156-620: Monkwearmouth is an area of Sunderland , Tyne and Wear in England. Monkwearmouth is located at the north side of the mouth of the River Wear . It was one of the three original settlements on the banks of the River Wear along with Bishopwearmouth and Sunderland. It includes the area around St. Peter's Church , founded in 674 as part of Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Abbey , and was once the main centre of Wearside shipbuilding and coalmining in
312-530: A Merovingian bride, and is one of the first Anglo-Saxon rulers who can be identified with some confidence. Bede and later sources portrayed Æthelberht as a descendant of the original group of "Saxons" mentioned by Gildas, although they apparently believed they were actually Jutish. Unfortunately the king lists and genealogies produced by Bede and later writers are not considered reliable for these early centuries. A 2022 genetic study used modern and ancient DNA samples from England and neighbouring countries to study
468-661: A fishing village at the southern mouth of the river (now the East End) known as 'Soender-land' (which evolved into 'Sunderland'). This settlement was granted a charter in 1179 under the name of the borough of Wearmouth by Hugh Pudsey , then the Bishop of Durham (who had quasi- monarchical power within the County Palatine of Durham ). The charter gave its merchants the same rights as those of Newcastle-upon-Tyne , but it nevertheless took time for Sunderland to develop as
624-411: A port . Fishing was the main commercial activity at the time: mainly herring in the 13th century, then salmon in the 14th and 15th centuries. From 1346 ships were being built at Wearmouth, by a merchant named Thomas Menville, and by 1396 a small amount of coal was being exported. Rapid growth of the port was prompted by the salt trade. Salt exports from Sunderland are recorded from as early as
780-516: A second FA Cup . Shipbuilding ended in 1988 and coal-mining in 1993 after a mid-1980s unemployment crisis with 20 per cent of the local workforce unemployed. Electronic, chemical, paper and motor manufacturing as well as the service sector expanded during the 1980s and 1990s to fill unemployment from heavy industry. In 1986 Japanese car manufacturer Nissan opened its Nissan Motor Manufacturing UK factory in Washington, which has since become
936-498: A watch , and improve the market. In 1832 a parliamentary borough (constitutency) of Sunderland was created, covering the parishes or townships of Sunderland, Bishopwearmouth, Bishopwearmouth Panns, Monkwearmouth, Monkwearmouth Shore and Southwick. In 1836 Sunderland was reformed to become a municipal borough under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835 , which standardised how most boroughs operated across
1092-421: A "shameful habit" of drinking and eating in the outhouse, which some of the countrywomen practised at beer parties. In April 1016, Æthelred died of illness, leaving his son and successor Edmund Ironside to defend the country. The final struggles were complicated by internal dissension, and especially by the treacherous acts of Ealdorman Eadric of Mercia, who opportunistically changed sides to Cnut's party. After
1248-403: A charter in 1179 under the name of 'Wearmouth'. The original borough covered a relatively small area in the north-east corner of the old Bishopwearmouth parish, lying on the south side of the mouth of the River Wear. The borough was granted a further charter in 1634 which gave it the right to appoint a mayor and incorporated the town under the name of Sunderland rather than Wearmouth. The area of
1404-628: A coalition of his enemies – Constantine , King of the Scots; Owain ap Dyfnwal , King of the Cumbrians; and Olaf Guthfrithson , King of Dublin – at the battle of Brunanburh , celebrated by a poem in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , opened the way for him to be hailed as the first king of England. Æthelstan's legislation shows how the king drove his officials to do their respective duties. He was uncompromising in his insistence on respect for
1560-500: A common collective term, and indeed became dominant. The increased use of these new collective terms, "English" or "Anglo-Saxon", represents the strengthening of the idea of a single unifying cultural unity among the Anglo-Saxons themselves, who had previously invested in identities which differentiated various regional groups. In contrast, Irish and Welsh speakers long continued to refer to Anglo-Saxons as Saxons. The word Saeson
1716-667: A few hundred metres south of the old station. Wearmouth Colliery , a coal mine , was closed in December 1993 after it had been in operation for over 100 years. The site is now the home of the Stadium of Light , which opened in July 1997 and is the home of the football club Sunderland A.F.C. , who had previously played at Roker Park . Monkwearmouth was part of the Sunderland North parliamentary constituency for elections to
SECTION 10
#17327753458521872-420: A formidable fighting force. At first, Alfred responded by the offer of repeated tribute payments. However, after a decisive victory at Edington in 878, Alfred offered vigorous opposition. He established a chain of fortresses across the south of England, reorganised the army, "so that always half its men were at home, and half out on service, except for those men who were to garrison the burhs", and in 896 ordered
2028-528: A king, but who under the Alfredian regime was regarded as the 'ealdorman' of his people. The wealth of the monasteries and the success of Anglo-Saxon society attracted the attention of people from mainland Europe, mostly Danes and Norwegians. Because of the plundering raids that followed, the raiders attracted the name Viking – from the Old Norse víkingr meaning an expedition – which soon became used for
2184-409: A large part of Britain, and writing about Romano-British kingdoms which had been limited to the north and west. Other historians have argued that in the 5th century many Romano-British people must have adopted the new culture which we now call Anglo-Saxon, even when they did not have Germanic ancestry or rulers. Unfortunately, there are very few written sources apart from Gildas until the conversion of
2340-424: A letter addressed by Aldhelm to Hadrian that he too must be numbered among their students. Aldhelm wrote in elaborate and grandiloquent and very difficult Latin, which became the dominant style for centuries. Michael Drout states "Aldhelm wrote Latin hexameters better than anyone before in England (and possibly better than anyone since, or at least up until John Milton ). His work showed that scholars in England, at
2496-612: A mission to Christianise the Kingdom of Northumbria from their native Anglo-Saxon paganism. Oswald had probably chosen Iona because after his father had been killed he had fled into south-west Scotland and had encountered Christianity, and had returned determined to make Northumbria Christian. Aidan achieved great success in spreading the Christian faith in the north, and since Aidan could not speak English and Oswald had learned Irish during his exile, Oswald acted as Aidan's interpreter when
2652-624: A monastery in Campania (near Naples). One of their first tasks at Canterbury was the establishment of a school; and according to Bede (writing some sixty years later), they soon "attracted a crowd of students into whose minds they daily poured the streams of wholesome learning". As evidence of their teaching, Bede reports that some of their students, who survived to his own day, were as fluent in Greek and Latin as in their native language. Bede does not mention Aldhelm in this connection; but we know from
2808-701: A new type of craft to be built which could oppose the Viking longships in shallow coastal waters. When the Vikings returned from the Continent in 892, they found they could no longer roam the country at will, for wherever they went they were opposed by a local army. After four years, the Scandinavians therefore split up, some to settle in Northumbria and East Anglia, the remainder to try their luck again on
2964-641: A number of casual references scattered throughout the Bede 's history to this aspect of Mercian military policy. Penda is found ravaging Northumbria as far north as Bamburgh and only a miraculous intervention from Aidan prevents the complete destruction of the settlement. In 676 Æthelred conducted a similar ravaging in Kent and caused such damage in the Rochester diocese that two successive bishops gave up their position because of lack of funds. In these accounts there
