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Sunderland is a city and port in the City of Sunderland metropolitan borough, in the county of Tyne and Wear in North East England. Sunderland forms part of the larger City of Sunderland which also includes the neighbouring towns of Washington, Hetton-le-Hole and Houghton-le-Spring and is the largest city, by measures of population and area, between Leeds and Edinburgh. The urban sub-area of Sunderland was recorded in the 2001 census as 177,739 *, whilst the population of the larger City and Metropolitan Borough of Sunderland was 282,700. A person born in Sunderland is sometimes called a Mackem, thought to be derived from the term "Mak'em and Tak'em" used by Tyneside shipbuilders to describe their counterparts on the River Wear in Sunderland. The term may refer to the shipbuilders making the ships (Mackem) and then taking them (Tackem) along the river to be fitted out. Another theory is that the term is meant to be derogatory, in that Sunderland built, on the whole, workaday ships of relatively low tonnage. The term appears to have come into use in the late 1980s and is to be included in the Oxford English Dictionary. Status
History The area is part of the Anglican Diocese of Durham. It has been in the Roman Catholic diocese of Hexham and Newcastle since the Catholic hierarchy was restored in 1850. Located at the mouth of the River Wear, the name "Sunderland" is reputed to come from Soender-land: "parted-land" (soender/sunder being the Anglo-Saxon infinitive, meaning "to part"). Wearmouth-Jarrow Priory In 674, King Ecgfrith of Northumbria granted a large tract of land to Benedict Biscop to set up the monastery of Wearmouth-Jarrow. As a result, the north side of the river became "Monkwearmouth", and the south, still under the authority of the Bishop of Durham, was called "Bishopwearmouth", both of which names are used to this day, and so Wearmouth was cut asunder by the river, and politics. Biscop imported glassmakers from France who established a workshop at the Monkwearmouth site, re-establishing glassmaking in Britain. This event is commemorated by the National Glass Centre which stands on a nearby site on the river Wear. The monastery quickly became associated with the Venerable Bede, Britain's first historian and first known prose writer. 17th and 18th centuries Prior to the English Civil War in 1642, the bestowing of the rights to the East of England coal trade upon neighbouring Newcastle by King Charles I created resentment between Newcastle and Sunderland. This history has contributed to a lasting civic enmity between Newcastle and Sunderland, most evident in the intense football rivalry between Sunderland and Newcastle United - one of the longest lasting and fiercest rivalries in English football. In 1719 the separate parish of Sunderland was carved from the densely populated east end of Bishopwearmouth, to serve the port. 19th century
Shipbuilding Once famously hailed as the "Greatest Shipbuilding Town in the World", ships were built on the Wear from at least 1346 onwards and by the mid-eighteenth century Sunderland was probably the chief ship-building town in the country. The Port of Sunderland was significantly expanded in the 1850s with the construction of Hudson Dock to designs by River Wear Commissioner's Engineer John Murray, with consultancy by Robert Stephenson *. One famous vessel was the ‘wonderful’ Torrens, the clipper in which Joseph Conrad sailed, and on which he began his first novel. As Basil Lubbock states, Torrens was one of the most successful ships ever built, besides being one of the fastest, and for many years was the favourite passenger ship to Adelaide. She was one of the most famous ships of her time and can claim to be the finest ship ever launched from a Sunderland yard. She was built in ten months by James Laing at their Deptford yard on the Wear in 1875. Between 1939 and 1945 the Wear yards launched 245 merchant ships totalling 1.5 million tons, a quarter of the merchant tonnage produced in the UK at this period. Victoria Hall Disaster The Victoria Hall was a large concert hall on Toward Road facing onto Mowbray Park. In June 1883 a children's variety show was presented for the families of mine and shipyard workers. The number of children admitted exceeded the capacity of the auditorium and to try and control access the theatre manager wedged shut one of the double doors that was the sole access to the auditorium. At the end of the performance it was announced that tickets holders would be able to collect a prize on their way out. This triggered a rush for the doors that had been wedged shut soon creating a lethal press of bodies. 