Remembering a tragic chapter of city's dark history – 200 years on

Seven people from Sunderland shot dead by soldiers 200 years ago are to be remembered at an event next month.

- by Echo Reporter

On August 3, 1825, at least seven people were shot dead by soldiers at North Sands, Sunderland.

The seven deaths arose during attempts to end a bitter strike led by local seafarers, who had been were resisting wage cuts and reasonably demanding that they be paid for all the work that they performed for the ship owners.

The killings were met with anger and outrage, with many local people at the time believing those who died had been wilfully murdered.

At the time the massacre made national headlines and undoubtedly was one of the most significant events of 1825.

The most obvious comparison to what happened in Sunderland in 1825 is the infamous massacre at Peterloo at St Peter's Field in Manchester on the August 16, 1819.

Yet knowledge and awareness of these two events today are vastly different.

Though the seafarers’ union - the Seamen's Loyal Standard Association - noted that August 3, 1825, should “ever be remembered”, the North Sands Massacre over time had been virtually forgotten.

That is, until two researchers, Dr David Gordon Scott of The Open University and Bill Wildish, a member of the Sunderland Antiquarian Society, independently began researching the North Sands Massacre towards the end of 2024.