THE SUNDERLAND SITE - PAGE 018

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO (OR AT) ......?

May I suggest that you navigate the site re Sunderland data via the index on page 001. Do you want to make a comment? A site guestbook is here. Test. The page heading says it all. Just five items today. I am sure that in due course the page will cover many other subjects, but with the ever-expanding content of this page, additional items may need to be rather on a new & additional page. 1 'Wilson' timber yard, just east of the bridges on the north side 2 'Penshaw Monument', Penshaw Hill, between Washington & Houghton-le-Spring. 3 The 'Havelock House' fire of 1898. The worst fire in the history of the city. 4 'Joplings', a landmark in Sunderland for over 200 years. 5 'Hartley's Glass Works', manufacturer of plate & sheet glass for almost 60 years. 6 Visits of the Fleet to Sunderland over the years. J . D. W. WILSON AND SONS TIMBER YARD Over the years, I have seen a number of images, mainly postcard images, of the 'Wilson' timber yard, east of the road bridge on the north bank. Not images of the timber yard per se, but rather images of the bridge which also happen to show the timber yard because it was right next door. But what happened to it? I learn, thanks to author Keith Cockerill, that a print, published in 1890, tells us, at its bottom, as follows:- How interesting! And here is the related print kindly provided by Keith Cockerill. From a publication the name of which is today unknown. The exact date of the fire in 1890 & the cause of the fire remain to be determined. It would seem, however, that the timber yard must have been rebuilt after the 1890 fire. And that the business continued in operation for many more years. How many more? A postcard, posted in 1950, is below. So I guess, we have not really answered the question 'what happened to the Wilson timber yard', have we! Can you tell us? THE PENSHAW MONUMENT Earlier, the composite image of the Penshaw Monument that appears below was provided - incorporated into a history page written by Len Charlton. It seemed to the webmaster, when that page was first created, that there were so many WWW pages available about the Penshaw Monument, & so many images of it available also, that it would be unlikely that the subject would be again covered on site. But we have changed our minds! In response to a message from a site visitor, who advises me that he was born in 1940 and 'was running around the top (of the monument) in 1948, 1949 or 1950'. Now what is surprising about that? Read on .... But first a brilliant image of the Monument, available in a giant size from Wikipedia Commons. The Penshaw Monument has been a major attraction in the Sunderland area for over 160 years. Its foundation stone was laid, with much ceremony, on Aug. 28, 1844, over 167 years ago as this page is updated in 2011. 400 Freemasons attended the laying of that ceremonial first stone, along with a crowd of 10,000. A public subscription had raised about £6,000, then a major sum indeed, for its construction. Built by John & Benjamin Green, I read. Now all of the WWW sites that I have visited state that the monument was built in 1844. Which seems unlikely to be true though it may prove to be so. Everyone records that date when its construction was started but nobody says when it was competed. If it ever was. Was it in fact completed? Was it intended to be built as we see it today? i.e. a folly. Without a roof? If so, to the webmaster at least, it seems to be a strange way indeed to honour, as was intended, the history & contributions of John George Lambton, (1792/1840), the first Earl of Durham. 'Lambton' was, in no particular sequence, Member of Parliament, one time Lord Privy Seal, Governor General of the Province of Canada, Grand Master of the Order of Freemasons, landowner, staith & colliery owner, & also 'a good friend to the poor'. But I read that funds ran out, that the roof & a planned splendid interior were never completed. So maybe there never was a completion date? Rather an end of construction date. And accordingly there may have been no well attended ceremony to announce its public opening. Why it isn't even known by its proper name! Which correctly is 'The Earl of Durham's Monument'. The above fine illustration was published in 'Illustrated London News' in 1844, & later was republished elsewhere. The construction seems unusually well advanced to have been a 'foundation-stone' ceremony. The image is ex 'Pictures in Print' (search for 'Penshaw' in Places), & the original print is in the