Today Bank Holiday Monday I completed the mile walk from the new Roker Marina Village to beneath the road and railway bridges which cross the Tyne into the City centre. It is far from picturesque yet it is one of the most important and interesting stretches of river banks in the UK, because included is the dawn of British Christianity, the first creation of stained glass in the UK which led to the largest glass making works in Victorian Europe, and a city rising to challenges of surviving in the 21st century with the development of a new university and a science business park. There are upmarket developments of riverside flats overlooked by refurbished local authority tower blocks.
I recommenced the journey back in time and into the future from the footpath at the Esso garage and now cooperative convenience store. The store has changed in its function and ownership several times, for several years it provided an inexpensive copying service with fax facilities, alongside a small baguette and other breads sandwich delicatessen, the original concept developed by the Subway network which has colonised every town and city, and which still continues also offering hot pieces of chicken. The sale of alcohol has developed into an extensive off licence, and there is now everything from fresh fruit and vegetables to frozen meals and household essentials. I give thanks at having a large supermarket and access to the range of other stores within the distance which those who now live on the riverbank or in the tower blacks have to travel to the garage unless they wish to make the additional journey across the Bridge into the city centre.
Along the pathway there is a second new housing development, built before the Roker Marina developments, St Peters Riverside and here by the towpath is another interesting work of art, this time the remains of a cottage, without roof and walls. Half a sideboard with a pile of plates, am open door with a coat hanging by. A roll top bureau, part of a fireplace, part of a settee, a chair, a table with some books, all made from a redish stone, and alas some graffiti. A little way further is the impressive building of the National Glass centre. When you approach from the roadway all you can see is the glass roof. This is a two storey structure within a single glass frame. At ground level facing the river is a good restaurant and coffee shop the Throwing Stones which offers for £10 and £12 a two or three course award winning lunch time menu, or try Eggs Benedict weekend breakfasts or live music with tapas on Friday evenings for £5 if booked in advance or a special Saturday evening do with the highlight a £60 champagne five course seafood bash held on August11th. Also on the ground floor is a shop and the lower glass factory and glass studio workshops There are exhibition areas on part of the first floor which also includes an amazing board room suspended on a frame of steel.
Most people often query the location of Sunderland, always regarded as a poor relation to Newcastle and Tyneside although hopefully this ignorance is changing, especially when a direct train line to London opens as an alternative to the GNER route via York and Durham to Newcastle, Edinburgh and Inverness. What is even less known is the unique part Sunderland has played in the history of glass making in the UK. It began with the first use of stained glass windows when in AD 675 Benedict Biscop, Abbot of Wearmouth Monastery brought over craftsmen from Gaul to train local people to make stained glass for the church of St Peters, and later glassmakers from Mainz assisted in making glass vessels. For a period of 400 years to 1600 glass making then flourished in southern England making use of the forests then covering Surrey and Sussex until banned by James 1st and attention switched back to North East England because of coal. The production centred on Newcastle with Sir Robert Mansell gaining rights covering the whole of England. Gradually after the civil war the craft developed once more in Sunderland with in 1836 James Hartley developing his works a little further along the bank of the River Wear at Deptford. The site had the advantage of coal from the Wearmouth Colliery which opened a year before and is now the Stadium of Light, home of Sunderland AFC with a large miner's lamp the remaining indication of 150 years of beneath ground toil. By 1860 this factory produce one third of plate glass in England ideal for the new railway stations and factories. The factory lasted until just before the commencement of the twentieth century when a member of the Hartley family joined forces with Alfred Wood to develop traditional stained glass making which remains in international demand to this day, with work provided to Westminster Abbey, St Paul's and the House of Commons.
Recently the Jopling's departmental store in the town centre survived yet another threat of liquidation but in 1885 Jopling's made his name by taking over the Wear Flint glassworks turn it into the one of the largest glass making factories in England and then in 1921 he acquired the UK rights from the American Corning-Pyrex to develop heat resistant glass ware for the UK and the factory has produced every piece of British Pyrex tableware.
Another factory concentrated on the need for glass bottles where one local bottle maker could produce 4000 in a week. With this background of large scale glass making production and specialist stained glass making it is not surprising that studio glass making has flourished and that the former Sunderland College of Technology and then Polytechnic should have pioneered courses in aspects of the craft, until with the creation of the university what is said to be the most comprehensive degree course in Europe has been established attracting students from all over the world.
