Sunderland

Sunderland is an industrial city and port in the English metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear.

City of Sunderland

The City of Sunderland is a metropolitan borough which was created in 1974, and since 1992 has had city status. Somewhat confusingly, the city contains the town of Sunderland, and also the neighboring towns of Washington, Hetton-le-Hole and Houghton-le-Spring. For the purposes of this article "Sunderland" refers to the town of Sunderland as to distinguish it from the city.

Related Topics:
City of Sunderland - Metropolitan borough - 1974 - 1992 - City status - Washington - Hetton-le-Hole - Houghton-le-Spring

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Before 1974 the town of Sunderland was a county borough in its own right. In that year it was merged with several surrounding urban districts to form the metropolitan borough.

Related Topics:
County borough - Urban district

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By official measures of both population and land area, Sunderland is the largest British city between Edinburgh and Leeds.

Related Topics:
Edinburgh - Leeds

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A person born in Sunderland is sometimes called a Mackem, derived from the term Mak(e)'em and Tak(e)'em used by Tyneside shipbuilders to describe their counterparts on the River Wear in Sunderland when ship building was still present in the area. The term was originally meant to be derogatory, in that Sunderland made the ships, then the richer world took them away.

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The word is now used with pride in Sunderland, although this may be because many Sunderland people believe the word is more likely to originate from the "Blue Macs", a Scottish army, who occupied barracks in Hendon during the English civil war. The Blue Macs massacred the royalist forces of the Marquess of Newcastle at Panns Field in Sunderland City Centre, during a vicious battle.

Related Topics:
Hendon - English civil war - Marquess of Newcastle

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