collection of 'Durham County Council, Arts, Libraries and Museums Dept.' ('Durham'). Should 'Pictures in Print' or Durham request that the image be removed from this site, I will of course comply, but truthfully would seek to locate a replacement image from another source to include here - since the image is so fine & appropriate for this page. The print was a wood engraving, of 11 x 16 in. in size, I understand. Regardless, for a very long time indeed, it has been a prominent landmark, visible for miles around, perched atop its ancient hill, on a site provided for the purpose by The Marquess of Londonderry. Folks have visited the site, climbed the steep trail to the monument's base, rolled hard boiled eggs down its slopes each Maundy Thursday, conducted ceremonies at the site at the spring & winter solstices, taken photographs of themselves there, taken photographs of it & from it & have picnicked beside it. On April 5, 1926, Easter Monday of that year, there probably were many people at the site, enjoying themselves. Included was a group of four children. Teenagers all. 15 or so years old. Carefree no doubt, maybe looking for some fun & a little adventure. Anyway they climbed the hill & made their way to a doorway in one of the pillars, a doorway that leads to steps that climb to the parapet atop the monument. That pillar & doorway can be seen at left. Just one pillar has such stairs. They were not alone. There were 20 or so others up there also, probably admiring the view & waving to their friends & relatives below. Remember that the monument was never completed. Had it been topped with a roof, there surely would not have been a parapet at all. It ran along both long sides, end to end, edged by a protective wall, & at each end, a masonry arch arose with a sloping surface some 8? feet across. To a shallow peak in the centre of the structure. Such structures are called 'pediments'. On those 'pediments' there was no protective wall, no railings or barriers, & no handholds. I presume that crossing over on those 'pediments' was the only way to get to the other side of the monument, to be able to see & enjoy the views in the other direction. You can see the scene quite perfectly in this most splendid image. Temperley Arthur Scott, 15 years old, & a friend of his, went around the walkway twice. And they started on a third circuit, watched by Mitchell & Hind, two of their friends, both sitting on the edge of the peak - I presume that that means with their feet dangling over the edge. 'Scott was hurrying to reach his companions, when he stumbled and fell, he rolled over once and then disappeared over the edge of the monument.’ It was 70 ft. or 20 metres to the ground below. He fell onto rocks, I presume, & was killed. There was an inquest, held on Apl. 26, 1926, & reported in the 'Sunderland Echo'. It was the first such accident in all of the monument's 82 years, the hearing was advised. Deputy Coroner Boulton returned a verdict of Accidental Death, and said:- 'that it was a terrible accident to have occurred and they must have the greatest sympathy with the parents of the boy'. He suggested:- 'that iron railings with spikes should be put up at the sides to prevent people getting round and if that could not be done then he could only suggest that the place be locked up and the public not admitted.’ And the place was locked up. From then to this very day. With some most rare exceptions (see next para). Or was it always so? Which brings us back to our site visitor who states that he was running around the top (of the monument) 'in 1948, 1949 or 1950'. I have read that Temperley Arthur Scott was from Castle Street in Fatfield. A recent writer says that his late father was one of the other boys. And that they all lived in Herrington in a street called Old Rows commonly known as 'auld raws'. One writer says that 'a few of my mates went up (to the parapet) in the late 70's when they were restoring it ... I saw inside the pillar with the staircase and it was just covered in bird ___ (i.e. droppings)'. Another says it is not only locked up but bricked up also. Another suggests the metal door may be a relatively recent addition. I have spared the reader a full description of the monument, its dimensions, its location etc. There are many sites where such data can easily be found, such as the Wikipedia site available here. But I especially mention two sites. Firstly a fine 'pdf' file, a Fact Sheet (#14) made available by the Local Studies Centre of the Sunderland City Library and Arts Centre, a sheet that few WWW sites seem to have