As President Jimmy Carter turns 100, we look back at his time in Sunderland

Carter only served one term, but it proved to be a very eventful four years. There was an energy crisis, the Iran Hostage Crisis, the Camp David Accord and, or course, his visit to the Corning factory in Pallion.

It is probably the latter for which he is best remembered round these parts, along with his visit the same day to Washington Village.

Carter was inaugurated as the 39th president of the USA on January 20, 1977, so when he arrived on Wearside on Friday, May 6 the same year he was still enjoying what journalists are obliged to call his honeymoon period.

His visit was part of his first trip abroad as president; a six-day visit to Europe. He met with other world leaders at a conference in London. But his feet itched for Pallion.

He arrived mid-morning at Corning in Sunderland, where Pyrex glass products were made and a huge crowd of people had waited hours to see him.

At the factory, which employed 3,000 people, he was given a lesson in glass production. Corning made ovenware and tableware, as well as industrial and laboratory glass. Corning's headquarters were in the city of Corning in New York state.

To this day the company makes ornamental glass which US Presidents present to other visiting dignitaries.

Corning proudly presented President Carter with a very English-themed glass sculpture of St George and the Dragon, created in Pallion by 28 year-old craftsman Andy Thompson, who personally presented the gift to Mr Carter.

The excitement in Pallion and Millfield could have been chopped up and served without brown sauce. This extended to the playground at nearby St Joseph's Primary School, where giddiness had been building for days - even though none of the inmates ever managed to clap eyes on the president.

Carter was accompanied by UK Prime Minister James Callaghan, although it was clear which of the two created the bigger buzz that day.

From Pallion the two went by motorcade to Washington Old Hall which, as the ancestral home of first US President George Washington, was never likely to be omitted from the itinerary.

A tree planting ceremony was then carried out a few yards away on Washington Village Green.

The seedling of a tulip poplar tree (and not a cherry tree), taken from a tree planted by George Washington at his Mount Vernon home in Washington DC, was put in the ground by the president. The prime minister planted an oak.

The Department of Agriculture legally required a sanitary certificate to bring the seeds into the UK. The exporter was listed on the paperwork as "President Jimmy Carter of the White House".

The fact that if George Washington had ever set foot on British soil any time after 1775 he would have been hanged, went diplomatically unmentioned.

The years following

The Carter and Callaghan spades are impeccably preserved in the Old Hall.

The poplar fared less well. In fact it was already dead when it was put in the soil, having frozen in the plane's cargo as it crossed the Atlantic. The planting went ahead anyway to spare the crowd from disappointment.

A year later a replacement was brought. That one was destroyed by two vandals who were arrested and charged with criminal damage. A third seedling was planted - unannounced.

Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, was convincingly beaten by his Republican opponent Ronald Reagan, who replaced him in January 1981. Carter didn't have much luck during his presidency, other than visiting Pallion, but he later became a much-respected international diplomat.

His wife of 77 years, Rosalynn Carter, née Smith, died in November 2023 aged 96. They had four children but their son Jeff Carter, who aged 24 accompanied his father on that 1977 trip, passed away in 2015.

Jimmy Carter himself went into hospice home care in Georgia in February 2023. However, he still evokes fond memories of the Yankee razzmatazz he brought to Wearside all those years ago. Those who were there have never forgotten.

Sunderland’s Corning factory closed in 2007.

The nearest any other serving US President has got to Sunderland was George W Bush’s visit to Sedgefield in 2003, where protests awaited him.

However, former President Ulysses S Grant visited in 1877, exactly 100 years before President Carter. Grant arrived by train at Monkwearmouth Station, now the Fans’ Museum.

Elsewhere

At the time of his visit:

Knowing Me Knowing You by Abba was top of the UK singles charts. Airport '77 starring Jack Lemmon was number one at the cinema box office.

In the US, the infamous interviews given by former President Nixon to David Frost were being broadcast.

The day after Carter's visit to Sunderland another Jimmy, goalkeeping legend Jimmy Montgomery, made his only ever appearance against Sunderland, who beat his Birmingham City side 1-0 in a First Division game at Roker Park. Mel Holden scored past Monty.