3120-679: A pair of gun batteries were built (in 1742 and 1745) on the shoreline to the south of the South Pier, to defend the river from attack (a further battery was built on the cliff top in Roker, ten years later). One of the pair was washed away by the sea in 1780, but the other was expanded during the French Revolutionary Wars and became known as the Black Cat Battery. In 1794 Sunderland Barracks were built, behind
3276-579: A passenger service from Sunderland to Seaham Harbour. In 1886–90 Sunderland Town Hall was built in Fawcett Street, just to the east of the railway station, to a design by Brightwen Binyon . By 1889 two million tons of coal per year was passing through Hudson Dock, while to the south of Hendon Dock, the Wear Fuel Works distilled coal tar to produce pitch, oil and other products. The 20th century saw Sunderland A.F.C. established as
SECTION 20
#17327753458523432-575: A passenger terminus there in 1836. In 1847 the line was bought by George Hudson 's York and Newcastle Railway . Hudson, nicknamed 'The Railway King', was Member of Parliament for Sunderland and was already involved in a scheme to build a dock in the area. In 1846 he had formed the Sunderland Dock Company , which received parliamentary approval for the construction of a dock between the South Pier and Hendon Bay. Increasing industrialisation had prompted residential expansion away from
3588-546: A physical link with Monkwearmouth following the construction of a bridge, the Wearmouth Bridge , which was the world's second iron bridge (after the famous span at Ironbridge ). It was built at the instigation of Rowland Burdon , the Member of Parliament (MP) for County Durham , and described by Nikolaus Pevsner as being 'a triumph of the new metallurgy and engineering ingenuity [...] of superb elegance'. Spanning
3744-567: A renaissance in classical knowledge. The growth and popularity of monasticism was not an entirely internal development, with influence from the continent shaping Anglo-Saxon monastic life. In 669 Theodore , a Greek-speaking monk originally from Tarsus in Asia Minor, arrived in Britain to become the eighth Archbishop of Canterbury . He was joined the following year by his colleague Hadrian, a Latin-speaking African by origin and former abbot of
3900-562: A reputation in Europe and showing that the English could write history and theology, and do astronomical computation (for the dates of Easter, among other things). During the 9th century, Wessex rose in power, from the foundations laid by King Egbert in the first quarter of the century to the achievements of King Alfred the Great in its closing decades. The outlines of the story are told in
4056-552: A steam-powered hemp-spinning machine which had been devised by a local schoolmaster, Richard Fothergill, in 1793; the ropery building still stands, in the Deptford area of the city. Sunderland's shipbuilding industry continued to grow through most of the 19th century, becoming the town's dominant industry and a defining part of its identity. By 1815 it was 'the leading shipbuilding port for wooden trading vessels' with 600 ships constructed that year across 31 different yards. By 1840
4212-526: A turning point the continental ancestors of the Anglo-Saxons were probably quite diverse, and they arrived over a longer period. In another passage, Bede named pagan peoples still living in Germany ( Germania ) in the eighth century "from whom the Angles or Saxons, who now inhabit Britain, are known to have derived their origin; for which reason they are still corruptly called Garmans by the neighbouring nation of
4368-568: A working alliance between the West Saxon dynasty and the rulers of the Mercians. In 860, the eastern and western parts of the southern kingdom were united by agreement between the surviving sons of King Æthelwulf , though the union was not maintained without some opposition from within the dynasty; and in the late 870s King Alfred gained the submission of the Mercians under their ruler Æthelred , who in other circumstances might have been styled
4524-602: Is a port city in Tyne and Wear , England . It is a port at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea , approximately 10 miles (16 km) south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne . The built-up area had a population of 168,277 at the 2021 census, making it the second largest settlement in North East England after Newcastle. It is the administrative centre of the metropolitan borough of the same name . Sunderland
4680-497: Is a rare glimpse of the realities of early Anglo-Saxon overlordship and how a widespread overlordship could be established in a relatively short period. By the middle of the 8th century, other kingdoms of southern Britain were also affected by Mercian expansionism. The East Saxons seem to have lost control of London, Middlesex and Hertfordshire to Æthelbald, although the East Saxon homelands do not seem to have been affected, and
4836-843: Is now northern Germany , which in their own time had become well-known as a region resisting the spread of Christianity and Frankish rule . According to this account, the English (Angle) migrants came from a country neighbouring those Saxons. Anglo-Saxon material culture can be seen in architecture , dress styles , illuminated texts, metalwork and other art . Behind the symbolic nature of these cultural emblems, there are strong elements of tribal and lordship ties. The elite declared themselves kings who developed burhs (fortifications and fortified settlements), and identified their roles and peoples in Biblical terms. Above all, as archaeologist Helena Hamerow has observed, "local and extended kin groups remained...the essential unit of production throughout
Monkwearmouth - Misplaced Pages Continue
4992-592: Is the Heptarchy , which has not been used by scholars since the early 20th century as it gives the impression of a single political structure and does not afford the "opportunity to treat the history of any one kingdom as a whole". Simon Keynes suggests that the 8th and 9th century was a period of economic and social flourishing which created stability both below the Thames and above the Humber . Middle-lowland Britain
5148-614: Is the modern Welsh word for "English people"; the equivalent word in Scottish Gaelic is Sasannach and in the Irish language , Sasanach . Catherine Hills suggests that it is no accident "that the English call themselves by the name sanctified by the Church, as that of a people chosen by God, whereas their enemies use the name originally applied to piratical raiders". Although it involved immigrant communities from northern Europe,
5304-613: The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , though the annals represent a West Saxon point of view. On the day of Egbert's succession to the kingdom of Wessex, in 802, a Mercian ealdorman from the province of the Hwicce had crossed the border at Kempsford , with the intention of mounting a raid into northern Wiltshire ; the Mercian force was met by the local ealdorman, "and the people of Wiltshire had the victory". In 829, Egbert went on,
5460-572: The Crimean War ; nonetheless, sailing ships continued to be built, including fast fully-rigged composite -built clippers , including the City of Adelaide in 1864 and Torrens (the last such vessel ever built), in 1875. By the middle of the century glassmaking was at its height on Wearside. James Hartley & Co. , established in Sunderland in 1836, grew to be the largest glassworks in
5616-601: The Danelaw . This was the " Great Army ", a term used by the Chronicle in England and by Adrevald of Fleury on the Continent. The invaders were able to exploit the feuds between and within the various kingdoms and to appoint puppet kings, such as Ceolwulf in Mercia in 873 and perhaps others in Northumbria in 867 and East Anglia in 870. The third phase was an era of settlement; however, the "Great Army" went wherever it could find
5772-569: The Early Middle Ages . They traced their origins to Germanic settlers who became one of the most important cultural groups in Britain by the 5th century. The Anglo-Saxon period in Britain is considered to have started by about 450 and ended in 1066, with the Norman Conquest . Although the details of their early settlement and political development are not clear, by the 8th century a single Anglo-Saxon cultural identity which
5928-578: The Frankish kingdom of Austrasia . Bede therefore called these the " Old Saxons " ( antiqui saxones ), and he noted that there was no longer any country of Angles in Germany, as it had become empty due to emigration. Similarly, a non-Anglo-Saxon contemporary of Bede, Paul the Deacon , referred variously to either the English ( Angli ), or Anglo-Saxons (Latin plural genitives Saxonum Anglorum , or Anglorum Saxonum ), which helped him distinguish them from
