Whitburn where he had a number of relatives, Lewis Carroll and company entertained themselves with evenings composing rhyme and song. Carroll's nephew, Stuart Dodgson Collingwood, informs us that all but the first verse of the `Jabberwocky' poem were written by Lewis Carroll at Whitburn. The first verse was written at Croft on Tees, near Darlington, where Carroll lived as a boy.
JACK THE BLASTER AND MARSDEN ROCK
The limestone cliff formations that dominate much of the coast between Hartlepool and the River Tyne, are much in evidence at Marsden to the north of Whitburn. Most notable of the limestone features is the massive Marsden Rock. This was once within jumping distance of the coast, but is now an isolated limestone stack providing a natural refuge for Kittiwakes, Cormorants and Fulmars.Set within the coastal caves overlooking the Marsden Rock is the famous Marsden Grotto Public House. Its history begins in 1782, when an Allendale lead miner nicknamed `Jack the Blaster' came to work in the limestone quarries at Marsden and blasted a home for himself and family out of one of the caves of Marsden Bay. Jack became known for his hospitality and his home developed into the Grotto Inn
Marsden Bay was once a frequent haunt of local smugglers, who numbered among Jack's best customers and suppliers. On one occasion the smugglers were nearly caught in the act at Marsden after one of their fraternity turned informer and passed information to the South Shields excise men regarding the landing of illegal cargo at Marsden Bay. The smugglers learned of the imminent danger of being caught and managed to warn off the vessel that was bringing the illegal merchandise. It dumped its cargo further down the coast at Souter Point near Whitburn.
When the identity of the informer was discovered by the smugglers he was hung from a bucket, inside a shaft called the Smuggler's Hole which had been bored into a cave near the Marsden Grotto. Here the poor man had to suffer the jibes of his former comrades who gluttonously feasted in front of his eyes and used him as a target for their refuse. It is said that on cold dark stormy nights, his ghostly wails can be heard above the sound of the howling winds.Smuggling took place in the vicinity of Marsden well into the nineteenth century and as late as 1851 there is a record of the capture of a cargo of 8000 lb of contraband tobacco in the area with an estimated value of £4000.
SOUTH SHIELDS ROMAN AND SAXON ORIGINS
South Shields grew most rapidly in the Victorian era, but its origins can be traced back to Roman times, when it was the site of the important Roman fort called ARBEIA. Arbeia, built about A.D 128, served as the sea port and supply base for Hadrian's Wall and in Roman times, it was an important commercial centre with a large civilian settlement. Its Roman occupants included a small unit of bargemen from the Tigris river valley (now in Iraq), who ferried troops and stores up and down the River Tyne.The remains of the Roman fort at South Shields, can be seen today near the area of high ground called the Lawe overlooking the sea at the mouth of the Tyne. It is one of the best preserved and most extensively excavated Roman forts in Britain.
Little is known of South Shields' history in Anglo-Saxon times though evidence suggests it may have been the site of a monastery belonging to St Hild before she moved to Hartlepool and later Whitby. The monastery may have stood on the site of South Shields parish church which is dedicated to St Hilda. The name of South Shields originates from Anglo-Saxon times. Shields derives from `Shieling' signifying a fisherman's hut.
Like many other towns in the North East, coal was a major factor influencing the growth of South Shields. For over two hundred years it was used in the process of making salt and in 1768 the town was the site of 200 salt pans.
In fact South Shields was once the most important salt making town in Britain, having taken over this status from the town of Greatham near Hartlepool, which had been the salt making `capital' in the fifteenth and sixteeenth centuries - indeed Salt Making was the early chemical industry of Teesside. For centuries the salt making gave South Shields a horrible, dense eye watering environment and the fumes from the huge salt pans could be seen clearly from Durham, and according to Daniel Defoe from the summit of the Cheviot many miles to the north. So bad was the local atmosphere, that the wife of a local parson compared South Shields to `Sodom and Gomorrah'. Fortunately South Shields is a much healthier place to live today.
Read much more about South Shields history in the Timeline
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