City lights up to celebrate port
Sunderland is honouring 300 years of history, with a temporary light installation at Keel Square.
Sunderland City Council, which owns Port of Sunderland, is marking the anniversary of the formation of the River Wear Commission – the port authority, as it is now – with a special projection of the port’s 300th anniversary logo.
The logo, which shines on Keel Square, pays tribute to the city’s rich history of shipbuilding and shipping.
Coun Paul Watson, leader of Sunderland City Council, who himself worked in Sunderland’s shipyards, said: “Sunderland is rightly proud of its past, so it’s important that we pay tribute to that during occasions like this, but also that we look ahead to a bright future for the port.
“Those of us old enough to remember appreciate just what a powerhouse our port once was, and as we look ahead to next year with the Tall Ships Races, as well as the opportunities in store when we see the arrival of the International Advanced Manufacturing Park, it is a fantastic time to celebrate how far we have come and all that we have ahead of us.”
Last month, Sunderland celebrated the occasion by erecting a blue plaque in honour of John Murray, the engineer responsible for the construction of the South Dock, which allowed the port to take advantage of the opportunities brought about by the industrial revolution.
Jack Curtis, a local writer who brought Mr Murray to the attention of council officials, who set about applying for the blue plaque, which is proudly displayed on the side of the River Wear Commissioners Building, in St Thomas Street, said: “Murray came here with quite a good reputation as the port civil engineer and is known for moving the lighthouse 400 feet along the extended North Pier, but his greatest claim to fame was the design and building of a unique dock. A dock capable of handling up to 5.5m tonnes of coal exports per annum.”
“John was ably assisted by our then MP, George Hudson the ‘Railway King’, who helped raise – in today’s money – more than £145million to transform the dock and realise Murray’s vision.
“I discovered these men and I wrote a little book called the Engineer and the MP. And through that, I presented a copy of the book to the then-mayor Barry Curran.
“A couple of weeks later, Barry rang me up and he said, ‘I’ve never heard of this man’. I said ‘no, it’s a great travesty of justice, he was one of the greatest men that ever walked the streets of Sunderland’. And he said, ‘right we’ll push this, and I will see if we can get him a blue plaque’.”
The council has also had a special commemorative flag created, which will welcome ships coming in to Port of Sunderland.
Coun Watson added: “It’s a year of celebration, and of course, that will be further extended, as we look ahead to 2018 and the Tall Ships Races. Our port is once again making the city proud.”