6084-674: The Franks on the Lower Rhine . At the same time, the Roman administration in Britain (and other parts of the empire) was recruiting foederati soldiers from the same general regions in what is now Germany, and these are likely to have become more important after the withdrawal of field armies during internal Roman power struggles. According to the Chronica Gallica of 452 Britain was ravaged by Saxon invaders in 409 or 410. This
6240-581: The House of Commons of the United Kingdom . Monkwearmouth is now part of Sunderland Central . In 1891 the civil parish had a population of 9116. On 25 March 1897 the parish was abolished and merged with Sunderland. In 1974 it became part of the metropolitan district of Sunderland . Anticlockwise Roker Monkwearmouth, Sunderland Clockwise Hendon Sunderland Sunderland ( / ˈ s ʌ n d ər l ə n d / )
6396-576: The Isle of Thanet and proceeded to King Æthelberht 's main town of Canterbury . He had been sent by Pope Gregory the Great to lead the Gregorian mission to Britain to Christianise the Kingdom of Kent from their native Anglo-Saxon paganism . Kent was probably chosen because Æthelberht had married a Christian princess, Bertha , daughter of Charibert I the king of Paris , who was expected to exert some influence over her husband. Æthelberht in Kent
Monkwearmouth - Misplaced Pages Continue
6552-527: The National Glass Centre a new University of Sunderland campus on the St Peter's site were also built. The former Vaux Breweries site on the north west fringe of the city centre was cleared for further development opportunities. After 99 years at the historic Roker Park stadium, the city’s football club, Sunderland AFC moved to the 42,000-seat Stadium of Light on the banks of
6708-645: The River Tyne , crippling the Newcastle coal trade, which allowed a short period of flourishing coal trade on the Wear. In 1669, after the Restoration , King Charles II granted letters patent to one Edward Andrew, Esq. to 'build a pier and erect a lighthouse or lighthouses and cleanse the harbour of Sunderland'. There was a tonnage duty levy on shipping in order to raise the necessary funds. There
6864-543: The Synod of Whitby was convened and established Roman practice as opposed to Irish practice (in style of tonsure and dates of Easter) as the norm in Northumbria, and thus "brought the Northumbrian church into the mainstream of Roman culture." The episcopal seat of Northumbria was transferred from Lindisfarne to York . Wilfrid , chief advocate for the Roman position, later became Bishop of Northumbria, while Colmán and
7020-646: The civil war and with the exception of Kingston upon Hull , the North declared for the King. In 1644 the North was captured by the Roundheads (Parliamentarians), the area itself taken in March of that year. One artefact of the civil war in the area was the long trench; a tactic of later warfare. In the village of Offerton roughly three miles inland from the present city centre, skirmishes occurred. The Roundheads blockaded
7176-578: The "War of the Saxon Federates". Unlike Bede and later writers who followed him, for whom this war turned into a very long war between two nations which was eventually won by the descendants of the Saxons, Gildas reported that by the time he was born this war ended successfully for the Britons after the siege at 'Mons Badonicus' . (The price of peace, Higham argues, must have been a better treaty for
7332-497: The "proud tyrant" as Vortigern . However, the date could have been significantly earlier, and Bede's understanding of these events has been questioned. The Historia Brittonum , written in the 9th century, gives two different years, but the writer apparently believed it happened in 428. Another 9th century source, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is largely based on Bede but says this Saxon arrival happened in 449. The archaeological evidence suggests an earlier timescale. In particular,
7488-536: The 'finest book in the world', was created at the monastery and was likely worked on by Bede , who was born at Wearmouth in 673. This is one of the oldest monasteries still standing in England. While at the monastery, Bede completed the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (The Ecclesiastical History of the English People) in 731, a feat which earned him the title The father of English history . In
7644-404: The 13th century, by 1589 salt pans were laid at Bishopwearmouth Panns (the modern-day name of the area the pans occupied is Pann's Bank, on the river bank between the city centre and the East End). Large vats of seawater were heated using coal; as the water evaporated, the salt remained. As coal was required to heat the salt pans, a coal mining community began to emerge. Only poor-quality coal
7800-490: The 4th century not with a specific country or nation, but with raiders in North Sea coastal areas of Britain and Gaul . An especially early reference to the Angli is the 6th-century Byzantine historian Procopius who however expressed doubts about the stories he had heard about events in the west, which he apparently heard through Frankish diplomats. He never mentions the Saxons, but he states that an island called Brittia, which
7956-550: The Anglo-Saxon period." In modern times, the term "Anglo-Saxons" is used by scholars to refer collectively to the Old English speaking groups in Britain. As a compound term it has the advantage of covering the various English-speaking groups on the one hand, and to avoid possible misunderstandings from using the terms "Saxons" or " Angles " (English), both of which terms could be used either as collectives referring to all
SECTION 50
#17327753458528112-408: The Anglo-Saxons to Christianity which began in the late 6th century. One eastern contemporary of Gildas, Procopius , reported a story which was apparently relayed to him by Frankish diplomats, that an island called Brittia which faced the Rhine was divided, between three peoples, the Britons, Anglii, and Frisians. Much later, Æthelberht of Kent (died 616) invited missionaries from the Pope and married
8268-503: The Baltic and elsewhere which, together with locally available limestone (and coal to fire the furnaces) was a key ingredient in the glassmaking process. Other industries that developed alongside the river included lime burning and pottery making (the town's first commercial pottery manufactory, the Garrison Pottery, had opened in old Sunderland in 1750). By 1770 Sunderland had spread westwards along its High Street to join up with Bishopwearmouth. In 1796 Bishopwearmouth in turn gained
8424-413: The Britons": the Frisians , the Rugini , the Danes , the " Huns " ( Avars in this period), the "old Saxons", and the " Boructuari " who are presumed to be inhabitants of the old lands of the Bructeri , near the Lippe river. Gildas reported that a war broke out between the Saxons and the local population, who joined forces under a person named Ambrosius Aurelianus . Historian Nick Higham calls it
8580-502: The Continent. More important to Alfred than his military and political victories were his religion, his love of learning, and his spread of writing throughout England. Keynes suggests Alfred's work laid the foundations for what really made England unique in all of medieval Europe from around 800 until 1066. Thinking about how learning and culture had fallen since the last century, King Alfred wrote: ...So completely had wisdom fallen off in England that there were very few on this side of
8736-406: The Danes and that any charters issued in respect of such grants have not survived. When Athelflæd died, Mercia was absorbed by Wessex. From that point on there was no contest for the throne, so the house of Wessex became the ruling house of England. Edward the Elder was succeeded by his son Æthelstan , whom Keynes calls the "towering figure in the landscape of the tenth century". His victory over
8892-432: The East Saxon dynasty continued into the ninth century. The Mercian influence and reputation reached its peak when, in the late 8th century, the most powerful European ruler of the age, the Frankish king Charlemagne , recognised the Mercian King Offa 's power and accordingly treated him with respect, even if this could have been just flattery. Michael Drout calls this period the "Golden Age", when learning flourished with
9048-411: The Elder – who with his sister, Æthelflæd , Lady of the Mercians, initially, charters reveal, encouraged people to purchase estates from the Danes, thereby to reassert some degree of English influence in territory which had fallen under Danish control. David Dumville suggests that Edward may have extended this policy by rewarding his supporters with grants of land in the territories newly conquered from
