The lookout house in Sunderland which stood for 160 years

It may not look impressive but this Sunderland house packed all sorts of history into its 160 years.

It was once a lifeboat station, and used to be a lookout post.

The Admiralty once owned it and Sunderland’s sea cadets used to be based there.

And it was once the base for the skilled foyboatmen of Sunderland whose job was to guide big vessels in and out of port.

In fact, the foyboat crews were the last occupants of the building and they took up residence at the end of the Second World War.

The house was found on the North Foreshore until fate caught up with it in 1961.

A redevelopment plan for the area was put forward and it meant the building which had been there since 1800 was facing its final days before demolition.

Our focus on the foyboat house is the latest in a series of quirky tales about Sunderland buildings.

Take a look at;

The quaintest house in Sunderland which nestled in the shadow of Wearmouth Bridge.

Its 12 rooms were built on stilts.

The little cottage which stood on a Sunderland hill which was made out of ship ballast.

It was called The Cottage on Glass Hill and former MP John Candlish once lived there.

Dick Turpin, the legendary highway man, gained infamy in the 1700s as he was one of the people said to haunt Ryhope Hall.

The stately entrance to Monkwearmouth Railway Station was first used by the public on June 19, 1848. Did you know that its design was a copy of the Ionic Temple on the Illyssus, near Athens.

Heard the one about the Sunderland church which moved by itself?

It happened at Herrington Street Methodist Mission which made Echo headlines in April 1952 - because it had shifted eight inches.

The 84 year old mission was deemed to be ‘generally unsafe’ because of the amount of movement it had seen since it was built. Tell us about a piece of Sunderland history that few others have heard of.

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