Having concentrated on part of Sunderland's industrial and commercial heritage it is time to take a detour away from the river bank back towards the main road leading to the city centre. For set in a pleasant area of Parkland is St Peters 2009 nomination with St Paul's and Bede world Jarrow South Tyneside as a World Heritage site and if successful one cannot get bigger than that!
Benedict Biscop began St Peter's in 674 and St Paul's in 681. In the same era his travelling companion St Wilfred was building stone churches as Ripon, Hexham and York. The Venerable Bede, the earliest British ecclesiastical historian, born 673 on the lands of the monastery at Wearmouth is said to have been entrusted to the care of Benedict Biscop at the age of seven years and then to Coelfrith who in 681 was appointed Abbot at Jarrow Bede was then ordained deacon aged 19 and priest aged 30 but the extent to which he remained at Wearmouth or lived at Jarrow has been the subject of controversy although he described Wearmouth Jarrow as one monastery with to churches. After his death his remains were moved to Durham cathedral Unfortunately this earliest of monastery did not keep good records or any made have been lost so that apart from archaeological remains we now have to rely on Bede's Ecclesiastical History, his work on the Abbots of Wearmouth and an anonymous life of Abbot Coelfrith. My source for information has not been these original text but a gloriously illustrated a selection of his work by John Marsden with photographs by Geoff Green and translation of texts by John Gregory in a special Guild publishing edition of 1989. The Illustrated Bede. It has been my good fortune to have had the opportunity to have lived within walking of St Peters, passing every time I ventured into Sunderland City by car, but also to witness the creation of Bede World at Jarrow adjacent to St Paul's, but to have also live in the region of Durham and Hexham, to be able to visit York and to have a link with Beverley, to have been to Iona, staying at the community house for a month in 1961 while helping to organise the peaceful Holy Loch protest, to have had days out to Bam burgh and Lindisfarne, to Whitby, Melrose, Ripon, and Carlisle, cathedrals, minsters, churches abbeys and monasteries and spiritual centres.
My route back to the river wear took me through the new Sunderland university complex of buildings which dominate the riverside between the National Glass Centre and the Wearmouth Bridges into the City, although close to the Bridge is the conversion of a former warehouse in a six story development of St Peter's Wharf, Manhattan style Loft apartments commencing at £119,995, The best view of the University buildings at St Peters is from the opposite bank, because the individual buildings were too big for single photographs, let alone the complex of buildings. Across the river are several purpose built halls of residence enabling students to have north river banks perspectives.
The technical college was only established in 1901 and interestingly in the 1950's it was the first education centre to install a digital computer. Through the amalgamation of the Technical College, the School of Art and later the Teacher Training College, the Polytechnic came into being in 1969, and the University came into being in 1992. Lord Putnam became the Chancellor in 1998, retiring this year to become Chancellor of the Open University with degree ceremonies moving from the Empire Theatre to the Stadium of Lights since 2004.
The original Polytechnic and Campus buildings are on the West side of the city now with its own Metro train station, so that students are able if they wish to use the system with stops at the central bus and coach station and then the central train station before the stop at St Peters, by the Wearmouth Bridge so that students can then walk to the St Peter's campus or their residential accommodation. The popular students bars and eating places are on the central west side of the city.
At St Peters there is the School of Arts, Design Media and Culture along with a small base for Tyne Tees Television. The School also covers English, History, Politics and Religious studies.
A second school at St Peters covers Business, Law and Psychology. The Third covers Computing and Technology which in turn covers Engineering design and automotive technology. The Nissan car plant situation within the Sunderland Local Authority area is the most successful in Europe. There is a major Library, lecture theatre and restaurant cafeteria included in the five buildings, plus the Science Park and the Manor Quay building.
Dominating the promenade is a major work of sculpture which has a twenty foot or more many sided concrete base on which are at least fourteen large portholes enclosing white sculptured plaques about the river and the sea. On top of the base in a tall intricate metal tree with its trunk a shipyard crane. It sums up the regeneration of a city looking forward into the rest of the this century.
The traditional Wearmouth Road and pedestrian Bridge towering above the river, and towering over the Bridge is a new recently completed spectacular 14/15 storey block of flats, glass fronted towards the river and with a mixture of white marble looking stone and glass to the roadside. There is shop restaurant business ground level opportunity to be exploited as well as car parking levels.