9204-416: The European Saxons who he also discussed. In England itself this compound term also came to be used in some specific situations, both in Latin and Old English. Alfred the Great , himself a West Saxon, was for example Anglosaxonum Rex in the late 880s, probably indicating that he was literally a king over both English (for example Mercian) and Saxon kingdoms. However, the term "English" continued to be used as
9360-538: The Great's Pastoral Care") What is presumed to be one of these "æstel" (the word only appears in this one text) is the gold, rock crystal and enamel Alfred Jewel , discovered in 1693, which is assumed to have been fitted with a small rod and used as a pointer when reading. Alfred provided functional patronage, linked to a social programme of vernacular literacy in England, which was unprecedented. Therefore it seems better to me, if it seems so to you, that we also translate certain books ...and bring it about ...if we have
9516-430: The Humber who could understand their rituals in English, or indeed could translate a letter from Latin into English; and I believe that there were not many beyond the Humber. There were so few of them that I indeed cannot think of a single one south of the Thames when I became king. (Preface: "Gregory the Great's Pastoral Care") Alfred knew that literature and learning, both in English and in Latin, were very important, but
SECTION 60
#17327753458529672-410: The Ionan supporters, who did not change their practices, withdrew to Iona. Wilfred also influenced kings to the south who were under the dominance of Oswiu, such as the son of Penda, Wulfhere of Mercia (died 675), who converted to Christianity and eventually recovered control over Mercia, and eventually expanded his dominance over most of England, beginning a long period of Mercian supremacy . By 660,
9828-399: The Norman Conquest. Late Anglo-Saxon political structures and language are the direct predecessors of the high medieval Kingdom of England and the Middle English language. Although the modern English language owes less than 26% of its words to Old English, this includes the vast majority of everyday words. In the early 8th century, the earliest detailed account of Anglo-Saxon origins
9984-407: The Old English speakers, or to specific tribal groups. Although the term "Anglo Saxon" was not used as a common term until modern times, it is not a modern invention because it was also used in some specific contexts already between the 8th and 10th centuries. Before the 8th century, the most common collective term for the Old-English speakers was "Saxons", which was a word originally associated since
10140-445: The Picts and Scots. Gildas did not report the year, and later writers (and modern historians) developed different estimates of when this occurred. Possibly referring to this same event, the Chronica Gallica of 452 records for the year 441: "The British provinces, which to this time had suffered various defeats and misfortunes, are reduced to Saxon rule". Bede, writing centuries later, reasoned that this happened in 450-455, and he named
10296-458: The River Wear at North Hylton , including four stone anchors, which may support the theory that there was a Roman dam or port on the River Wear. Recorded settlements at the mouth of the Wear date to c. 674 , when an Anglo-Saxon nobleman, Benedict Biscop, was granted land by King Ecgfrith, founded the Wearmouth–Jarrow ( St Peter's ) monastery on the north bank of the river—an area that became known as Monkwearmouth. Biscop's monastery
10452-408: The River Wear in 1997. At the time, it was the largest stadium built by an English football club since the 1920s, and has since been expanded to hold nearly 50,000 seated spectators. On 24 March 2004, the city adopted Benedict Biscop as its patron saint . In 2018 the city was ranked as the best to live and work in the UK by the finance firm OneFamily. In the same year, the city was ranked as one of
10608-507: The Saxons, giving them the ability to receive tribute from people across the lowlands of Britain. ) Gildas himself did not mention the defeated Saxons as an ongoing problem, but instead he noted that the Britons had become divided into many small "tyrannies". His interest was in criticizing the Romano-British ruling class, whereas archaeological evidence shows that Anglo-Saxon culture had long become dominant over much of Britain. Historians who accept Bede's understanding interpret Gildas as ignoring
10764-399: The Scots, who had the capacity not merely to interfere in Northumbrian affairs, but also to block a line of communication between Dublin and York; and the inhabitants of northern Northumbria were considered a law unto themselves. It was only after twenty years of crucial developments following Æthelstan's death in 939 that a unified kingdom of England began to assume its familiar shape. However,
10920-415: The Sunderland Shipbuilding Co. Ltd. (at Hudson Dock) both closed in the 1920s, and other yards were closed down by National Shipbuilders Securities in the 1930s. By 1936 Sunderland AFC had been league champions on six occasions. They won their first FA Cup in 1937 . With the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Sunderland was a key target of the German Luftwaffe bombing. Luftwaffe raids resulted in
11076-458: The Sunderland area were Stone Age hunter-gatherers and artifacts from this era have been discovered, including microliths found during excavations at St Peter's Church, Monkwearmouth . During the final phase of the Stone Age, the Neolithic period ( c. 4000 – c. 2000 BC), Hastings Hill , on the western outskirts of Sunderland, was a focal point of activity and a place of burial and ritual significance. Evidence includes
11232-527: The UK's largest car factory. Sunderland received city status in 1992. Like many cities, Sunderland comprises a number of areas with their own distinct histories, Fulwell , Monkwearmouth, Roker , and Southwick on the northern side of the Wear, and Bishopwearmouth and Hendon to the south. From 1990, the Wear’s riverbanks were regenerated with new housing, retail parks and business centres on former shipbuilding sites;
11388-493: The Wear Flint Glassworks (which had originally been established in 1697). In addition to the plate glass and pressed glass manufacturers there were 16 bottle works on the Wear in the 1850s, with the capacity to produce between 60 and 70,000 bottles a day. In 1848 George Hudson's York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway built a passenger terminus, Monkwearmouth Station , just north of Wearmouth Bridge; and south of
11544-619: The Wearside area's greatest claim to sporting fame. Founded in 1879 as Sunderland and District Teachers A.F.C. by schoolmaster James Allan , Sunderland joined The Football League for the 1890–91 season . From 1900 to 1919, an electric tram system was built and was gradually replaced by buses during the 1940s before being ended in 1954. In 1909 the Queen Alexandra Bridge was built, linking Deptford and Southwick . The First World War increased shipbuilding, leading to
11700-553: The archaeological record in Britain begins to indicate a relatively rapid melt-down of Roman material culture, and its replacement by Anglo-Saxon material culture. At some time between 445 and 454 Gildas , one of the only writers in this period, reported that the Britons also wrote to the Roman military leader Aëtius in Gaul, begging for assistance, with no success. In desperation, an un-named "proud tyrant" at some point invited Saxons as foederati soldiers to Britain to help defend it from
11856-698: The area were called "Barbary Coasters". The borough stretches from Wearmouth Bridge to the harbour mouth on the north side of the river and is one of the oldest parts of Sunderland. The former railway station, closed in 1968 by the Beeching Axe , is now the Monkwearmouth Station Museum and features a restored booking office dating from the Edwardian period. Since 2002, Monkwearmouth has once again been served by rail transport, this time via St Peter's Tyne and Wear Metro station
12012-400: The battery, close to what was then the tip of the headland. The world's first steam dredger was built in Sunderland in 1796-7 and put to work on the river the following year. Designed by Stout's successor as Engineer, Jonathan Pickernell jr (in post from 1795 to 1804), it consisted of a set of 'bag and spoon' dredgers driven by a tailor-made 4-horsepower Boulton & Watt beam engine. It
