Monkwearmouth began at the end of the seventh century thanks to a young nobleman
named Benedict Biscop, born in 627 at the Royal Court of Northumbria. It was on
his return from a pilgrimage to Rome that Biscop was given 15 square miles of
land, at the mouth of the River Wear to found a monastery, in 673.
When the monastery closed in 1536, it became known as St. Peter's parish church.
The church was extensively restored and rebuilt in the 1870's. Later he was
given another strip of land on the north side of the river, it is thought that
this land 'Sundered' or taken, from the main monastery gave Sunderland its name.
Sunderland itself did not have the status of a parish until 1719.
Monkwearmouth Station, was designed by Thomas Moore a local architect in 1848,
it's Greek classical lines were by George Hudson as a showpiece. George Hudson
was born in a small village in Yorkshire, he became a leading political figure
in Sunderland and was nick named 'The Railway King'.
Monkwearmouth Railway Station opened in 1876 and it was commented on by the late
Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, who said: If one does not mind a railway station looking
like a Literary and Scientific Institution or provincial Athenaeum,
Monkwearmouth is one of the most handsome stations in existence.
The station was closed in 1967, but was later bought by Sunderland Corporation.
Monkwearmouth Railway Station is one of Sunderland's most important old
industrial buildings, and after restoration it was reopened in 1973 and
preserved as a popular railway museum.