183 children died and in some cases entire families. Newspaper reports triggered a mood of national outrage and the resulting enquiry recommended that public venues be fitted with a minimum number of outward opening emergency exits, which led to the invention of 'push bar' emergency doors, and this law still remains in full force to this day. A public subscription raised funds for a memorial statue that was restored and relocated in 2002, now standing in the revamped Mowbray Park. The Victoria Hall remained in use until the Second World War when it was destroyed by a bombing raid. 20th century to present Next to the North Sea, Sunderland was traditionally a major centre of the shipbuilding and coal mining industries, although the last shipyard closed in 1988 and the last coal mine in 1994. The site of the last coal mine is now occupied by the Stadium of Light, the home ground of football club Sunderland A.F.C. Vaux Breweries was established in the town centre in the 1880s and for 110 years was a major employer. Following a series of consolidations in the British Brewing Industry, however, the brewery was finally closed in July 1999. Vaux in Sunderland and Wards in Sheffield had been part of the Vaux Group, but with the closure of both breweries it was re-branded The Swallow Group, concentrating on the hotel side of the business. This was subject to a successful take-over by Whitbread PLC in the autumn of 2000. As the traditional industries have declined, electronics, chemicals, and paper manufacture have replaced them. Some of these new industries, as well as the Nissan car plant, and the nearby North East Aircraft Museum are in Washington, which has more space to allow purpose built factories. The service sector has countered the decline in heavy industry, and the town is home to many customer service telephone call centres, the quality of which means they have avoided the recent trend towards outsourcing overseas. Commencing in 1990 the banks of the Wear experienced a massive physical regeneration with the creation of housing, retail parks and business centres on former shipbuilding sites. Alongside the creation of the National Glass Centre the University of Sunderland has also created a new campus on the St. Peter's site. The clearance of the Vaux Brewery site on the North East fringe of the City Centre has created a further opportunity for new development in the city centre. Like many cities, Sunderland comprises a number of areas with their own distinct histories, e.g: Fulwell, Monkwearmouth, Roker, and Southwick on the northern side of the Wear, and Bishopwearmouth and Hendon to the south. The town was the one of the most heavily bombed areas in England during World War II. As a result, much of the town centre was rebuilt in an undistinguished concrete utility style. However, many fine old buildings remain. Religious buildings include Holy Trinity built in 1719 for an independent Sunderland, St. Michaels's Church, built as Bishopwearmouth Parish Church and now known as Sunderland Minster and St. Peter's Church, Monkwearmouth, part of which dates from AD 674, and was the original monastery. St. Andrew's Roker, so-called "Cathedral of the Arts and Crafts Movement", contains work by William Morris, Ernest Gimson and Eric Gill. Current Social and Economic Development
Transport Sunderland station is served by Northern Rail services between Newcastle and Middlesbrough, and since 2002, the Tyne and Wear Metro system between Newcastle and South Hylton. A multi-million pound transport interchange at Park Lane was opened in May 1999. It is the busiest bus and coach station in Britain after Victoria Coach Station in Central London, and has won several awards for innovative design. A new Metro station was built underneath the bus concourse to provide a direct interchange as part of the extension to South Hylton in 2002. Grand Central Railway has announced plans to operate a direct service between Sunderland and King's Cross railway station in London. The service will begin in December 2006 with six departures daily each way. Other facts
Twin Cities Sunderland's twin cities are: In June 2006, officials from Sunderland and Washington D.C signed a Friendship Agreement, hoping to create cultural and economic ties between the two cities. Both cities share historical links, as the ancestors of the first President of the United States of America, George Washington, lived in Washington Old Hall just outside of Sunderland. Famous people from Sunderland Famous Sunderland residents News Education Sunderland Regeneration Local Information Local Interest Culture and Heritage Photographs Travel Links The People of Sunderland Picture Gallery
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