12168-399: The borough was made a separate parish from Bishopwearmouth by an act of parliament in 1719. The ancient borough's powers were relatively modest. Unlike most such boroughs, it did not hold its own courts, nor did it have any meaningful municipal functions. A separate body of improvement commissioners was established in 1810 with responsibilities to pave, light and clean the streets, provide
12324-457: The chronicler reports, to conquer "the kingdom of the Mercians and everything south of the Humber". It was at this point that the chronicler chooses to attach Egbert's name to Bede's list of seven overlords, adding that "he was the eighth king who was Bretwalda ". Simon Keynes suggests Egbert's foundation of a 'bipartite' kingdom is crucial as it stretched across southern England, and it created
12480-444: The collective term, and this eventually became dominant. Bede, like other authors, also continued to use the collective term " Saxons ", especially when referring to the earliest periods of settlement. Roman and British writers of the 3rd to 6th century had described those earliest Saxons as North Sea raiders, and mercenaries. Later sources such as Bede believed these early raiders came from the region they called " Old Saxony ", in what
12636-399: The conduct of government and warfare during Æthelred's reign. It is this evidence which is the basis for Keynes's view that the king lacked the strength, judgement and resolve to give adequate leadership to his people in a time of grave national crisis; who soon found out that he could rely on little but the treachery of his military commanders; and who, throughout his reign, tasted nothing but
12792-554: The council was based at the Civic Centre on Burdon Road, which had been built in 1970. Sunderland has the motto of Nil Desperandum Auspice Deo or Under God's guidance we may never despair . The borough's population (at the 2021 Census) was 274,200. The original settlement of Sunderland was historically part of the ancient parish of Bishopwearmouth in County Durham. It was an ancient borough , having been granted
12948-556: The country and (having patented an innovative production technique for rolled plate glass ) produced much of the glass used in the construction of the Crystal Palace in 1851. A third of all UK-manufactured plate glass was produced at Hartley's by this time. Other manufacturers included the Cornhill Flint Glassworks (established at Southwick in 1865), which went on to specialise in pressed glass , as did
13104-475: The country. The municipal boundaries were enlarged at the same time to match the constituency, although later that year the municipal boundaries were reduced to remove Southwick and the parts of Bishopwearmouth and Bishopwearmouth Panns which fell more than one mile from the centre of Wearmouth Bridge. The improvement commissioners were wound up in 1851 and their functions transferred to the council. When elected county councils were established in 1889, Sunderland
13260-485: The county borough was replaced by a larger metropolitan borough within the new county of Tyne and Wear. The borough gained Hetton-le-Hole , Houghton-le-Spring , Washington , Burdon , and Warden Law . Anglo-Saxons The Anglo-Saxons , in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English , were a cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in
13416-586: The culture of the Anglo-Saxons was not transplanted from there, but rather developed in Britain. In 400, the Roman province of Britannia had long been part of the Roman Empire . Although the empire had been dismembered several times during the previous centuries, often because of usurpations beginning in Britain such as those of Magnus Maximus , and Constantine "III" there was an overall continuity and interconnectedness. Already before 400 Roman sources used
13572-592: The death of Constantine "III" in 411, "the Romans never succeeded in recovering Britain, but it remained from that time under tyrants." The Romano-Britons nevertheless called upon the empire to help them fend off attacks from not only the Saxons , but also the Picts and Scoti . A hagiography of Saint Germanus of Auxerre claims that he helped command a defence against an invasion of Picts and Saxons in 429. By about 430
13728-468: The deaths of 267 people and destruction of local industry while 4,000 homes were also damaged or destroyed. Many old buildings remain despite the bombing that occurred during World War II. Religious buildings include Holy Trinity Church, built in 1719 for an independent Sunderland, St Michael's Church, built as Bishopwearmouth Parish Church and now known as Sunderland Minster and St Peter's Church, Monkwearmouth, part of which dates from 674 AD, and
13884-681: The defeat of the English in the Battle of Assandun in October 1016, Edmund and Cnut agreed to divide the kingdom so that Edmund would rule Wessex and Cnut Mercia, but Edmund died soon after his defeat in November 1016, making it possible for Cnut to seize power over all England. In the 11th century, there were three conquests: one by Cnut on October 18, 1016; the second was an unsuccessful attempt of Battle of Stamford Bridge in September, 1066; and
14040-521: The error of his ways, leading to a period when the internal affairs of the kingdom appear to have prospered. The increasingly difficult times brought on by the Viking attacks are reflected in both Ælfric 's and Wulfstan 's works, but most notably in Wulfstan's fierce rhetoric in the Sermo Lupi ad Anglos , dated to 1014. Malcolm Godden suggests that ordinary people saw the return of the Vikings as
14196-399: The first time following the Anglo-Saxon invasion, coins began circulating in Kent during his reign. His son-in-law Sæberht of Essex also converted to Christianity. After Æthelberht's death in about 616/618, the most powerful king was Rædwald of East Anglia , who also gave Christianity a foothold in his kingdom, and helped to install Edwin of Northumbria , who replaced Æthelfrith to become
14352-477: The former presence of a cursus monument. It is believed the Brythonic -speaking Brigantes inhabited the area around the River Wear in pre- Roman Britain . There is a long-standing local legend that there was a Roman settlement on the south bank of the River Wear on what is the site of the former Vaux Brewery, although no archaeological investigation has taken place. Roman artefacts have been recovered in
14508-419: The ignominy of defeat. The raids exposed tensions and weaknesses which went deep into the fabric of the late Anglo-Saxon state, and it is apparent that events proceeded against a background more complex than the chronicler probably knew. It seems, for example, that the death of Bishop Æthelwold in 984 had precipitated further reaction against certain ecclesiastical interests; that by 993 the king had come to regret
14664-460: The imminent "expectation of the apocalypse," and this was given voice in Ælfric and Wulfstan writings, which is similar to that of Gildas and Bede. Raids were taken as signs of God punishing his people; Ælfric refers to people adopting the customs of the Danish and exhorts people not to abandon the native customs on behalf of the Danish ones, and then requests a "brother Edward" to try to put an end to
14820-411: The insistence of Athelstan, right at the end of his reign in 939. Between 970 and 973 a council was held, under the aegis of Edgar, where a set of rules were devised that would be applicable throughout England. This put all the monks and nuns in England under one set of detailed customs for the first time. In 973, Edgar received a special second, 'imperial coronation' at Bath , and from this point England
14976-483: The kingdom of England was indeed made whole. In his formal address to the gathering at Winchester the king urged his bishops, abbots and abbesses "to be of one mind as regards monastic usage . . . lest differing ways of observing the customs of one Rule and one country should bring their holy conversation into disrepute". Athelstan's court had been an intellectual incubator. In that court were two young men named Dunstan and Æthelwold who were made priests, supposedly at
15132-403: The late 20th century, the area became an automotive building centre . In 1992, the borough of Sunderland was granted city status . Sunderland is historically part of County Durham , being incorporated to the ceremonial county of Tyne and Wear in 1974. Locals are sometimes known as Mackems , a term which came into common use in the 1970s. Its use and acceptance by residents, particularly among
15288-465: The late 8th century the Vikings raided the coast, and by the middle of the 9th century the monastery had been abandoned. Lands on the south side of the river were granted to the Bishop of Durham by Athelstan of England in 930; these became known as Bishopwearmouth and included settlements such as Ryhope which fall within the modern boundary of Sunderland. In 1100, Bishopwearmouth parish included
