Secret, Little Known and Hidden Places in Sunderland

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safcrob said:
Isn't there a tunnel next to Hylton castle, it probably took you to the kitchen.
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I grew up in Hylton Castle (the estate). If you look at the front of the castle, to the right is a raised lawn area, which was more of the building in the past. When I was a kid, someone opened up an entrance to below that. So I and loads of kids at the time were able to get under. There were a few rooms which could have been kitchens. I remember there being a huge cannon ball down there and a sword fastened to a wall. There was a bricked up doorway and someone had knocked a few bricks out so you could see through it. When you shone a torch through, you could see it was a long straight tunnel that just went into the distance - couldn't see an end to it. The tunnel would be going east from the castle under the flat field behind the castle. That is where the time team found evidence of a bigger building behind the castle - so the tunnel could have just gone to that, but rumours are that it went to St Peters Church or the coast.
 
Arcland said:
I remember reading on here many years ago about the demolition of the Vaux Social Club/Bridge End Social Club which was housed in the old Co-op building to make way for St. Mary's Car Park. Someone claimed that during demolition, they discovered a Roman Mosaic below its cellar, but that it was quickly covered in. The Vaux site contained a road called Castle Street (the road the Brewery Tap was in). It is believed that it led to a Castle/Roman Fort overlooking the Wear.

There are a range of Roman sites in Sunderland referenced here;

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Good read that, I'd love someone to investigate thoroughly because the lack of major archeology makes no sense.
 
muggboots said:
Good read that, I'd love someone to investigate thoroughly because the lack of major archeology makes no sense.
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From reading that, there could have been at least two forts, a number of houses and a bridge/dam. Would make sense to have a settlement close to the Roman wall but not right next to it. Surprisingly, we fall under the control of the tyneside based T&W Archives & Museums who authorise archaeological digs.
 
Arcland said:
From reading that, there could have been at least two forts, a number of houses and a bridge/dam. Would make sense to have a settlement close to the Roman wall but not right next to it. Surprisingly, we fall under the control of the tyneside based T&W Archives & Museums who authorise archaeological digs.
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Seeing as waterways were the main method of supply to most forts and we have a few upstream near the Wear it would make controlling the mouth of the river itself a strategic necessity. The fact that, although supposedly sparsely populated after the Romans left (hence the God bothering, sackcloth sporting, tonsure bonces moving in as any neighbours may take the piss) our local area was a hive of activity from Prehistoric times and into the Iron Age. Barrows, hill forts, cursuses, metal and flint artifacts, even ancient stone circles are recorded everywhere from the North York Moors up to the borders, with the Sunderland area having more than most. It makes no sense to me that all these Iron Age people seem to have suddenly moved out while the Romans spent 3 or 400 years round here doing precisely fuck all as far as we can tell. Then, almost the second the Romans fucked off we started building some of the most lavish stone built churches, monasteries and libraries in Europe with extremely highly educated Latin scholars and superb craftsmen, in what we are told was a deserted, quiet, dead end, neewhere special kind of place. St. Peter's was nearly 400 years old when William the Bastard won at Hastings. That's almost as long ago as The English Civil War is to us today. There's a f***ing huge gap in our local history.
 
Arcland said:
I grew up in Hylton Castle (the estate). If you look at the front of the castle, to the right is a raised lawn area, which was more of the building in the past. When I was a kid, someone opened up an entrance to below that. So I and loads of kids at the time were able to get under. There were a few rooms which could have been kitchens. I remember there being a huge cannon ball down there and a sword fastened to a wall. There was a bricked up doorway and someone had knocked a few bricks out so you could see through it. When you shone a torch through, you could see it was a long straight tunnel that just went into the distance - couldn't see an end to it. The tunnel would be going east from the castle under the flat field behind the castle. That is where the time team found evidence of a bigger building behind the castle - so the tunnel could have just gone to that, but rumours are that it went to St Peters Church or the coast.
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That's what I thought was a crypt, went in around 1982/1983 just before it got filled in and remember a set of steps leading to a small room of 4 or 5 small archways in the walls that had been bricked up and I thought at the time were tombs but could easily have been small tunnels. It's a shame nobody lead Time Team to it and had it dug out for the episode, would have been far more interesting.
 
