Sunderland

Nursing Homes near Sunderland

Tyne and Wear

Approximate Population: 177,739

Sunderland is a city on the north east coast of England in the conurbation area known as Tyne & Wear. The name is reputed to have originated from an Anglo-Saxon term meaning ‘to part’ probably from the valley carved by the river Wear which runs through the middle of the city.

Three settlements originated on the site of the modern city. Monkwearmouth in the north was settled in 674AD when Benedict Biscop was granted land by King Ecgfrith of Northumbria to build St.Peters’ monastery, the first stone building in Northumbria, where the venerable Bede once studied. Bishopswearmouth in the south was founded when Athelstan the Glorious in 930AD gave land to the Bishop of Durham. To the east, at the mouth of the river, lay a small fishing village called Sunderland, which was granted a charter in 1179 by the then Bishop of Durham, Hugh Pudsey. Growing as a port trading coal, by the 14th century ships were being built and salt was being made from which a coal-mining community began to grow.

Sunderland found itself in competition with its’ neighbouring Newcastle which had been given coal-trading rights by Charles I. Resentment grew so when the Civil War began, Sunderland sided with the Parliamentarians, who blockaded the Tyne, crippling Royalist Newcastle’s coal trade which in turn allowed the Sunderland trade to flourish and by the 19th century, the port had grown to absorb the other settlements. Sunderland was the first British town struck with the Indian Cholera epidemic.

Nursing Homes near Sunderland

Tyne and Wear