15444-507: The latter was preaching. Later, Northumberland 's patron saint, Saint Cuthbert , was an abbot of the monastery, and then Bishop of Lindisfarne . An anonymous life of Cuthbert written at Lindisfarne is the oldest extant piece of English historical writing, and in his memory a gospel (known as the St Cuthbert Gospel ) was placed in his coffin. The decorated leather bookbinding is the oldest intact European binding. In 664,
15600-522: The law. However this legislation also reveals the persistent difficulties which confronted the king and his councillors in bringing a troublesome people under some form of control. His claim to be "king of the English" was by no means widely recognised. The situation was complex: the Hiberno-Norse rulers of Dublin still coveted their interests in the Danish kingdom of York ; terms had to be made with
15756-519: The locals and immigrants were being buried together using the same new customs, and that they were having mixed children. The authors estimate the effective contributions to modern English ancestry are between 25% and 47% "north continental", 11% and 57% from British Iron Age ancestors, and 14% and 43% was attributed to a more stretched-out migration into southern England, from nearby populations such as modern Belgium and France. There were significant regional variations in north continental ancestry ― lower in
15912-514: The major political problem for Edmund and Eadred , who succeeded Æthelstan, remained the difficulty of subjugating the north. In 959 Edgar is said to have "succeeded to the kingdom both in Wessex and in Mercia and in Northumbria, and he was then 16 years old" (ASC, version 'B', 'C'), and is called "the Peacemaker". By the early 970s, after a decade of Edgar's 'peace', it may have seemed that
16068-409: The middle of the century the town was probably the premier shipbuilding centre in Britain. Ships built in Sunderland were known as 'Jamies'. By 1788 Sunderland was Britain's fourth largest port (by measure of tonnage) after London, Newcastle and Liverpool; among these it was the leading coal exporter (though it did not rival Newcastle in terms of home coal trade). Still further growth was driven across
16224-475: The most powerful and influential women in Europe. Double monasteries which were built on strategic sites near rivers and coasts, accumulated immense wealth and power over multiple generations (their inheritances were not divided) and became centers of art and learning. While Aldhelm was doing his work in Malmesbury , far from him, up in the North of England, Bede was writing a large quantity of books, gaining
16380-522: The old port area in the suburban terraces of the Fawcett Estate and Mowbray Park . The area around Fawcett Street itself increasingly functioned as the civic and commercial town centre. Marine engineering works were established from the 1820s onwards, initially providing engines for paddle steamers ; in 1845 a ship named Experiment was the first of many to be converted to steam screw propulsion . Demand for steam-powered vessels increased during
16536-409: The older generations, is not universal. The term is also applied to the Sunderland dialect, which shares similarities with the other North East England dialects. In c. 674 , King Ecgfrith granted Benedict Biscop a "sunder-land". In 685 The Venerable Bede moved to the newly founded Jarrow monastery. He had started his monastic career at Monkwearmouth monastery and later wrote that he
16692-529: The overall group in Britain as the "English" people (Latin Angli , gens Anglorum or Old English Angelcynn ). In Bede's work the term "Saxon" is also used to refer sometimes to the Old English language, and also to refer to the early pagan Anglo-Saxons before the arrival of Christian missionaries among the Anglo-Saxons of Kent in 597. The term "Saxon", on the other hand, was at this time increasingly used by mainland writers to designate specific northern neighbours of
16848-424: The peace, that all the youth of free men who now are in England, those who have the means that they may apply themselves to it, be set to learning, while they may not be set to any other use, until the time when they can well read English writings. (Preface: "Gregory the Great's Pastoral Care") This began a growth in charters, law, theology and learning. Alfred thus laid the foundation for the great accomplishments of
17004-581: The people to their knees in 1009–12, when a large part of the country was devastated by the army of Thorkell the Tall . It remained for Swein Forkbeard , king of Denmark, to conquer the kingdom of England in 1013–14, and (after Æthelred's restoration) for his son Cnut to achieve the same in 1015–16. The tale of these years incorporated in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle must be read in its own right, and set beside other material which reflects in one way or another on
17160-665: The people's sins, raising awareness of a collective Christian identity; and by 'conquering' the kingdoms of the East Angles, the Northumbrians and the Mercians, they created a vacuum in the leadership of the English people. Danish settlement continued in Mercia in 877 and East Anglia in 879—80 and 896. The rest of the army meanwhile continued to harry and plunder on both sides of the Channel, with new recruits evidently arriving to swell its ranks, for it clearly continued to be
17316-408: The political map of Lowland Britain had developed with smaller territories coalescing into kingdoms, and from this time larger kingdoms started dominating the smaller kingdoms. The development of kingdoms, with a particular king being recognised as an overlord, developed out of an early loose structure that, Higham believes, is linked back to the original feodus . The traditional name for this period
17472-516: The preface: ...When I had learned it I translated it into English, just as I had understood it, and as I could most meaningfully render it. And I will send one to each bishopric in my kingdom, and in each will be an æstel worth fifty mancuses. And I command in God's name that no man may take the æstel from the book nor the book from the church. It is unknown how long there may be such learned bishops as, thanks to God, are nearly everywhere. (Preface: "Gregory
17628-416: The question of physical Anglo-Saxon migration and concluded that there was large-scale immigration of both men and women into Eastern England, from a "north continental" population matching early medieval people from the area stretching from northern Netherlands through northern Germany to Denmark. This began already in the Roman era, and then increased rapidly in the 5th century. The burial evidence showed that
17784-479: The raiding activity or piracy reported in western Europe. In 793, Lindisfarne was raided and while this was not the first raid of its type it was the most prominent. In 794, Jarrow, the monastery where Bede wrote, was attacked; in 795 Iona in Scotland was attacked; and in 804 the nunnery at Lyminge in Kent was granted refuge inside the walls of Canterbury. Sometime around 800, a Reeve from Portland in Wessex
17940-428: The region, towards the end of the century, by London's insatiable demand for coal during the French Revolutionary Wars . Until 1719 the borough of Sunderland formed part of the wider parish of Bishopwearmouth. Following the completion of Holy Trinity Church, Sunderland (today also known as Sunderland Old Parish Church) in 1719, the borough was made a separate parish called Sunderland. Later, in 1769, St John's Church
18096-527: The richest pickings, crossing the English Channel when faced with resolute opposition, as in England in 878, or with famine, as on the Continent in 892. By this stage, the Vikings were assuming ever increasing importance as catalysts of social and political change. They constituted the common enemy, making the English more conscious of a national identity which overrode deeper distinctions; they could be perceived as an instrument of divine punishment for
18252-671: The river another passenger terminus, in Fawcett Street, in 1853. Later, Thomas Elliot Harrison (chief engineer to the North Eastern Railway ) made plans to carry the railway across the river; the Wearmouth Railway Bridge (reputedly 'the largest Hog-Back iron girder bridge in the world') opened in 1879. In 1854 the Londonderry, Seaham & Sunderland Railway opened linking collieries to a separate set of staiths at Hudson Dock South, it also provided