muggboots said:
Seeing as waterways were the main method of supply to most forts and we have a few upstream near the Wear it would make controlling the mouth of the river itself a strategic necessity. The fact that, although supposedly sparsely populated after the Romans left (hence the God bothering, sackcloth sporting, tonsure bonces moving in as any neighbours may take the piss) our local area was a hive of activity from Prehistoric times and into the Iron Age. Barrows, hill forts, cursuses, metal and flint artifacts, even ancient stone circles are recorded everywhere from the North York Moors up to the borders, with the Sunderland area having more than most. It makes no sense to me that all these Iron Age people seem to have suddenly moved out while the Romans spent 3 or 400 years round here doing precisely fuck all as far as we can tell. Then, almost the second the Romans fucked off we started building some of the most lavish stone built churches, monasteries and libraries in Europe with extremely highly educated Latin scholars and superb craftsmen, in what we are told was a deserted, quiet, dead end, neewhere special kind of place. St. Peter's was nearly 400 years old when William the Bastard won at Hastings. That's almost as long ago as The English Civil War is to us today. There's a f***ing huge gap in our local history.
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History of Britain podcast. It's presented by a yank and is still not into the second millennium, despite being on about episode 350. Get past your scepticism over the first half dozen episodes, and the lad is incredibly thorough.
 
Patch said:
History of Britain podcast. It's presented by a yank and is still not into the second millennium, despite being on about episode 350. Get past your scepticism over the first half dozen episodes, and the lad is incredibly thorough.
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:lol:
Sounds right up my street. Just looked, which one? Crowther?
 
Patch said:
Lad called Jamie Jeffers. I was unconvinced after the first few episodes but he eventually won me around. You have to be in it for the long haul.
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Reet. Cheers.
I've read bit including Schama, Francis Pryor, Mary Beard, most of Michael Wood's stuff. Shitloads of other books and papers ranging from prehistoric beginnings to DNA profiling, what the f***ing hunter gatherers survived on through the winter, the amount of North Eastern DNA still widespread in Iceland now but only on the female line (thieving Viking bastards) and the comparitive geographic naming systems of Old Norse versus Anglo-Saxon. This fucker better be good. :lol: ;)
 
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Are there any maps out there showing the actual and probable Roman Roads in the Sunderland area?
Our lass takes the piss out of me with my obsession over maps and Roman Roads. :D
That link from Arcland about Roman remains being 12ft down below the present street level in Sunderland reminds me of a building site in the City of London I was working on. There was a ground floor, lower ground floor and basement, in the basement was a glass topped pit about 3ft deep with a Roman mosaic floor on display. I had to get in there and seal a couple of areas where water was seeping in with silicon sealant. While in there I disturbed a couple of bits of mosaic but skilfully replaced them back in position with a little drop of silicon sealant :lol:. I can just image in a few years time archaeologists being amazed that the Romans had the technology to make silicon sealant. :oops:
 
There must have been a Roman name for the Sunderland area, any guesses?

Given that artefacts were found on the Vaux site, I'm guessing Maximus (which would explain the derivation of mackem).
 
gluepot said:
I always assumed Dunelm was a Roman name but I see it is derived from Norse for Dun-Holm (Hill Island)
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I would guess that Sunderland came to prominence only during the Industrial Revolution and was insignificant during Roman times so not sure there would be any names attached to the area? I don't think I have heard any.
 
EDGE said:
I would guess that Sunderland came to prominence only during the Industrial Revolution and was insignificant during Roman times so not sure there would be any names attached to the area? I don't think I have heard any.
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Chester Le Street (Cestria) was a well known and locally prominent settlement and as this shares the river, supplies etc will have came via sea routes to be offloaded at Sunderland. This further demonstrates why thrived was damned at South Hylton so the river above this point was more usable for navigation.
 

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