Secret, Little Known and Hidden Places in Sunderland

[Squat]

Went here last neet

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god that takes me back best part of 40 years

 

[Pancho]

Jeanette? Best friends with my older sister. In Australia i think

Unfortunately, I'm much older.

Mrs P was best mates with Liz at school and there was a gang of us all knocked around together.

Liz lives in the midlands but I'm not sure about Jeanette and Maureen.

We went to Isaac's 100th birthday party in 2017 and met up with the family after far too many years.

A proper family.

 

[Amnorrageordie]

Unfortunately, I'm much older.

Mrs P was best mates with Liz at school and there was a gang of us all knocked around together.

Liz lives in the midlands but I'm not sure about Jeanette and Maureen.

We went to Isaac's 100th birthday party in 2017 and met up with the family after far too many years.

A proper family.

Is Brian still around? I know he had a bad accident.

 

[Big Jeff]

None of these are secret if we know about them

They are just things

 

[lostinfrance]

Disused Stations: Marsden Station (2nd site)

Home

Coal mining banners

www.marsdenbannergroup.btck.co.uk

This is a great website.
I lived at the top end of Whitburn until I was 20 and there's loads of stuff on here that I was unaware of.

 

[Maxnormal]

Aye I started it must have been about 10 year ago, had a look for it when this thread popped up but found nothing, must have been trimmed from the site.

What I can remember :-

The tunnel under fawcett street between Binns'
The old crypt at Hylton Castle which was filled in
Tunnel from Hylton Castle to the Wear
E.T pump house beside Asda
The tunnel at Mowbray Park which has a steel door closing it off
The tunnel beside Gill Bridge which comes out at the scrap yard near the Saltgrass

To name a few.

This is what got me on to this board many many years back. remember chuckling at the poster who remembered the Barnes roundabout tunnel after it was partially bricked up; he was terrified of Dickie Darkie getting him iirc.

 

[Pancho]

Is Brian still around? I know he had a bad accident.

Aye, last I heard he was living in Northumberland.

I vaguely remember his accident but Mrs P will know more.

 

[gluepot]

The Sunderland and nearby coastline is amazing, as proved on here. We must appreciate it. Yet it is hardly appreciated by the masses (not just most locals, but also the UK population). It is hardly known and still a hidden gem. Most people in the UK assume the NE coast consists of Bamburgh and Holy Island.

Trivial comment now, but you get a lovely Michellas ice cream down at Whitburn, much better than Bamburgh etc

 

[PinzaC55]

The tunnel carried the 'high side' sidings where the coal wagonss were stored. These fed the industrial smalls, singles, doubles shale and stone hoppers and booms before the rapid loader and land sale bunkers were built. The path you mention was called the nanny goats path.
If you go to noses point and look to your right, there is what looks like a sealed up cave at the bottom of the cliff.This was the beach drift, a tunnel which led to the shaft. It was driven so the water underground only had to be pumped to sea level. This is where the red stream came from, rusty oily water.

Do you know why the Blast is called that ?
I couldn't remember the red stream but I see it here.

 

[Amnorrageordie]

Do you know why the Blast is called that ?
I couldn't remember the red stream but I see it here.

The chemical beach or chems had a chemical factory above it. The blast had blast furnaces near noses point. Just inland was a settlement called Watsontown which housed the workers.

 

[PinzaC55]

The chemical beach or chems had a chemical factory above it. The blast had blast furnaces near noses point. Just inland was a settlement called Watsontown which housed the workers.

Yes, I found a huge map years ago and the railway from Hawthorn Junction over the bridge near the plank to Dawdon signalbox was called the "Blast Furnace Branch" because there was a blast furnace near the colliery.
There's a picture of the beach in 1980 here but in 1970 it was completely covered in wooden pit props and coal slurry. It looked like nothing on Earth.

Dawdon Colliery

Dawdon Colliery also Dawdon underground The decision to create a new pit at Dawdon was taken by the Marquess of Londonderry in the late 19th century, due to problems at his collieries in nearby

east-durham.co.uk

 

[Blythmakam]

do you remember what the cave below was called

Has anyone mentioned Queens street Masonic hall

Ryhope pumping station

The underground reservoir attached to Ryhope pumps has stone blocks in it taken from a Roman fort at Fullwell .

 

[muggboots]

The chemical beach or chems had a chemical factory above it. The blast had blast furnaces near noses point. Just inland was a settlement called Watsontown which housed the workers.

Really? I didn't know about the settlement.
As well as Get Carter and Alien 3 being filmed there did you know that the cover photo of Who's Next was also shot there?

 

[Amnorrageordie]

Do you know why the Blast is called that ?
I couldn't remember the red stream but I see it here.

Just watched that. That red water used to be a healthy frog and newt pond till they did the turning the tide project. When they cleared it the sea reached the cliffs and wiped out the elephant grass at the north end of the blast, near nanny goats path. It is the north end in the corner where the red stream was.

 

[muggboots]

The underground reservoir attached to Ryhope pumps has stone blocks in it taken from a Roman fort at Fullwell .

That's a new one on me as well. It would be really interesting as there are very few signs of Roman activity around Sunderland. There should be quite a bit due to the river being crucial for supplying the fort at Chester and others further upstream but it's all lost.

 

[Blythmakam]

That's a new one on me as well. It would be really interesting as there are very few signs of Roman activity around Sunderland. There should be quite a bit due to the river being crucial for supplying the fort at Chester and others further upstream but it's all lost.

Worked in the Reservoir a few years back
English Heritage were inspecting the structure with us at the beginning of the project

 

[Falconhoof]

That's a new one on me as well. It would be really interesting as there are very few signs of Roman activity around Sunderland. There should be quite a bit due to the river being crucial for supplying the fort at Chester and others further upstream but it's all lost.

Ive also never heard of a Roman Fort at Fulwell.
Apart from the dam/bridge at South hylton I can't think of anything from Sunderland

 

[Carley Hill wanderer]

Has anyone mentioned the sculpture trail along the riverside to the Marina (the search function suggests not!). I'd never heard of it until I read 'Alice In Sunderland' but it's a lovely thing.

Walked it last night, very pleasant

 

[Kevj]

Ive also never heard of a Roman Fort at Fulwell.
Apart from the dam/bridge at South hylton I can't think of anything from Sunderland

Apparently, there was a Roman settlement at the foot of Claxhaugh Rock.

 

[muggboots]

Ive also never heard of a Roman Fort at Fulwell.
Apart from the dam/bridge at South hylton I can't think of anything from Sunderland

There should apparently have been at least one fort guarding the rivermouth, like Arbeia at Shields.

Apparently, there was a Roman settlement at the foot of Claxhaugh Rock.

Well that's thought to have been a Roman quarry originally, probably to build the ford/weir over the river nearby. It was to raise the river level upstream to aid access to Chester. The larger blocks are supposed to have been robbed out in the 19th century and used for one of the piers at Roker.