18408-467: The river in a single sweep of 236 feet (72 m), it was over twice the length of the earlier bridge at Ironbridge but only three-quarters the weight. At the time of building, it was the biggest single-span bridge in the world; and because Sunderland had developed on a plateau above the river, it never suffered from the problem of interrupting the passage of high-masted vessels. During the War of Jenkins' Ear
18564-465: The second king over the two kingdoms north of the Humber, Bernicia and Deira . After Rædwald died, Cadwallon ap Cadfan, the king of Gwynedd , in alliance with king Penda of Mercia , killed Edwin in battle at Hatfield Chase . Æthelfrith's son Oswald subsequently became the third king of Northumbria. Although not included in Bede's list of rulers with imperium, Penda defeated and killed Oswald in 642 and
18720-430: The southern Danelaw, and finally over Northumbria, thereby imposing a semblance of political unity on peoples, who nonetheless would remain conscious of their respective customs and their separate pasts. The prestige, and indeed the pretensions, of the monarchy increased, the institutions of government strengthened, and kings and their agents sought in various ways to establish social order. This process started with Edward
18876-476: The state of learning was not good when Alfred came to the throne. Alfred saw kingship as a priestly office, a shepherd for his people. One book that was particularly valuable to him was Gregory the Great's Cura Pastoralis (Pastoral Care). This is a priest's guide on how to care for people. Alfred took this book as his own guide on how to be a good king to his people; hence, a good king to Alfred increases literacy. Alfred translated this book himself and explains in
19032-442: The success of the port of Sunderland, salt panning and shipbuilding along the banks of the river. Around this time, Sunderland was known as 'Sunderland-near-the-Sea'. Sunderland's third-biggest export, after coal and salt, was glass. The town's first modern glassworks were established in the 1690s and the industry grew through the 17th century. Its flourishing was aided by trading ships bringing good-quality sand (as ballast ) from
19188-440: The surviving works of Anglo-Latin and vernacular literature, as well as the numerous manuscripts written in the 10th century, testify in their different ways to the vitality of ecclesiastical culture. Yet as Keynes suggests "it does not follow that the 10th century is better understood than more sparsely documented periods". During the course of the 10th century, the West Saxon kings extended their power first over Mercia, then into
19344-528: The tenth century and did much to make the vernacular more important than Latin in Anglo-Saxon culture. I desired to live worthily as long as I lived, and to leave after my life, to the men who should come after me, the memory of me in good works. (Preface: "The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius") A framework for the momentous events of the 10th and 11th centuries is provided by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle . However charters, law-codes and coins supply detailed information on various aspects of royal government, and
19500-477: The term Saxons to refer to coastal raiders who had been causing problems especially on the coasts of the North Sea . In what is now south-eastern England the Romans established a military commander who was assigned to oversee a chain of coastal forts which they called the Saxon shore . The homeland of these Saxon raiders was not clearly described in surviving sources but they were apparently the northerly neighbours of
19656-399: The third was conducted by William of Normandy in October, 1066 at Hastings. The consequences of each conquest changed the Anglo-Saxon culture. Politically and chronologically, the texts of this period are not Anglo-Saxon; linguistically, those written in English (as opposed to Latin or French, the other official written languages of the period) moved away from the late West Saxon standard that
19812-453: The time of Magnus Maximus in the late 4th century. Bede, whose report of this period is partly based on Gildas, believed that the call was answered by kings from three powerful tribes from Germania, Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. The Saxons came from Old Saxony on the North Sea coast of Germany, and settled in Wessex , Sussex and Essex . Jutland , the peninsula containing part of Denmark,
19968-494: The top 10 safest in the UK. There is one main tier of local government covering Sunderland, at metropolitan borough level: Sunderland City Council . Most of the built-up area is an unparished area , although on its southern edge part of the built-up area falls within the parish of Burdon . The city council is based at City Hall on Plater Way (formerly the site of the Vaux Brewery), which opened in 2021. Prior to that
20124-468: The town being a target in a 1916 Zeppelin raid. Monkwearmouth was struck on 1 April 1916 and 22 people died. Over 25,000 men from a population of 151,000 served in the armed forces during the war. Through the Great Depression of the 1930s, shipbuilding dramatically declined: shipyards on the Wear went from 15 in 1921 to six in 1937. The small yards of J. Blumer & Son (at North Dock) and
20280-526: The town had 76 shipyards and between 1820 and 1850 the number of ships being built on the Wear increased fivefold. From 1846 to 1854 almost a third of the UK's ships were built in Sunderland, and in 1850 the Sunderland Herald proclaimed the town to be the greatest shipbuilding port in the world. The Durham & Sunderland Railway Co. built a railway line across the Town Moor and established
20436-643: The town. It is now host to a campus of the University of Sunderland and the National Glass Centre . It is served by the three Church of England churches of the Parish of Monkwearmouth . The first nineteenth-century Catholic church built in Monkwearmouth was St Benet's Church which remains active today. Monkwearmouth is across the river from the Port of Sunderland at Sunderland Docks . The locals of
20592-530: The very edge of Europe, could be as learned and sophisticated as any writers in Europe." During this period, the wealth and power of the monasteries increased as elite families, possibly out of power, turned to monastic life. Anglo-Saxon monasticism developed the unusual institution of the "double monastery": a house of monks and a house of nuns, living next to each other, sharing a church but never mixing, and living separate lives of celibacy. These double monasteries were presided over by abbesses, who became some of
20748-586: The west, and highest in Sussex, the East Midlands and East Anglia. From the time of the Christian conversions the first well-attested English kings and kingdoms appear in the written record. This situation with a small number of kingdoms competing for dominance is traditionally called the Heptarchy , which indicates a period of seven kingdoms. There were however more than seven kingdoms, and their interactions were quite complex. In 595 Augustine landed on
20904-399: The work of Catherine Hills and Sam Lucy on the evidence of Spong Hill has moved the chronology for the settlement earlier than 450, with a significant number of items now in phases before Bede's date. Historian Guy Halsall has even speculated that Gildas was badly misread by Bede and all subsequent historians, and that the invitation of the foederati was part of a military reorganization in
21060-438: Was "ácenned on sundorlande þæs ylcan mynstres" (born in a separate land of this same monastery). This can be taken as "sundorlande" (being Old English for "separate land") or the settlement of Sunderland. The name may also be descriptive of the original settlement's location, being almost cut off (sundered) from the rest of the mainland by creeks and gullies from both the sea and the River Wear. The earliest inhabitants of
21216-484: Was a growing number of shipbuilders or boatbuilders active on the River Wear in the late 17th century. By the start of the 18th century the banks of the Wear were described as being studded with small shipyards, as far as the tide flowed. After 1717, measures having been taken to increase the depth of the river, Sunderland's shipbuilding trade grew substantially (in parallel with its coal exports). A number of warships were built, alongside many commercial sailing ships. By
21372-681: Was built as a chapel of ease within Holy Trinity parish; built by a local coal fitter, John Thornhill, it stood in Prospect Row to the north-east of the parish church. (St John's was demolished in 1972.) By 1720 the port area was completely built up, with large houses and gardens facing the Town Moor and the sea, and labourers' dwellings vying with manufactories alongside the river. The three original settlements Bishopwearmouth, Monkwearmouth and Sunderland had started to combine, driven by
