Ryhope Village has one of the finest monuments to Victorian engineering ability in the North East, Ryhope Pumping Station. The first water company in Sunderland was at Bishopwearmouth formed in 1824. It's first engineer was Thomas Hawksley whose work became renowned throughout Victorian Britain. His work included designing the Ryhope Pumping Station which is now a scheduled monument, where the finest pair of beam engines in Great Britain were installed in 1868. Mrs Omistan Chant of the British Women's Temperance League declared Sunderland water was the most delicious she had tasted in ten years of drinking water. Superseded now by reservoir supplies further inland, it no longer provides drinking water for the area.
Situated inside a huge Gothic hall, Ryhope Pumping Station now opens as a museum on bank holiday weekends and other special open days. The Ryhope Pumping Station made an important contribution to health in the 19th century.
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