Present day Sunderland owes its size and importance to a period of spectacular growth during the Industrial Revolution involving industries such as iron and steel, pottery and glass making and, most particularly, ship building. Until the late sixteenth century Sunderland consisted of just thirty households with six fishing cobles and was less important than neighbouring settlements at Bishopwearmouth and Monkwearmouth where a monastery had been founded in A.D. 674.
The initial impetus for growth was provided by construction of ten salt pans with a workforce of three hundred during 1589 but a more significant long term development was represented by coal exports. Workable pits at Lambton, Lumley and Harraton were largely accountable for coal exports reaching an annual total of 80,000 tons by 1642. The coal trade continued to grow during the late eighteenth century and increasingly the coal was carried by ships built in local yards.
Ancillary trades such as sail and rope-making accelerated the spread of industrial premises across the river to the townships of Monkwearmouth and Southwick and this resulted in construction of an iron bridge across the Wear between 1793 and 1796. By the mid nineteenth century Sunderland had become Britain’s leading producer of wooden ships with more than sixty yards constructing vessels ranging from colliers to clippers.
By 1900 Sunderland’s shipyards employed more than 20,000 men which represented two fifths of the town’s male workforce. Another industry to flourish was rope making which was mainly run by the firm of Webster and Grimshaw while glass making, started in 1839 by James Hartley, saw about one third of Britain’s glassware produced on Wearside in the later part of the nineteenth century. It was a similar story with the brewing industry where the company founded by Cuthbert Vaux expanded to become the second largest local brewery in the country.
By 1901 the population of Sunderland had reached 145,500 and further expansion during the twentieth century saw the borough boundaries altered to include outlying districts such as Fulwell, Herrington and Ryhope. However, this period also saw serious economic decline which brought about the demise of major industries. Rope making ended in 1986 and the closure of the last Wearside shipyard, North East Shipbuilders Ltd., followed two years later. Coal exports ended with the closure of Wearmouth Colliery in 1993. In some respects the most poignant feature of this industrial decline was the closure of Vaux brewery in 2002.
Yet the final decades of the twentieth century also brought impressive examples of Sunderland’s recent regeneration. The most dramatic example of the area’s revival was the opening of the Nissan car plant during 1985 and the first car, a Bluebird saloon, rolled out of the factory on 8th July of the following year. The National Glass Centre was opened at Monkwearmouth in October 1998 at a cost of £17 million (and was refurbished over a six month period in 2013 at a further cost of £2.3 million).
It was announced on 14th February 1992 that Sunderland was to be granted city status and in the same year the local polytechnic was designated as a university. Some five years later, on 31stJuly 1997 Sunderland AFC’s Stadium of Light was officially opened. With a capacity of 42,000 seats this fine sporting venue had been completed on the site of the former Wearmouth Colliery at a cost of £24 million and in April 2008 a £20million Aquatic Centre was completed on adjacent ground.
The closing day of Sunderland’s 25th International Airshow, 28th July 2013, began with a party at Cliffe Park, a fitting way to celebrate the city’s re-emergence as a major cultural and industrial location.
Robert Woodhouse is the author of 'Sunderland in 100 Dates'. Experience 100 key dates that shaped Sunderland’s history, highlighted its people’s genius (or stupidity) and embraced the unexpected. Featuring an amazing mix of social, criminal and sporting events, this book reveals a past that will fascinate, delight and even shock both residents and visitors of the city.