21528-471: Was considered large enough to provide its own county-level services, and so it was made a county borough , independent from the new Durham County Council . The borough boundaries were enlarged on several occasions, notably in 1867, 1928 (when it gained areas including Fulwell , Southwick and the remainder of the old Bishopwearmouth parish), 1936, 1951, and 1967 (when it gained North Hylton , South Hylton , Ryhope , Silksworth , and Tunstall ). In 1974
21684-399: Was designed to dredge to a maximum depth of 10 ft (3.0 m) below the waterline and remained in operation until 1804, when its constituent parts were sold as separate lots. Onshore, numerous small industries supported the business of the burgeoning port. In 1797 the world's first patent ropery (producing machine-made rope , rather than using a ropewalk ) was built in Sunderland, using
21840-571: Was dominant over the southern kingdoms. At the time of the battle of the river Winwæd, thirty duces regii (royal generals) fought on his behalf. Although there are many gaps in the evidence, it is clear that the seventh-century Mercian kings were formidable rulers who were able to exercise a wide-ranging overlordship from their Midland base. Mercian military success was the basis of their power; it succeeded against not only 106 kings and kingdoms by winning set-piece battles, but by ruthlessly ravaging any area foolish enough to withhold tribute. There are
21996-439: Was founded in 674 and formed part of Monkwearmouth–Jarrow Abbey , a significant centre of learning in the seventh and eighth centuries. Sunderland was a fishing settlement and later a port, being granted a town charter in 1179. The city traded in coal and salt , also developing shipbuilding industry in the fourteenth century and glassmaking industry in the seventeenth century. Following the decline of its traditional industries in
22152-406: Was generally called Englisc had developed out of the interaction of these settlers with the pre-existing Romano-British culture . By 1066, most of the people of what is now England spoke Old English, and were considered English. Viking and Norman invasions changed the politics and culture of England significantly, but the overarching Anglo-Saxon identity evolved and remained dominant even after
22308-435: Was given by Bede (d. 735), suggesting that they were long divided into smaller regional kingdoms, each with differing accounts of their continental origins. As a collective term, the compound term Anglo-Saxon , commonly used by modern historians for the period before 1066, first appears in Bede's time, but it was probably not widely used until modern times. Bede was one of the first writers to prefer " Angles " (or English) as
22464-426: Was killed when he mistook some raiders for ordinary traders. Viking raids continued until in 850, then the Chronicle says: "The heathen for the first time remained over the winter". The fleet does not appear to have stayed long in England, but it started a trend which others subsequently followed. In particular, the army which arrived in 865 remained over many winters, and part of it later settled what became known as
22620-603: Was known as the place of the Mierce , the border or frontier folk, in Latin Mercia. Mercia was a diverse area of tribal groups, as shown by the Tribal Hidage; the peoples were a mixture of Brittonic speaking peoples and "Anglo-Saxon" pioneers and their early leaders had Brittonic names, such as Penda . Although Penda does not appear in Bede's list of great overlords, it would appear from what Bede says elsewhere that he
22776-476: Was later seen by Bede as the third king to have imperium over the English south of the Humber , having replaced Ceawlin of Wessex (died about 593), and before this generation there are only semi-mythical accounts of earlier kings. Æthelberht's law for Kent, the earliest written code in any Germanic language , instituted a complex system of fines. Kent was rich, with strong trade ties to the continent, and Æthelberht may have instituted royal control over trade. For
22932-496: Was loaded onto keels (large, flat-bottomed boats) and taken downriver to the waiting colliers. A close-knit group of workers manned the Keels as ' keelmen '. In 1634 a market and yearly fair charter was granted by Bishop Thomas Morton . Morton's charter acknowledged that the borough had been called Wearmouth until then, but it incorporated the place under the name of Sunderland, by which it had become more generally known. Before
23088-499: Was once known as 'the largest shipbuilding town in the world' and once made a quarter of all of the world's ships from its famous yards, which date back to 1346 on the River Wear. The centre of the modern city is an amalgamation of three settlements founded in the Anglo-Saxon era : Monkwearmouth , on the north bank of the Wear, and Sunderland and Bishopwearmouth on the south bank. Monkwearmouth contains St Peter's Church , which
23244-513: Was only a few years after Constantine "III" was declared Roman emperor in Britain, and during the period that he was still leading British Roman forces in rebellion on the continent. The rebellion was soon quashed, the Romano-British citizens reportedly expelled Constantine's imperial officials during this period, but they never again received new Roman officials or military forces. Writing in the mid-sixth century, Procopius states that after
23400-508: Was ruled by Edgar under the strong influence of Dunstan, Athelwold, and Oswald , the Bishop of Worcester. The reign of King Æthelred the Unready witnessed the resumption of Viking raids on England, putting the country and its leadership under strains as severe as they were long sustained. Raids began on a relatively small scale in the 980s but became far more serious in the 990s, and brought
23556-586: Was supposedly distinct from Britain itself, was settled by three nations: the Angili, Frissones, and Brittones, each ruled by its own king. Each nation was so prolific that it sent large numbers of individuals every year to the Franks, who planted them in unpopulated regions of their territory. By the 8th century the Saxons in Germany were seen as a country, and writers such as Bede and some of his contemporaries including Alcuin , and Saint Boniface , began to refer to
23712-465: Was the dominant king of the English until he was himself killed in battle against Oswald's brother Oswiu in 655. Oswiu remained the dominant king of England until he died in 670. In 635, Aidan , an Irish monk from Iona , chose the Isle of Lindisfarne to establish a monastery which was close to King Oswald 's main fortress of Bamburgh . He had been at the monastery in Iona when Oswald asked to be sent
23868-544: Was the first built of stone in Northumbria . He employed glaziers from France and in doing he re-established glass making in Britain. In 686 the community was taken over by Ceolfrid , and Wearmouth–Jarrow became a major centre of learning and knowledge in Anglo-Saxon England with a library of around 300 volumes. The Codex Amiatinus , described by biblical scholar Henry Julian White (1859–1934) as
24024-580: Was the homeland of the Jutes who settled in Kent and the Isle of Wight . The Angles (or English) were from 'Anglia', a country which Bede understood to have now been emptied, and which lay between the homelands of the Saxons and Jutes. Anglia is usually interpreted as the old Schleswig-Holstein Province (straddling the modern Danish - German border), and containing the modern Angeln . Although this represents
24180-598: Was the original monastery. St Andrew's Church, Roker , known as the "Cathedral of the Arts and Crafts Movement ", contains work by William Morris , Ernest Gimson and Eric Gill . St Mary's Catholic Church is the earliest surviving Gothic revival church in the city. After the war, more housing was built and the town's boundaries expanded in 1967 when neighbouring Ryhope , Silksworth , Herrington , South Hylton and Castletown were incorporated. Sunderland AFC won their only post- World War II major honour in 1973 when they won
24336-436: Was used in salt panning; better-quality coal was traded via the port, which subsequently began to grow. Both salt and coal continued to be exported through the 17th century, with the coal trade growing significantly (2–3,000 tons of coal were exported from Sunderland in the year 1600; by 1680 this had increased to 180,000 tons). Difficulty for colliers trying to navigate the Wear’s shallow waters meant coal mined further inland
#851148