Sunderland

Lore & Background

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 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 under the name of the borough of Wearmouth by Hugh Pudsey. The city traded in coal and salt, also developing a shipbuilding industry in the fourteenth century and a glassmaking industry in the seventeenth century. Sunderland was once known as 'the largest shipbuilding town in the world' and made a quarter of all of the world's ships in its yards. Following the decline of its traditional industries in the late 20th century, the area became an automotive building centre. In 1992, the borough of Sunderland was granted city status. Sunderland was historically a part of County Durham; it was incorporated into the ceremonial county of Tyne and Wear in 1974.

In Their Own Story

At the Stadium of Light, the atmosphere was thick enough to rattle even the most composed squad. The floodlights cut through rain-slicked turf where Sunderland’s physical pressing neutralized Arsenal’s technical superiority. In these moments, history repeated itself: not with Highbury's elegance, but with the raw grit of the North East, proving that even in the title race, no fixture was safe.

Reader's Guide

Locals are sometimes known as Mackems, a term which came into common use in the 1970s. Its use and acceptance by residents, particularly among 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.

Did You Know?

• The name Sunderland may derive from Old English 'sundorlande', meaning 'separate land'.
• The Venerable Bede wrote that he was 'ácenned on sundorlande þæs ylcan mynstres' (born in a separate land of this same monastery).
• Sunderland's shipbuilding industry was so large that it once made a quarter of all the world's ships.