seen or refer to. Available here. It is a fine publication indeed & contains the brilliant image of the parapets atop the monument that I have shown above. And the second is a site which records the circumstances of Temperley A. Scott's death more completely. The monument is today owned by the National Trust, a gift of the 5th Earl of Durham in 1939. It would be good to be able to provide through these pages, the complete texts of the Inquest's decision & of the 'Sunderland Echo' article which reported it. If you have such material, it would be welcomed indeed. On Aug. 29, 2011, it was possible, for the first time in 85 years, to climb to the top of the Penshaw Monument. That day, between the hours of 10:00 a.m. & 4:00 p.m., at a fee of £5 per person, visitors were taken on guided ascents by staff of The National Trust. In parties of five, leaving every 20 minutes, thru the 6 hour time period. Only 90 visitors in total were able to make the climb, in small parties limited for safety concerns to 5 visitors per party. Now there were many more than 90 who wished to ascend the monument but they were all turned away disappointed, including one person who came especially all the way from Kent & was not able to buy a ticket. But it would seem that the day was a great success & there will be many similar opportunities to ascend the structure in the future. The safety of the climbers was of the greatest importance. of course, & no tiny children were permitted - you needed to be more than a metre tall to be permitted access. A site visitor has kindly provided a newspaper cutting from today's (Aug. 30, 2011) 'Northern Echo'. Visitors were only permitted onto the parapet of just one side of the building. So the visitors' views over the countryside were therefore limited in terms of direction. Getting to the 'other side' used to require a scramble over the arches at either end of the structure - see the image immediately above. I learn however that wires are now installed (a ManSafe System) that permit maintenance workers to attach themselves & cross over safely to the other side. I learn also that there was an usual e-Bay item offered by National Trust in Nov. 2011, the opportunity for a single adventurous soul to visit both sides of the monument & cross over both ends. Attached to the wires. At a mid-week future date to be mutually agreed. As you can read here. The winning bid was £122, I see. The weather was fine & the view was splendid. To prove it, here is site contributor Keith Cockerill atop the monument on Aug. 29, 2011. He cleverly managed to get a fine picture taken of himself with not another visitor in sight. Very sneaky! You can see the image in a wider view here. And do not miss Keith's slideshow 'The River Wear at Washington - its forgotten history' here. Alan Vickers kindly advises me that the Penshaw Monument was featured in 'A and P News', the employee magazine of Austin & Pickersgill Limited. Two pages were published in Volume 22, of Oct. 1978 & one of those pages contains a fine image of John George Lambton. I provide next thumbnail mages of the two pages. The pages can be viewed in a fully legible size by clicking on the thumbnails. Alan also advises that a booklet was published in 1978 about the monument. Simply entitled 'Penshaw Monument', it was written by Albert L. Hind & is of 24 pages. Next. A fun image of 'Penshaw'! Available from here. Of trampolinist Kat Driscoll, a 25 year old, of West Rainton, (between Durham & Houghton-le-Spring), who hopes to compete for England in the 2012 Olympic Games to be held in London. Go for it, Kat! A bit of a change of subject. Penshaw? I read that there were 2 pubs at Penshaw in 1890 - the 'Bird in the Bush' at Penshaw Staithes. And the 'Bird in the Hand', at Penshaw itself. (There is an image at that link with Penshaw Monument in the distance.) The following most interesting image, provided by 'Billy Fish' of Midfield, relates to one or the other of those pubs it would appear. When the pub was 'a temperance bar'. I trust that inclusion of the (darkened) image here is in order. THE 'HAVELOCK HOUSE' FIRE OF 1898 This page entry came about thanks to the kindness of Craig Hamilton, of Ballarat, Australia. Who listed a card for sale via e-Bay which closed on Apl. 19, 2010. Craig's e-Bay store is here. Craig kindly provided the image to the webmaster for inclusion here. A most interesting card, which follows:- Late on Jul. 18, 1898, a Saturday, fire broke out at 'Havelock House', the name by which George H. (Henry) Havelock's (that's George Havelock at left below) drapery