SOME HISTORY

• The name is said to derive from Tun meaning town and Stad meaning place. Some of the area has been farmed since Saxon times (10th century) and there were still sheep grazing there in the 20th century. 

 

• The railway invaded the otherwise peaceful area in order to transport coal and this continued until the 1960's. The area was also quarried for limestone, which has had a lasting effect on the wildlife of the area.

 

• In 1805 it was believed that the remains of a Roman celt were found on the hill. In 1814, three urns were reportedly found to contain bones and human teeth.

 

• The council first considered purchasing the hills in the 19th century but it was not until the 1930's that the idea became a reality. The final acquisition was in fact a bequest from Miss Pemberton, who left the part of the hills that she owned to the people of Sunderland on condition that they be considered as a war memorial for those who died in the 1914 - 18 war. There is as yet no public acknowledgment of this important fact (re-discovered by the late Alan Hunter, a founder member of Tunstall Hills Protection Group).

 

• The hills have seen an enormous variety of activities over the years - even horse-racing in 1835 and 1836, until the church authorities banned it. There were also army exercises in the 1950's (and gun emplacements before that, but we have no pictures of them).

 

• Today the hills are still used for traditional activities - walking, bird-watching, identifying wild flowers and fossils; playing ball games; picnics; kite-flying; and of course in winter tobogganing.

 

• The people of Sunderland have shown their appreciation of the hills for very many years. Way back in the 1860's, there were protests when attempts were made to limit access to the hills. More recently there have been a number of similar public demonstrations of the public's love for the area and their determination to preserve a very special place which is a unique urban open space - notably the opposition to a proposed golf course and subsequently to a proposed road running directly by the Site of Special Scientific Interest where so many rare plants and wildlife are to be found.

 

• It is good to note that the area was, in 2003, officially designated as a Nature Reserve, although this doesn't confer any protection for the areas that are not part of the SSSI.