Transport

HORSE FERRY AND STEAM FERRY

The horse ferry went across the River Wear from North Hylton and South Hylton. It was a chain operated ferry for carrying goods or vehicles such as horse and carts as in the picture. It served the main route between Sunderland and Newcastle until the bridge was built in 1796. A rowing boat was used for passengers and this survived until 1957. There is evidence that a ferry was in existance as far back as the seventh century.

The steam ferry began in about 1842 and came under the control of the Sunderland Corporation in 1852 and remained so until it was taken out of service in 1957. It ran between Monkwearmouth Shore and Hendon and the fare when it ceased was one old halfpenny.

As I had ancestors on both sides of the river I imagine they used this means of transport quite often. The most familiar ferry was the Sir Walter Raine pictured on the left which carried hundreds of passengers in the early 1900's. I remember myself travelling on it on many occassions to visit my grandmother in Hendon.It was also popular with the Monkwearmouth people to go to the Old Market at Hendon

SUNDERLAND TRAMS

The first horse drawn trams began operating in 1879 by the Sunderland Transport Company. The first route was from Roker to Fawcett Street and then on to Christchurch and Tatham Street. It returned by the same route.In 1895 the Sunderland Council decided to buy the tramways and electrify them. The also extended the routes thereby servicing many more parts of Sunderland. When the buses came on the scene the Council decided to stop running the trams and the last one went out of service in October 1954.

ELECTRIC TRAMS

On the 15th August 1900 Councillor J. Trewhitt Chairman of the tramways Committee opened the first section of the electric tramways which ran between Roker and Christchurch. The tramcars were decked with garlands and the men wore high silk hats for the occasions. The picture was taken in Fawcett Street.

THE RAILWAYS

The first railways within the town were wagonways taking limestone from the quarries and later coal from the mines. The Hetton Colliery railway, opened from the new pit to the staithes in Sunderland in 1822, has a place in history since it was the first complete line to be engineered by George Stephenson. In 1836 the Durham and Sunderland railway opened to Haswell and Shincliffe outside Durham. This railway unlike earlier ones were public railways designed to take passengers as well as freight. In 1839 the Brandling Junction railway was opened from Gateshead and South Shields to Monkwearmouth on the north bank of the river. The Railway bridge across the river was built in 1879 to connect Monkwearmouth with the new Central station in the town centre.