Sumerleyton was a Tudor style house and the people who owned that house must have been very wealthy. There are sash and bay windows. There was also a stable with stalls for the horses which is now the year seven toilets. The cupboard in the classics room use to be a room. The chimney pots were very dangerous and now have being removed and some of the ivy had to be removed. Holmlea which is now know as Lourdes has changed dramatically. There are Greek pillars and the building is brick which they get from the clay pit. Around the bay windows and at the corners of the building there is stone. Beresford Park are semi-detached houses and there are no longer servant quarters anymore because there is no more servants they quit their jobs for better jobs such as secretaries etc so the house owners had daily help. The tradesman were not aloud to enter the house through the family entrance so there was a separate gate for the tradesman to enter through and there was a big change in architecture. The Royal Infirmary was built after the Public health act in 1875 and was names after Queen Victoria because she was to be known as the Empress of India so the infirmary was built with the Indian style. On the side of the Royal Infirmary there was a plack which said VR which meant Victoria Regina which translates as Queen Victoria. The owls on the top of the Royal Infirmary represented the knowledge of all the doctors but it has being pulled down and know there is a block of apartments. The Burn family owned a lot of land and they gave some of there land to the town of Sunderland. The railway track was changed into a path but now it is used as a metro track and they use to use trams instead of buses. Because of the growing population churches were built and people worshipped in different ways they were Catholic, Anglican, Methodist and United Reformed churches.
The land was used for farms. Most of the farms were enclosed. The fields were used to grow corn or wheat. In 1855 farming was the main industry. They were other industries that we can see on the 1855 map. The coal mines were in the area because the Hetton Company Railway (HCR). The coal mines were on the map and they had a depot where the coal could be kept and stored. This tells us there is a raise in the demand for coal because the population in the town Sunderland is growing. If we look at the census returns many jobs mentioned here are to do with the coal industry
. The railway would go down to the staithes (were the boats and coal stopped) on the river wear so that coal could be put on to the collier and could be taken down to London. Evidence of this is the coal depot and the Hetton company railway. There was a timber yard on the 1855 map. Timber could be used for ship making and making houses because the population is growing. They also had clay pits were the brick might have being made for building. The quarries were they got there stone for some of the buildings that we have today, for example, Westburn house. There was also a Tannery. The Clarke Tannery were leather goods were made, there is a link here with the farming industry because the tannery would of needed the cows to get the skin to make leather. Bishopwearmouth steam mill were the clothing might have been made. Not only using wind power but also using steam power.
By1897 it wasn’t a rural area anymore where there used to be just fields and a West lodge and a Summer Hill house. You now have a mixture of housing, for example, Chester road, terraced cottages for the working class and Thornhill Terrace for the working classes. They are also detached house, for example, Westburn, Holmlea, Oaklea and Sumerleyton. This is all evidence that the population of Sunderland is growing. Why are people coming into Sunderland? More people are coming into Sunderland because of all the jobs on offer such as the new infirmary, mining, ship building and glass works. Also on this map a new hospital called the ‘Infirmary’ was built because of the “PUBLIC HEALTH ACT” of 1875. Also because of laws passed at the end of the 19th century there is Burn Park, this land was given to the people of Sunderland by the Burn family. Now there are school buildings they are here because of the 1880 Mundetta education act. On the 1941 map there are even more houses. The infirmary is known as the Royal Infirmary. We still have corporation yards, coal depot and we still have an industry which is connected with farming, the Bishopwearmouth flour mills. Now there is a parish hall, it is a church with a lecture hall attached and a Sunday school attached. Some adults went to the lecture hall, for example, miners wanted to learn how to read and write or men who did not want to mine go to get new skills. They would go to evening classes and the Sunday school was for children it was brought to them by a man called Robert Raikes to learn how to read and write.
There is a new style of houses in Beresford park they have semi-detached houses. These houses are for middle class people. Some of the big detached houses had been taken over by nuns, for example Oaklea, they renamed it Padua in 1909. They had separate accommodations for the novices in 1926 so they bought Sumerleyton for Fred Taylor, a ship owner. The nuns lived in Sumerleyton as did 60 boarders. In 1939 they moved from green street and came to this present site (St Anthony’s’) Holmlea was bought from the Vaux sisters. It was still a school. The Vaux sisters belonged to the Story family who owned the Sunderland Echo. The nuns now own Westburn, Oaklea, Sumerleyton and Holmlea. There was also extra buildings built onto the school, St Francis Desales, O’Connell, two canteens, two gyms and a swimming pool and it is a compressive school but it used to be a grammar school, you had to pass a test to get in.
There was a Hetton Coal Company railway which was built by George Stephenson and it was opened up in 1822 to carry coal to the staithes on the river wear for transport to London for example.
There was also the North Eastern Railway company, this use to carry passengers and gods. There was the Durham Road and many walkers. They used to be horses and carriages, farm vehicles and horse and carts.
On the 1897 map there is still the North Eastern Railway and the Hetton Company Railway. The Durham Road has being re-angled and is now know as the New Durham Road and this road goes direct into the Sunderland town centre. The road joins a tram way. The horse drawn tram service begins in 1879 and in 1897 there is a road pattern established.
In 1941 we still have the Hetton company railway and the North Eastern Railway. The tram way has extended along the New Durham Road to the Hetton Railway Line. In 1900 the tram service was changed into a circle root, and also in 1900 the electric tram took over the horse and tram.
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