store in Sunderland, was known. A noted store indeed, located at the major business intersection known as MacKie's Corners - where Fawcett & Bridge Streets cross High Street. The fire may well have been caused by the simplest of matters - a cigarette end, carelessly probably nonchalantly dropped down a grating at street level. Below ground, in the 'well' if you will, the stub is believed to have fallen amongst other debris - paper included - & smouldered & ignited - & the fire was under way. And this was not just any fire. It was the worst fire in the history of the City of Sunderland. It devastated a truly vast section of the city centre. Thousands of citizens, & visitors who flocked to the City, thronged the streets to gawk at the conflagration & the ongoing fire-fighting activities. It was not hours but rather weeks before the fire was finally extinguished. Not before it had destroyed business after business in the area - I have read '12 business premises in High Street West, 11 premises in Fawcett Street, 22 shops, offices & a Weslyan Chapel in John Street, & 3 shops in Bridge Street.' A very long list of businesses  (& residences also above those premises), went up in flames or were extensively damaged. You can read the long list of premises affected via the first link below.  The main cause of the great extent of the disaster was the fire-fighting facilities of the City at the time. Perhaps I should rather state the lack of such facilities. Fire engines existed in 1893, i.e. steam driven engines that could pump water from hydrants or the river & play it at force upon burning premises. But Sunderland did not have any such engines. Its Fire Brigade was clearly ill-equipped for such a gigantic task. The City had 'barrows', it is true, i.e. carts that were used to carry hoses & other firefighting apparatus to the scene of a fire. And apparently lots of fire hose full of punctures, which hose would be hooked up to the available hydrants. The firemen & the policemen did valiant duty over many days. Also, when the tide was in, Fire Queen, the 2nd steam fire-float of the name owned by the River Wear Commissioners, did valiant service also, only then able to successfully pump sea-water at pressure to the distance & to the height that was required. The value of the damages was said to have been £400,000, an astounding value in those days. A tiny contemporary 'New York Times' article equated it then to U.S. $2,000,000. What a giant sum! And how the currency values (GBP v US$) have changed in the interval! It was damage from which the businesses & the City recovered only over the succeeding years. It would seem that, on the opposite corner from Havelock House, the store of 'Drury & Son' haberdashers, but previously that of 'MacKie' a silk top hat maker, was badly damaged but was not totally destroyed. Buildings far away in the City, however, were damaged by sparks & flying embers. The authority of the whole subject is James T. Bryce. Whose web page (here) covers the subject more completely than I can possibly do so in these short pages & lists the many stores that were affected. He has written, indeed, a book on the subject, entitled 'Sunderland Fire Brigade'. The book includes, I believe, extensive coverage of the 1898 fire. The next image, indeed, is from imagery kindly provided by Jim - a composite image which shows, at left, the remains of Havelock House after the fire was extinguished, & at right an animated scene, near to 'Havelock House'. I do not think that I personally, could ever have climbed such amazingly long ladders, especially when dressed in protective gear & dragging a heavy hose. Purposeful fellows those firefighters must have been! A 2007 'Sarah Stoner' Sunderland Echo article is most worthy of your attention also. 'Sunderland Fire Brigade', the book, is available from Jim as per the bottom of this page. Havelock House? It was rebuilt over the next 18 months & emerged as a prestigious department store, advertised as 'the largest in Northern England', though in the image which next is featured, the store claims to be 'The Largest Drapery Establishment in the County of Durham'. A long term friend & supporter of the site, who prefers not to be either identified or even thanked, (but we thank him regardless), has provided to the webmaster images from a 'Havelock House' booklet. A 'Reorganisation Souvenir' booklet that would seem to have been published when the new & rebuilt store was opened in 1900. Or was it 1901? A booklet of 32 pages. All of those pages can be viewed lower on this page, specifically