Looking immediately under the Bridge there is a wilderness of green and decaying seating suggesting this is not area to visit in the darkness, High above on the opposite is another building which has won prizes for its design, a car park, and then there is a several acre site where the Vaux brewery once stood, acquired by a supermarket chain but which the City could is contesting seeking to extend its vision of the city future around its river. If what has been achieved far on its left bank at St Peter's is a guide then I hope the city wins the day, although admittedly I am yet to find it what has been planned.
I recommenced the journey back in time and into the future from the footpath at the Esso garage and now cooperative convenience store. The store has changed in its function and ownership several times, for several years it provided an inexpensive copying service with fax facilities, alongside a small baguette and other breads sandwich delicatessen, the original concept developed by the Subway network which has colonised every town and city, and which still continues also offering hot pieces of chicken. The sale of alcohol has developed into an extensive off licence, and there is now everything from fresh fruit and vegetables to frozen meals and household essentials. I give thanks at having a large supermarket and access to the range of other stores within the distance which those who now live on the riverbank or in the tower blacks have to travel to the garage unless they wish to make the additional journey across the Bridge into the city centre.
Along the pathway there is a second new housing development, built before the Roker Marina developments, St Peters Riverside and here by the towpath is another interesting work of art, this time the remains of a cottage, without roof and walls. Half a sideboard with a pile of plates, am open door with a coat hanging by. A roll top bureau, part of a fireplace, part of a settee, a chair, a table with some books, all made from a redish stone, and alas some graffiti. A little way further is the impressive building of the National Glass centre. When you approach from the roadway all you can see is the glass roof. This is a two storey structure within a single glass frame. At ground level facing the river is a good restaurant and coffee shop the Throwing Stones which offers for £10 and £12 a two or three course award winning lunch time menu, or try Eggs Benedict weekend breakfasts or live music with tapas on Friday evenings for £5 if booked in advance or a special Saturday evening do with the highlight a £60 champagne five course seafood bash held on August11th. Also on the ground floor is a shop and the lower glass factory and glass studio workshops There are exhibition areas on part of the first floor which also includes an amazing board room suspended on a frame of steel.
Most people often query the location of Sunderland, always regarded as a poor relation to Newcastle and Tyneside although hopefully this ignorance is changing, especially when a direct train line to London opens as an alternative to the GNER route via York and Durham to Newcastle, Edinburgh and Inverness. What is even less known is the unique part Sunderland has played in the history of glass making in the UK. It began with the first use of stained glass windows when in AD 675 Benedict Biscop, Abbot of Wearmouth Monastery brought over craftsmen from Gaul to train local people to make stained glass for the church of St Peters, and later glassmakers from Mainz assisted in making glass vessels. For a period of 400 years to 1600 glass making then flourished in southern England making use of the forests then covering Surrey and Sussex until banned by James 1st and attention switched back to North East England because of coal. The production centred on Newcastle with Sir Robert Mansell gaining rights covering the whole of England. Gradually after the civil war the craft developed once more in Sunderland with in 1836 James Hartley developing his works a little further along the bank of the River Wear at Deptford. The site had the advantage of coal from the Wearmouth Colliery which opened a year before and is now the Stadium of Light, home of Sunderland AFC with a large miner's lamp the remaining indication of 150 years of beneath ground toil. By 1860 this factory produce one third of plate glass in England ideal for the new railway stations and factories. The factory lasted until just before the commencement of the twentieth century when a member of the Hartley family joined forces with Alfred Wood to develop traditional stained glass making which remains in international demand to this day, with work provided to Westminster Abbey, St Paul's and the House of Commons.
Recently the Jopling's departmental store in the town centre survived yet another threat of liquidation but in 1885 Jopling's made his name by taking over the Wear Flint glassworks turn it into the one of the largest glass making factories in England and then in 1921 he acquired the UK rights from the American Corning-Pyrex to develop heat resistant glass ware for the UK and the factory has produced every piece of British Pyrex tableware.
Another factory concentrated on the need for glass bottles where one local bottle maker could produce 4000 in a week. With this background of large scale glass making production and specialist stained glass making it is not surprising that studio glass making has flourished and that the former Sunderland College of Technology and then Polytechnic should have pioneered courses in aspects of the craft, until with the creation of the university what is said to be the most comprehensive degree course in Europe has been established attracting students from all over the world.
Having concentrated on part of Sunderland's industrial and commercial heritage it is time to take a detour away from the river bank back towards the main road leading to the city centre. For set in a pleasant area of Parkland is St Peters 2009 nomination with St Paul's and Bede world Jarrow South Tyneside as a World Heritage site and if successful one cannot get bigger than that!
