Southwick is a former village and now a suburb on the north banks of the

River Wear The River Wear (, ) in North East England rises in the Pennines and flows eastwards, mostly through County Durham to the North Sea in the City of Sunderland. At long, it is one of the region's longest rivers, wends in a steep valley through ...

in the

city of Sunderland The City of Sunderland () is a metropolitan borough with city status in the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear, North East England. It is named after its largest settlement, Sunderland, spanning a far larger area, including nearby towns incl ...

in the county of Tyne and Wear, historically in County Durham. From 1894 to 1928, Southwick was administered by the Southwick-on-Wear Urban District Council, before being absorbed by Sunderland. Southwick borders with Castletown and Hylton Red House to the west,

Monkwearmouth Monkwearmouth is an area of Sunderland, Tyne and Wear in North East England. Monkwearmouth is located at the north side of the mouth of the River Wear. It was one of the three original settlements on the banks of the River Wear along with Bish ...

to the east,

greenbelt A green belt is a policy and land-use zone designation used in land-use planning to retain areas of largely undeveloped, wild, or agricultural land surrounding or neighboring urban areas. Similar concepts are greenways or green wedges, which ...

farmland and the suburb of

Carley Hill Carley Hill is a suburb of Sunderland, Tyne and Wear in North East England. Geography Carley Hill is bordered by Witherwack to the north west, Marley Pots to the south west and High Southwick to the direct south. Politics Carley Hill is p ...

to the north, and the Wear to the south although the

Queen Alexandra Bridge The Queen Alexandra Bridge is a road traffic, pedestrian and former railway bridge spanning the River Wear in North East England, linking the Deptford and Southwick areas of Sunderland. The steel truss bridge was designed by Charles A. Har ...

links Southwick to Pallion and central Sunderland. It is home to a police station that services the north of Sunderland. There is a primary school, but no secondary school. Sunderland A.F.C.'s Stadium of Light is visible to the east on the Monkwearmouth side. Southwick is centered on its village green, a commercial area containing three listed buildings; a

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

war memorial, ''The Tramcar Inn'' a

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and wa ...

built in 1906, and a memorial lamp-post built in 1912

According to ''Indices of Deprivation'' published by the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions in 2000, Southwick is the most deprived of the 25 wards in Sunderland, the fifth most deprived in

Tyne and Wear Tyne and Wear () is a metropolitan county in North East England, situated around the mouths of the rivers Tyne and Wear. It was created in 1974, by the Local Government Act 1972, along with five metropolitan boroughs of Gateshead, Newcas ...

, and the fifty-fifth in England

History

Quarrying has taken place in the area for many centuries but it was not until the 17th century that large quarries were built and production substantially increased. Wagonways were built to transport limestone from the quarries. 1698 saw the establishment of

glassmaking Glass production involves two main methods – the float glass process that produces sheet glass, and glassblowing that produces bottles and other containers. It has been done in a variety of ways during the history of glass. Glass contain ...

in Southwick with the opening of Suddick Glasshouse. This was followed by Wearmouth Crown Glassworks in 1786. Southwick Bottleworks was a significant employer from 1846 to 1917. Although it is likely that shipbuilding had taken place earlier the first registered shipbuilder was Henry Debord who was in business from 1785 to 1797. William Pickersgill & Sons Ltd opened a shipyard in Southwick in 1845. At the time of a company merger with Austin's in 1954 the yard was redeveloped at a cost of £3 million. It closed in 1988.

Etymology

Southwick in Sunderland has a different origin to other places called Southwick: the name is of Scandinavian origin: and means "clearing by a marsh", from

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlement ...

''sogr'' "moss, marsh, swamp (cf. modern "soggy")" and ''þveit''/''thveit'' "

thwaite Thwaite may refer to: Placenames *Thwaite (placename element) * Thwaite, North Norfolk, England * Thwaite St Mary, South Norfolk, England *Thwaite, North Yorkshire, England * Thwaite, Suffolk, England Buildings *Thwaite Hall, University of Hu ...

, clearing". The name was recorded as ''Suvveite'' in 1189.

References

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