Sunderland hosts an International Kite Festival every July and an International Airshow every August. Both events attract large crowds and are free to spectators! Sunderland is the home of the National Glass Centre opened in 1998 by H.R.H. The Prince of Wales. The Glass Centre is on the riverside in an area currently being developed following the closure of the shipyards.
A modern marina has recently been completed near the mouth of the River Wear and the modern sculptures around the marina are certainly worth seeing. Some of the sculptures are really unusual and extremely interesting, especially for children.
Sunderland is also the home of Sunderland Association Football Club (S.A.F.C.) The club is currently one of the two Premier League teams in the north-east of England, the other being Newcastle United (newly promoted in 2010).
Sport is an important feature of north-east England life and the city’s team is always extremely well supported.
The club's stadium, the Stadium of Light was opened in 1997 and dominates the skyline of the city. The stadium is on the north side of the river, a short walk from the city centre and is built on the site of Wearmouth Colliery. A large miners lamp, designed by a Sunderland Lodge member, stands outside the stadium.
Perhaps Sunderland’s most famous son is Bede (672 / 673 – May 26, 735), also referred to as Saint Bede or the Venerable Bede (Beda Venerabilis), was a monk at the monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth, Sunderland and of its companion monastery, Saint Paul's, in modern Jarrow both in what was the Kingdom of Northumbria.
He is well known as an author and scholar, and his most famous work, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (The Ecclesiastical History of the English People) gained him the title "The Father of English History". In 1899, Bede was made a Doctor of the Church by Leo XIII, a position of theological significance; he is the only native of Great Britain to achieve this designation (Anselm of Canterbury, also a Doctor of the Church, was originally from Italy).
Another one of Sunderland’s famous sons was Benedict Biscop (628-690), founder of two monasteries and the British patron saint of learning. He founded a monastery in 674 at Wearmouth (the original Sunderland), at the mouth of the River Wear and dedicated it to St. Peter. Benedict Biscop hired craftsmen from France to construct a church made of stone with a lead roof and glass windows, the first of its kind in England.
Other famous Sunderland men are Dr. W. R. Clanney (1777-1850) inventor of a miners’ safety lamp,
Jack Crawford (1775-1831) the hero of the Battle of Camperdown,
Sir Henry Havelock (1795-1857) hero of the Indian Mutiny,
Sir Joseph Wilson Swan (1828-1914) inventor of the first practical incandescent light bulb,
and Sir William Mills who was originally a golf club designer better known as the inventor of the hand grenade (or Mills Bomb).
In nearby Washington Village visitors will find Washington Hall the ancestral home of George Washington
the first President of the United States of America.
Naturally this is a favourite with our transatlantic brethren.
In the grounds is a cherry tree planted by Jimmy Carter during a visit he made as President of the United States of America.
There is also a tree in memory of those who died on September 11th 2001.
Every 4th July the Stars and Stripes is flown at Washington Hall.
More Sunderland people ...........
Captain Robert Nairac, George Cross (1948-1977), murdered by the IRA while on military intelligence duties in Northern Ireland (posthumous award).
Kate Adie OBE, (1945- ) famous journalist usually found reporting from war zones.
From the world of film and television
Gibb McLaughlin (1884-1960)
James Bolam (1938- )
Maurice Roeves (1937- )
Christine Norden (1924-1988)
Alan Browning (1926-1979)
Debbie Arnold (1957- )
and James Baxter (1990- )