here. Its very first page is next. What later happened to the store? It would seem that it did not survive for many more years. The 'Provincial Cinematograph Company', of London, acquired the property in 1914, for between £60,000 & £70,000. The 'Havelock', a very high class cinema, opened on the site on Dec. 16, 1915. It became the 'Gaumont' in 1960. And closed in 1963. A modest shop is at the spot today, I am told, & the name 'Havelock House' is long gone. Is it possible that you have data & particularly images available about this devastating fire. If so, do consider being in touch with the webmaster, for the inclusion of such material in this page. JOPLINGS DEPARTMENT STORE In the words of Len Charlton (who witnessed the 1954 'Joplings' fire) .... 'As a youngster I knew of 'Joplings' as one of the largest of Sunderland's big department stores but little of its history - which goes back to 1804 when James Jopling opened a small drapers shop at the bottom of High Street East (image at left next below). With business expanding, he was joined by Joseph Tuer to form 'Jopling & Tuer'. In 1868, out-growing their premises, the firm moved up to a fine building at 176-177 High Street East, (image at right next below), which over the years became ever more popular. In 1891, it was bought out by 'Hedley, Swan & Co.', (Robert Hedley & Stephen M. (Moriarty) Swan) who, within a further three years, doubled its size by buying the adjacent property of 173-175 High Street East. In a big publicity campaign in 1900, a café was added to the big building & the very latest, i.e. electric lighting, was installed. It had changed from a drapery store to a department store with over 200 employees. It even issued its own coinage for customers! At left (clickable) is a 1 penny coin. There were other denominations also. Certainly a 1/2 penny. A 6 penny coin. & a 1 shilling coin. Including one, at right, for 2 shillings - which coin would buy a 4 course meal, elegantly served in the 'Joplings' restaurant. The name 'Jopling and Tuer' was so well known that the name was retained so people were still 'going to Joplings'.     In 1921 Joplings moved again, this time 'upmarket' to 126-129 High Street West, where Hedley, Swan & Co. had bought J. T. Calvert & Co. Ltd.'s big store on the corner of Lambton Street. The 4 storey store was then renamed 'Hedley, Swan & Co. known as Joplings'. (An 1890s poster is at left & an image of the No. 126-129 High Street West store, is below) These were the great days of the store. It survived the bombs of WW2 & the subsequent depression but ... ... disaster struck on Dec. 14, 1954,  when the entire building was destroyed in another of Sunderland's big fires.   On that cold winter night, I happened to be returning home from a late party. Driving towards MacKie's corner at about 1.30 a.m., I was surprised to find the town centre very busy. I parked my old car to join everyone who seemed to be rushing on foot & cycle down High Street West and I discovered that Joplings was in flames. The fire, which had been spotted at 1 a.m., had spread rapidly & though the structure looked undamaged, the red flickers through any windows remaining left no doubt that the fire was already out of control. The firemen had left the inside & were now hastily moving their equipment & their vehicles away from the front of the building. No doubt similar scenes were being repeated both beyond & behind the store which took up a complete block. There was a lot of noise both from the crowd's excitement & from the many pumps & vehicle engines. Within a remarkably short time, all of the windows had gone with flame curving up the front of the building which soon turned into one massive furnace, the glow apparently visible for 20 miles. Periodically, the noise increased as the roof collapsed or masonry fell into the cleared areas with accompanying oohs & aahs from the onlookers. Pumps & hoses were working desperately to try to save adjoining buildings, although I could see little of this. On the opposite side of High Street, Ridings, a large furniture store, had lost its windows while being hosed down & was now in serious danger, the manager having to be woken up at 2 a.m. for the keys to be rushed to the scene. At the height of the conflagration, the heat was forcing onlookers back still more & I could feel a cold wind blowing from behind as the air fed the furnace - which surely, I thought, would be the final page in 'Joplings' history. By 3 a.m. there was little left to burn in the ruined red hot skeleton. For my part I was feeling very tired & saddened