Benedict Biscop began St Peter's in 674 and St Paul's in 681. In the same era his travelling companion St Wilfred was building stone churches as Ripon, Hexham and York. The Venerable Bede, the earliest British ecclesiastical historian, born 673 on the lands of the monastery at Wearmouth is said to have been entrusted to the care of Benedict Biscop at the age of seven years and then to Coelfrith who in 681 was appointed Abbot at Jarrow Bede was then ordained deacon aged 19 and priest aged 30 but the extent to which he remained at Wearmouth or lived at Jarrow has been the subject of controversy although he described Wearmouth Jarrow as one monastery with to churches. After his death his remains were moved to Durham cathedral Unfortunately this earliest of monastery did not keep good records or any made have been lost so that apart from archaeological remains we now have to rely on Bede's Ecclesiastical History, his work on the Abbots of Wearmouth and an anonymous life of Abbot Coelfrith. My source for information has not been these original text but a gloriously illustrated a selection of his work by John Marsden with photographs by Geoff Green and translation of texts by John Gregory in a special Guild publishing edition of 1989. The Illustrated Bede. It has been my good fortune to have had the opportunity to have lived within walking of St Peters, passing every time I ventured into Sunderland City by car, but also to witness the creation of Bede World at Jarrow adjacent to St Paul's, but to have also live in the region of Durham and Hexham, to be able to visit York and to have a link with Beverley, to have been to Iona, staying at the community house for a month in 1961 while helping to organise the peaceful Holy Loch protest, to have had days out to Bam burgh and Lindisfarne, to Whitby, Melrose, Ripon, and Carlisle, cathedrals, minsters, churches abbeys and monasteries and spiritual centres.
My route back to the river wear took me through the new Sunderland university complex of buildings which dominate the riverside between the National Glass Centre and the Wearmouth Bridges into the City, although close to the Bridge is the conversion of a former warehouse in a six story development of St Peter's Wharf, Manhattan style Loft apartments commencing at £119,995, The best view of the University buildings at St Peters is from the opposite bank, because the individual buildings were too big for single photographs, let alone the complex of buildings. Across the river are several purpose built halls of residence enabling students to have north river banks perspectives.
The technical college was only established in 1901 and interestingly in the 1950's it was the first education centre to install a digital computer. Through the amalgamation of the Technical College, the School of Art and later the Teacher Training College, the Polytechnic came into being in 1969, and the University came into being in 1992. Lord Putnam became the Chancellor in 1998, retiring this year to become Chancellor of the Open University with degree ceremonies moving from the Empire Theatre to the Stadium of Lights since 2004.
The original Polytechnic and Campus buildings are on the West side of the city now with its own Metro train station, so that students are able if they wish to use the system with stops at the central bus and coach station and then the central train station before the stop at St Peters, by the Wearmouth Bridge so that students can then walk to the St Peter's campus or their residential accommodation. The popular students bars and eating places are on the central west side of the city.
At St Peters there is the School of Arts, Design Media and Culture along with a small base for Tyne Tees Television. The School also covers English, History, Politics and Religious studies.
A second school at St Peters covers Business, Law and Psychology. The Third covers Computing and Technology which in turn covers Engineering design and automotive technology. The Nissan car plant situation within the Sunderland Local Authority area is the most successful in Europe. There is a major Library, lecture theatre and restaurant cafeteria included in the five buildings, plus the Science Park and the Manor Quay building.
Dominating the promenade is a major work of sculpture which has a twenty foot or more many sided concrete base on which are at least fourteen large portholes enclosing white sculptured plaques about the river and the sea. On top of the base in a tall intricate metal tree with its trunk a shipyard crane. It sums up the regeneration of a city looking forward into the rest of the this century.
The traditional Wearmouth Road and pedestrian Bridge towering above the river, and towering over the Bridge is a new recently completed spectacular 14/15 storey block of flats, glass fronted towards the river and with a mixture of white marble looking stone and glass to the roadside. There is shop restaurant business ground level opportunity to be exploited as well as car parking levels.
Looking immediately under the Bridge there is a wilderness of green and decaying seating suggesting this is not area to visit in the darkness, High above on the opposite is another building which has won prizes for its design, a car park, and then there is a several acre site where the Vaux brewery once stood, acquired by a supermarket chain but which the City could is contesting seeking to extend its vision of the city future around its river. If what has been achieved far on its left bank at St Peter's is a guide then I hope the city wins the day, although admittedly I am yet to find it what has been planned.
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