Eighty-Six Years of Change in St.Michael's Ward, Sunderland

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Eighty-Six Years of Change in St.Michael's Ward, Sunderland For this assignment I am going to cover 86 years of change in this locality (St. Michaels Ward, Sunderland), 1855, 1897 and 1941. Maps show a number of industries, businesses and homes have remained the same. Maps A and B show the most change, from a rural area to an urbanised area, from maps B to C there's even more urbanisation. In 1855, farming was the main industry, using most of the land. Farming was the main industry because st Michael's ward was a rural area and it had enclosed fields. We can also see on the map that there was a windmill (which was used with farming), the Bishopwearmouth steam mill which shows they adopted new technology and the Clarke tannery which would have been used to process animal skins and produce leather items. There is evidence of coal mining in the area (the coal depot and Hetton company's railway). The Hetton Company's railway opened in 1822 by engineer, George Stephenson. There is also evidence of a growing building industry as the stone yard was used for quarrying and the clay pit would probably be used to make stone bricks. There is also a timber yard. There are already some houses in the area; for example, Mary Street and Houghton Street were homes for the working class. People who lived in these houses could work in farming, building, coal, shipbuilding or glassworks. There were two main roads that crossed the rural area. One of which was called Durham Road. The Hetton Company's railway carried coal from Hetton Company's field to the saithes on the River Wear to be loaded onto the colliers. The coal would then be carried over... ... middle of paper ... ... herself. In subsequent years to follow, the sisters of mercy bought surrounding detached houses. Somerleyton was bought in 1926 from Fred Taylor, Westburn was bought in 1938 from George Short, and Holm Lea was bought in 1940 from the Vaux sisters. Today, Sunderland has city status. This area has undergone a massive amount of change. Famous shipyards and monkwearmouth coalpit have closed. Mayfair toffee factory on the map has also closed down. Other industries have replaced these. E.g. Nissan car factory and many jobs provided in extension to Sunderland's shopping centre. Sunderland university has also extended, with many new buildings on the riverside. The area on the map has many large terraced houses turned into student accommodation. Much of the area on the map in 1941 is still recognisable despite modernisation.

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