indeed, & leaving the scene which was becoming more active as firemen & equipment were repositioned, I made my way home to bed. The fire brigade at one point being surrounded by fires on both sides of High Street & in adjacent buildings. Business continued in temporary buildings until 1956 when Joplings reopened in a fine new store on John Street. Fast forward almost 50 years. In 2005, with closure imminent, the store was bought out by 'Owen Owen Ltd.' of Liverpool, but they themselves collapsed 2 years later & the store is now owned by 'Vergo Retail Limited'. Until recently, walking along John Street, you will find a large busy modern store very different from the small drapers shop which opened in the East End over 200 years ago.   Now, in July 2010, the Joplings story seems to have ended at last. 'Vergo Retail Limited', who rescued the store from bankrupt 'Owen, Owen Ltd.' in 2007, has itself become a casualty of the declining markets. Administrators MCR, called in to try to sell Vergo's 19 shops, did not find a buyer for the old Sunderland store & time has run out. It's very last trading day was June 19, 2010. To the older people of Sunderland it is a tragedy - but many of the new generation regarded Joplings as outdated in today's world. The store had become an icon loved by long-time customers & run by staff who took personal pride in serving them. But whereas Joplings could claim 50,000 customer accounts in its heyday, at the last count the figure was less than 10,000.  Looking back, Marie Neilson, the operations manager, said 'There's never been a morning I didn't smile (as I walked round), but when I was told we only had four weeks I broke down in front of the staff'. It is difficult to foresee what will become of the now locked up premises. Located away from the main shopping centre & with many retail stores struggling to survive, conversion to flats, offices  or perhaps to a hotel must be the main options - but a sorry period of dilapidation seems likely. A sad end to a story of  over 200 years of service & survival for Sunderland's beloved old store. Does anybody know what caused the Joplings 1954 fire? Len Charlton advises the webmaster that he recalls no word as to how & why it happened. Was there an inquiry into the fire? If so, surely such a matter would have been addressed. I am advised that a poster that read 'Santa Claus is Here Today', located on the exterior of the building at the corner, was left standing. As you can see in the next pair of images, believed to have been 'Sunderland Echo' images. The poster was completely unscathed, while the rest of the building was devastated. Who says there isn't a Santa Claus! We hope to add more 'Jopling' related images soon. If you have any 'Jopling' images in your own collections, particularly a good sized image of the 1954 fire, do consider being in touch with the webmaster. The sources of the 'Jopling' images used above? I will identify them as the sources are located. But ... Should 'Sunderland Antiquarian Society' prefer that I do not use the left black & white image of the fire above, (#10), I will remove it, of course. With regret since good images of the fire are scarce indeed. Such applies also to 'New Writing North' whose colour image at bottom right (#7) was featured in a 'Flickr' Factory Nights archive. 1, 2, 3 (a long gone 'Delcampe' auction item), 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 & 15. A few 'Joplings' related images. Hover your mouse over each thumbnail to read the subject matter. THE 'WEAR GLASS WORKS' OF JAMES HARTLEY & CO. This section starts with very little data about 'Hartley's Glass Works', rather with an image. Kindly provided by Clive Ketley. So this section is initially added as somewhere that I can place that image & add additional material that is later located. What I show below is a portion only of the whole image, with additional contrast added with the help of 'Picasa'. I read that Wear Glass Works was on Trimdon Street. And that it was in existence from 1837 to 1896 producing patent rolled plate, sheet & stained glass. In 1863 they are said to have produced one third of all of the sheet glass consumed in England. The works covered a large area & employed 700 men. We thank this site, 2nd item, for that interesting data. With the expanding amount of material on this page about 'Hartley's', it is becoming clear that we need in this space a tidy history of the company - including both its amazing success & its gradual decline. For the webmaster, a project for another day - though if you feel like summarising