City of Sunderland

Sunderland shown within Tyne and Wear

Sunderland is an industrial city and a port in the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear, before 1974 it was a county borough in County Durham in North East England. Before Sunderland became a city in 1992, it was one of the largest non-cities in Europe. In 2002 Sunderland was connected to the Tyne and Wear Metro system.

The city is a metropolitan district, which includes the towns of Washington, Houghton-le-Spring and Hetton-le-Hole. The city has a combined population of 280,807 (2001 Census), making it the largest in North East England. The part of the city that previous to 1974 formed a county borough has a population of around 195,000.

Located at the mouth of the River Wear, the name "Sunderland" is reputed to come from Soender-land: the land divided by the river. The City is part of the Diocese of Durham. In 674 the King of Northumbria granted a large tract of land to Benedict Biscop to set up a monastery. As a result the north side of the river became "Monkwearmouth", and the south "Bishopwearmouth", and so wearmouth was cut asunder by the river, and politics. The monastery quickly became associated with the Venerable Bede.

In 1712 the separate parish of Sunderland was carved from the east of Bishopwearmouth, to serve the port. Local government was in the hands of the three churches, and when cholera broke out in 1830 the "select vestrymen" as the church councilmen were called showed themselves completely unable to understand and cope with the epidemic Demands for democracy and organised town government saw the Borough of Sunderland created in 1836, although impatient citizens elected Andrew White to be Mayor in December 1835.

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 Stadium of Light, home to the city's main football club, Sunderland A.F.C, was built on the site of the city's last coal mine.

As the traditional industries have declined, they have been replaced by electronics, car manufacture at the Nissan plant on the road to Washington, chemicals, and paper manufacture. The service sector has countered the decline in heavy industry, and the City is home to many customer service telephone call centres, the quality of which means they have avoided the recent trend towards outsourcing overseas.

Like many cities, it is comprised of several areas with their own distinct histories, eg: Fulwell, Monkwearmouth, Roker and Southwick on the northern side of the Wear, and Bishopwearmouth and Hendon to the south.

The Short Sunderland was a type of flying boat used by the RAF during World War II. It was named after the city.

Sunderland is home to the University of Sunderland.

On March 24 2004 the City adopted St Benedict Biscop as its patron saint.

External link

• Sunderland Council website
• University of Sunderland