Thorney Close is a suburb of

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

, Tyne and Wear in England. It is located on the northern edge of the

A690 The A690 is a road in County Durham running from Sunderland in the east through Durham to Crook. Route Sunderland section Throughout the Sunderland section it is known as either ''Durham Road'' or ''New Durham Road'', and is one of the major r ...

(Durham Road), and borders with Grindon to the north and

Herrington Herrington is an area in the south of Sunderland, lying within historic County Durham in North East England. ''The Herringtons'' are split into ''East & Middle'' and ''West'' and ''New'' villages. East and Middle Herrington is now a largely re ...

to the south, and the A19 to the west. Originally emerging as a Tudor era manor estate and orchard, Thorney Close was purchased by Sunderland authorities in the late 1940s and transformed into one of first its post-war housing states.

History

Middle Ages and Tudor Period

The specific origins of the Thorney Close estate and its name remain unclear. During the Middle Ages, the land was speculated to either be part of the neighbouring

Farringdon Hall Farringdon may refer to: People * Nicholas de Farndone, 14th century Mayor of London Places London * Farringdon, London, an area of Clerkenwell which takes its name from ''Farringdon Station''. * Farringdon Road, a road in Clerkenwell, London ...

estate, or is speculated by historians to be part of the former "Clowcroft" estate of which the precise location remains unknown. However, by the Tudor era the name ''"Thornye Close''" appears in historical record, having been owned by three times Mayor of Newcastle Upon Tyne Richard Hodgson and willed to his son Robert. This coincides with reports of the former manor, "Thorney Close Hall" being built in the Tudor Period around 1546, of which was part of the township of

Silksworth Silksworth is a suburb of the City of Sunderland, Tyne and Wear. The area can be distinguished into two parts, old Silksworth, the original village and township which has existed since the early middle ages, and New Silksworth, the industrial ...

under the parish of Bishopwearmouth.

The Modern Estate

In 1947, land around the manor was acquired by the Sunderland corporation who began to transform the area into a post-war social housing estate. By 1948 the first 77 homes had been built, ushering in the demolition of the historic manor which following the death of its last owner Violet Bulkley, had been made redundant. By 1971 the population had risen to just under 14,000. According to the 2001 Census, the population was 9,938, with 36.7% living in council houses. In the 2011 Census the population was 11,125, as reported as part of th
Sandhill ward
The estate has three shopping arcades, a community centre, one working men's club, a recently built residential home for the elderly, three Methodist churches, and two primary schools, and a

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

which was rebuilt in 2003. The former secondary school site is host to the new school, community centre, the local branch library, which was moved from Grindon and a walk in health centre. Most of the streets in Thorney Close begin with the letter "T". ''Such as, Telford Road, Twickenham Road, Torquay Road, Thorney Close Road, Taunton Square and Tadcaster Road.''

Deprivation

According to the ''Indices of Deprivation'' published by the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions in 2000, Thorney Close ranks worst of all twenty-five

wards Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a priso ...

in Sunderland for Income, Employment (55th most deprived ward in England), and Child Poverty (147th most deprived ward in England). It is second most deprived ward in Sunderland overall, behind Southwick.

In Popular Culture

The estate was the feature location of a short-horror story "The Curse of Thorney Close" which embedded themes of poverty, crime and desperation into a tale of witchcraft in the area.Sunderland's First Horror Story: The Curse of Thorney Close
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References

City of Sunderland suburbs Sunderland {{TyneandWear-geo-stub