that history for inclusion here, your effort would be most welcome. But now ... e-Bay has provided more about Hartley's in the form of a wonderful print, published originally, it would seem, on Nov. 24, 1877. The print, which is 6 1/4 x 5 1/4 in. in size, was offered by 'periodpaper' of Whitewater, Wisconsin, U.S.A. & it sold on Apl. 12, 2011 for U.S. $40.00. We have chosen not to bother 'periodpaper', a giant dealer indeed, re the use of this 'so appropriate to this page' item on site. But we sincerely thank them & invite site visitors to drop by their e-Bay store, which is here. The above e-Bay listing did not indicate the name of the 1877 publication. I now see, however, that it was the Nov. 24, 1877 Supplement #99 edition of 'Scientific American', & that the print was accompanied by what looks to be an extensive article that extends over 2 pages. As you can see here & here. The print is also available via this marvellous site. There is a fine additional image of Hartley's Glass Works available via the 'Pictures in Print' site, most similar to that shown above. Available here. And there is a second image, of the blast furnaces at night, which can be viewed here. But ... it is not absolutely sure that that print was re 'Hartley's'. There were many such blast furnaces throughout the city. Where exactly was Trimdon Street & therefore the Hartley's plant site? I learn that the plant was located at the NW corner of the intersection of Trimdon Street (a short north-south street) & Keelmen's Lane (an east-west street). Neither are in the city's east end, as I initially assumed when I saw the image which follows, but rather are on the high ground, west of the bridges & behind Hetton Staiths. The river is therefore behind you in the birds' eye view above. The splendid image that follows, comes from this site, made available by 'Durham County Council, Arts, Libraries and Museums Dept.', now located, it would seem in the Clayport Library, in Durham City. Its date of creation is not known, but it was published, I read, in 1872. But likely published elsewhere too. So now if I spot any data about 'Wear Glass Works' in the future, I can add it in here. Or your data can be added also, should you be able to provide any. FLEET VISITS TO SUNDERLAND There have been many fleet visits to Sunderland over the years. Certainly I have seen via e-Bay images of medals that were struck to commemorate the events. And soon, hopefully, we can include here images of such medals. One such medal is already shown below, the front & back of a medal issued to commemorate the visit of 'Devastation' in 1874. Another copy of the medal can be seen here. Ex a long expired e-Bay listing. But next an interesting little story ex a book entitled 'Wearside Wedges' - written by J. H. Meek & published in 1912. We thank Keith Cockerill for item. Keith advises that the book is full of short humorous stories about Sunderland folk, all written in the vernacular Sunderland dialect - which may be a little difficult to understand. A 'Wearside Wedge' was a nickname for a Sunderland shipwright or carpenter in the days of wooden ships. The word 'wedge' probably because a significant part of a shipwright's duties was to split timbers. May I suggest that you navigate the site re Sunderland data via the index on page 001. Thomas M. M. Hemy Data Pages 01, 02 & 03 are now on site. Plus all of the other image pages, accessible though the index on page 05. To MV Danmark Slider Puzzle page & to the Special Pages Index. A SITE SEARCH FACILITY Search This Site for Get a Free Search Engine for Your Web Site THE GUEST BOOK - GO HERE E-MAIL THIS LINK Enter recipient's e-mail:                               A 'HAVELOCK HOUSE' BOOKLET The 'Havelock House' booklet that follows, would seem to have been published when the new & rebuilt store was opened in 1900/1901. Of 32 pages, all of which are available below for your viewing in a larger size with a click of your mouse. The images look & indeed are 'repetitive' in both style & content, but each features a department or function of a department store of over a century ago. A store where many functions were performed 'in house', including  I read, making furniture for sale on the premises, 'from the rough wood to the finished article'. The webmaster was particularly pleased to see that it contains an image of George H. (Henry) Havelock, the proprietor. And pleased also, since the webmaster is an accountant, to see the image (at left) of a portion of the accounting department (counting house). Not a computer in sight! Not even a telephone.